the little dog goes to summer camp: bon voyage!

the little dog goes to summer camp: bon voyage!: "the little dog, your daughters and weasel would like to wish you and jim a safe and happy journey. Strap on the feed bag, make sure Jim's wh..."

Pho

Vietnamese Pho should be eaten in the restaurant. Carry-out pho is a bit too busy for casual dining. Whatever. It was filling. And I don't feel like I am about to explode. Jim and Ernie eating pho in our hotel room in Seattle.

Seattle

The road into Seattle.

Jim and I rolled into Seattle about 4pm. Ernie was already at the bar waiting for us. He guided us in, stepped into the street to intercept the Passat, then showed us where to park. Jim and Ernie disappeared into McMenamin's Six Arms and I walked the block to our hotel to sort out the details. When I returned to the bar, I found Ernie and Jim outside on the street. Ernie was talking on his cell phone and Jim was throwing up in the gutter. Welcome to Seattle.

From our Hotel window, McMenamin's Six Arms, Seattle, Washington:

Missoula to Spokane

A leisurely drive from Missoula through the Idaho panhandle to our destination in Spokane. Here we stopped to eat sandwiches beside the swolen St Denis river in the hamlet of St Denis. A good espresso shack was nearby.

Welcome to Idaho. Exit Zero at the Montana - Idaho Border at the top of the Sawtooth range. About 4,800 ft. Yes, it is snowing.

A mile or two down the road is a scenic overlook. Idaho.

Dinner.

I asked the manager at our motel in Spokane if there was a fish shack nearby with decent carry-out Pacific cod. She steered me to Anthony's, a high end restaurant in downtown Spokane. I drove ten miles into the city, found the restaurant, and the manager agreed to pull together two boxed dinners for me. While I waited for my food, I enjoyed a Flat Tire stout at the restaurant bar. Here is the view from the bar via my cell phone. Spokane Falls -

The cod was wonderful - fresh and firm. But this is a special-occasion restaurant, with a sleek design and a startling view. It is not a carry-out. If I return to Spokane anytime soon, I will eat here first. Anthony's at Spokane Falls, Spokane, Washington.

Detour

Robin was on the phone sorting out Jim's meds when the Wyoming state trooper pulled me over for speeding. He did not really seem to care that I was doing 88 in a 75 mph zone. He mostly wanted to tell me that the interstate was flooded and closed up ahead. He looked at our map and showed me the best alternate route. This route sent us backward into southeastern Montana and ultimately added at least three hours to the day's drive. I called Joanna in Baltimore and she confirmed that I-90 was indeed closed in the vicinity of the Little Big Horn Battlefield. There may have been a shorter route but I drew the line at dirt roads in Wyoming - because of trona, of course! Today, every moment in Wyoming recalled passages from John McPhee's Rising from the Plains. Strip mines, endless coal trains, the random geology which seems to defy nature. But the most striking feature of Wyoming is the sheer emptiness of it all.

Jim lost consciousness sometime after lunch. This trip has been far more brutal on him than I expected. The drive was endless. We left Deadwood at 10:30 Wednesday morning and found our hotel in Missoula after midnight. He refuses to recline his seat to sleep better or to get out and stretch when we stop for gas and food. Thank god, after Missoula there are no more long drives. Two relatively short spells in the car should get us to Seattle in time to rendezvous with our French friend, Ernie.

Here is a shot of some random flooding on I-90, somewhere east of the Yellowstone river.

Custer State Park

Mt Rushmore and the Crazy Horse monuments are near Deadwood, so we tried to visit. Rain concealed both sites but we drove through Custer State Park and saw this:

The Bison Roam free in the park.

Deadwood Gulch

It is raining here in Deadwood and we have decided to stay another night to try to recoup yesterday's gambling losses.

Day Three: Minnesota and South Dakota

We are in Deadwood, SD, at the Hampton Inn - Four Aces Casino. Today was our longest planned drive and Jim is totally exhausted - unconscious on his bed. I am worried that he is sick - an old insidious infection that was not cured by a recent course of Cipro. He re-started the Cipro this afternoon but now he needs to wake up to take tonight's dose. Tomorrow's drive through Montana promises to be almost as long as today's journey. Maybe I need to re-evaluate our schedule. We need to be in Seattle on Friday to meet Ernie. The ship leaves on Saturday, whether we are on board or not.

