Hot dang. I bet this feature gets turned off in like half second. Too late! This is Jim by the way. I wanted to see if I could post this email from Na. She wrote her own summary of the trip. I found her description of the Montana state prison to be especially insightful. And I can sympathize with Jill's speeding. Anyway, this is from Na:
For those of you who read Jill's blog - this is my version of how it REALLY WENT DOWN!!!!!!!
Our trip was very successful, in that, we didn't slide down a gorge or mountain side. We left early Monday morning, but it took us forever to get out of Indiana, we met Earl and Jim for breakfast before Earl headed back to Knoxville. Then Jill decides that she needed some sinus medicine and I was sooo cold and couldn't remember if I have brought a sweat shirt or not, so I suggested a stop at Walmart, then on to Walgreens, then we realized that we had left our water supply in the fridge at Jill's house, so we went back for it. To make a long story short, we left Franklin at 8:00 after having gotten up at 5:00.
We stopped at my mother's for about 20 minutes since we were going right through town anyway. Then across Illinois and into Iowa. Iowa was much prettier than I had expected it to be - warming up to 50 degrees and sunny probably helped. The farms were beautiful. Naturally, we found at Outlet Mall to stop and shop. Jill found undies on sale. Can't resist a bargain. We drove the first day on to the western edge of Iowa and spent the night a Sioux City. Casinos everywhere. I mean, everywhere - restaurants, laundry mats, tanning salons, gas stations, you name it and they had a casino in it. Our greatest regret was not stopping at Argosy, in Sioux City, IA. It was a really great looking casino, at least when we drove through at night, but we were to tired, and besides, we drove back down and looked at the town the next morning and it is surprising what can be hidden by neat lighting at night. It looked pretty grim. We were so excited about the lights that we failed to see all the smoke rising from the beef processing, and industrials on the other side. We did, however, manage to gamble in every state by way of "scratch offs". I think we won around 15.00. Lost track of how much we sent. I think Jill drove 720 miles this day.
Our second day, we trekked across South Dakota. It was pretty sad. Cold and flat and boring. Snow on the ground, and beginning to fall by the time we were midway across. We stopped at some Corn Museum - where everything, even the front of the building was made from some type of corn. Weird. Couldn't understand why the crows, pigeons, doves, black birds were not having a field day with it. Then I realized - what bird in his right mind would be here!!! The National Grass Lands were pretty, and we began to see more cattle grazing, whereas in Iowa it seemed to be all about growing corn not eating it. Stopped at the Bad Lands National Park. Awesome!!! Then on the Rapid City, SD and Wall Drug, which was interesting. You know me, it's all about food - the BEST cherry pie and cup of coffee ever! We were set to tour the Black Hills of South Dakota, but the weather was yukky and supposed to get much colder and more snow. So we headed on to
Montana. We drove 780 miles this day.
Montana is BEAUTIFUL. It is the only state that we went through that I would want to visit again, possibly in the summer. The views were spectacular. We stopped and toured an old prison, Jill's idea. It was 12 with a minus God knows what wind chill. It was sooooooo cold. I being the idiot that I am assumed that it would be an inside tour. We pay our admission and open the door to the prison yard and the cold, cold, world. I have never been so cold in my life. I had a bitching fit. It felt like I was nude, the wind was flowing through every stitch of clothing I had on. Jill pressed on to the inside of the prison. Heat, right? No, cold, cold, I'm not a museum person anyway, but add cold I get nasty. Jill wanted to visit the women's prison. I screamed - NO. Screamed because it didn't matter, there was no one else crazy enough to be out there but us. I headed back to the door. Those old hags inside must have had their laugh for the day. Because no one was as stupid as us. Anyway, we proceed on to Moussula to a lovely Cracker Barrel. Jill doesn't really like CB, but after the prison experience she agreed. Then we were on to Idaho. We cut across the smaller upper portion on Idaho, then on to Spokane Valley, where we spent the night. Jill drove approximately 630 miles.
The next morning we headed out again and drove along the Columbia River Gorge on the Washington side rather than crossing over into Oregon and going interstate, because the view was better and we could get off if we found anything interesting. The views were great. When we finally crossed over into Oregon we stopped at Multomah Falls. It was beautiful, but SO cold. Then on to Portland. We arrived in Portland around 3:00 found a room and headed out to explore the area and find food, naturally.
Our ending mileage was around 2400 miles. According to Google and AAA the trip was supposed to be 2200, but I think we did an additional 200 on side trips. I have been married to Earl for 38 years, and never knew that you could get off of interstate, turn around and go back to see something neat. Jill had no qualms about bowing up, scooting down the exit ramp turning around and heading 10 or 20 miles off into the wild blue yonder to see something. Traveling with her is great fun. I can't believe I was hesitant to make this trip - it was been such fun. Jill is a MANIAC!!! She loved the speed limits in Montana and S. Dakota - 75, so you can image how fast she really drove. Just closed my eyes and kept my mouth shut.
We have found good food, but cold weather. Record lows since we have been here. 20's and mid 30's during the day. At least, no rain. I think the rain will set in Wednesday.
Jill has found a house. It is cute, fenced - good yard for the puppies. Already had a doggie door in the garage. It is located about 7 minutes from her office. However, she is not missing a thing, we are looking at another one after work today. It has been really interested seeing the different housing available.
She seems to be happy here. Her office is in Beaverton and is located in an area where there are shops, neat restaurants, and things to do during lunch if she chooses. It is in a commercial park that backs up to a greenway with a walking trail. They are really big on greenways and parks here, it seems.
Bucky is coming up this weekend. It will be good to visit with him.
We finally found good facilities to stay in, after a really had experience Monday night at an extended stay. NASTY, NASTY - so we moved for the remainder of our time. We have laundry across the hall, breakfast, exercise room, indoor pool, and is quiet and CLEAN.
Please excuse my typing. I'm not used to this keyboard. No spell check for me.
I may be heading home around March 6, or sooner if Jill gets tired of me. I think she was really happy to go to work. Bless her – she needed a break from me.
See you soon - NA
Hope I haven't repeated myself. I keep getting kicked off line and losing half my stuff.
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