Angry Bird travels Route 66

 Unlike yesterday, with a full motel which I was smart to pre-book, Jacquee, on very short notice, with the late destination change, found what might have been the first booking at this motel in Montpilier.   Also choice of parking place.  Hello?  Is anyone home? Someone suggested this might be the Bates Motel of Alfred Hitchkok fame.

 As is my prerogative, I changed destination about 2 miles before the fork in the road.  This time it was intentional! I had noticed that my miles and timing on google map were not syncing.  It was then I realized that google map calculates time by the legal speed limit of the location you are travelling through!  Since Idaho speed limit is 80 mph and I was going between 60 to 65, my time was constantly falling behind!  It was then I determined how going south on a slightly longer road would get you there faster than on a shorter route with a lower speed limit. AH HA!  I contacted fellow traveler Dick S. and he determined the quickest route for a slow mover like me would actually be to go directly east on a lesser road to Montpilier, ID rather than south to Ogden as previously planned. It was win-win all the way around!  It will put me 20 miles closer to tomorrows destination of Cheyenne, WY and the difference in scenery was worth it! Image 1 is of Int...

 After pleasant weather yesterday, I am leaving in the rain this morning - destination Ogden, UT.   The Motel I stayed at is housing a lot of people looking for housing.  Maybe they are part of a Gov't program.  It was clean and not rowdy, but this morning the parking lot was full.  I wonder if this is the new "Grapes of Wrath"! Well, with the rain, all the insects on the windshield washed off nicely!  And with the weekend, I am hoping the large truck traffic is taking a rest.

 A very long day, but I had anticipated it to be the longest of the trip.  9 1/2 hours and about 500 miles.  It did not help to run immediately into an auto accident about 1 hour into the journey that added an hour to the travel time.  After that, traffic cooperated nicely.  Glad to leave city traffic behind. Went over 3 mountain passes today.  The most impressive was the Blue Mountains in northern Oregon, where the road follows the Oregon Trail.  You can see wagon wheel tracks on the hills and beside the highway.  The road gained elevation very quickly and had lots of curves.  Snow still at the top. Arrived in Baker City, OR grabbed a bite to eat (and a stiff drink) and will see how far I get tomorrow.  Destination is Ogden, UT, but may try to extend that.  Would like to make up some cushion.  Tunes of the day - When the road was smooth!  First Aid Kit (Swedish girl duo) and  Bob Dylan's 90's songs

 NOTE:  IF NEW TO THE SITE, THREAD STARTS AT BOTTOM - this is the newest post: Everything wrapped up nicely yesterday.  Even got the garden rototilled and front ditch mowed!  With time left over to have a drink with friends in the shop.   Until about 2 am when I woke up and remembered a couple items I had forgotten to pack.  No prob.  I can remember two items.  Oh wait. one more.  Okay three items, book, hood pins, water bottle.  book pins bottle water, oh crap now another item.   Got up and wrote them down and could go back to sleep.  Remembered a couple more when I got up!  I keep telling myself this is not the Idaho wilderness, there are plenty of Wal-Marts along the way.  But I also know I will not want to waste even a half hour to stop.  Perhaps I will settle down after I see how much road I can chew through in a day. Especially the road east, which is primarily interstate highway.  My longest...

Laying in bed.  5 am and so only about 24 hours until I hit the road for the start of my road trip!  So only today to finalize packing.  Not much to interfere with that .  Oh, wait, it's Jacquee's birthday today!!  And our grand daughter will expect a celebration.  Maybe Jac will too...but she would rather see me rototill the garden before I leave.  And maybe a nice dinner as well.  Sigh.  Okay, so maybe less time than I think!  I better get going!!! Best to get up early (for me) rather than just laying awake in bed pondering what all there is left to do!  Will I have enough room and still leave a place to roll out a mattress in the bed if stranded without a motel?

Yeah, that's me! As I have indicated, I have a few miles in the past.  Starting at age 8 years, my parents and family headed across the USA all the way to Philadelphia, then to New York for our flight on a DC-9 (yep, propeller driven) to Denmark where my father was born.  I have vivid memories of certain stops along the way, the most memorable being staying in a former (maybe active) brothel in Wallace, ID and barfing pancakes into my fathers sport coat pocket at the old lodge in Yellowstone.  Hey it was his fault for offering to give us each a silver dollar if we finished all our breakfast.  Big mistake!  (I got the silver dollar anyway and still have it.) I am sure we must have crossed Rte. 66 along the West to East highways, but an 8 year old doesn't pay attention to road signs, right?  (Some would say I still don't pay attention to road signs.)  Oh, I forgot to mention the swinging hair brush from the front passenger seat where my Mom sat, trying t...

 The Ride: Body: 1956 Ford F100 Drive train:  1989 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe 3.8L Supercharged V-6 All wheel disc brakes All independent suspension In summary, a sport sedan in an old truck body. Kinda like me....

People have asked whether I am posting my adventure somewhere, but I have never done this blog thing for any of my lifes adventures!  I have traveled the world, as has my wife Jacquee, and I started with a Yashica 35 mm camera (Sorry Nikon, couldn't afford you) which produced slides (small framed transparencies using a projector to enlarge 😏).  With it, I recorded our living in Denmark, Israel, Nepal, as well as travels on each of the respective continents and more.  That was a lot of slides and a lot of conscious effort.  They now sit in a dusty box in the attic somewhere. On each of those major travels, I kept hand written journals to record daily or weekly events.  Some were even in cursive.  Sorry, can't explain that one, but younger people might have trouble reading those entries. Fast forward to the digital age!  With photography being so much easier, the hardest part of recording my travel will be keeping this blog as my journal to record my tr...