We have now traveled about 1,700 miles in three days - more than halfway across the country.

After yesterday's weather excitement, today's drive was very uneventful. We started the day with the Hampton Inn breakfast. Boring but very adequate. Plus it allowed us to get away at a relatively early hour - ten o'clock. We blasted across the full-width of Minnesota and stopped for a bite of lunch beside a cornfield in eastern South Dakota. The afternoon was spent driving fast across the prairie and through the badlands to the Black Hills of Dakota. Around 4 o'clock a low-flying duck slammed into our windshield. Ouch. The car survived.

Food

Applebee's, Waffle House, Golden Corral... You know the lineup. The challenge is to find good eats along the highway. We want to avoid the chains but, as a practical matter, there is little else within easy reach of the interstate. You might also be surprised to learn that wheelchair access is far from universal.

Callahan's, 2917 Cassopolis St, Elkhart, IN 46514. This is a fine restaurant in the best tradition of reliable roadside diners. It was also located across the street from our motel. Jimmy opted for eggs, sausage, Texas toast and applesauce. I stuck to oatmeal and fruit. We were both very satisfied with our meals but other tasty delights were available but only for the brave of heart. At the table next to us sat five adults. The collective body-weight at this table was just shy of a ton. These folks were obviously regulars at Callahan's and they knew what to eat: Skillets. I am not sure what was in these skillets but they were big and full of food. The pros at the table liked to mix-and-match and we saw the skillets being passed around and sampled freely. One guy was complemented by his companions for being smart to order both pancakes AND toast. Genius. Callahan's. Good grub.

Potbelly Sandwich Shop, 564 State St, Madison, WI. Madison has a beautiful pedestrian mall in State St. We drove into downtown Madison on a whim and stumbled on it and decided to rest and eat. Jimmy said he was too tired to roam and opted to stay in the car, leaving it to me to find him something wonderful to eat. A block away I found Potbelly, a garden-variety college sandwich shop and bar. Live music. Nice booths. Friendly, smiling, well-scrubbed Wisconsin waiters. Where was I from? Baltimore. What's good to eat? Most folks like the grilled chicken and cheese sandwiches. Emphasis on Wisconsin cheese. So, I ordered two to-go on the whole-grain buns and returned to Jim with our lunch. Wonderful stuff! Too much mayonnaise, of course, but the hot peppers were perfect. I wolfed mine down and Jim finished his about ten seconds later. Madison is a wonderful place, I can't wait to go back.

Weather

Before we reached our destination in Onalaska, Wisconsin late this afternoon, we pulled off the highway to get gas. Another customer approached me and told me that tornados were moving through Onalaska and Lacrosse, a few miles down the road. He suggested we stay put.

We stayed. But the storms that had been tearing up Lacrosse were now headed our way. Here are some pictures of the storm from our gas station in Sparta, WI. We never saw a funnel cloud but others did and there are already videos on YouTube. Here is one:

This is what we saw:

We were somewhere around Breezewood...

Getaway day. Our best-laid plans to leave early were thwarted by many circumstances. Jim decided to un-pack and re-pack his suitcase because, why not? His wheelchair feet went missing. Then, Robin made an inventory of Jimmy's satchel of uppers, downers, screamers and laughers and discovered that the crack delivery team from Northern Pharmacy had neglected to deliver Jim's "breathing medicine" in yesterday's order. So, Jim and I had to make a long detour through east Baltimore to score some pharmaceutical-grade morphine. We eventually turned onto I-70 at 11:33 am, about three hours later than we had hoped.

We had an easy day of driving. Late in the afternoon we listened to the first three chapters of Jack London's Call of the Wild. Whoa, daddy, what a novel!

We sailed into Elkhart, Indiana at around 9:30, 600 miles under the tires. Tomorrow we plan to drive through Chicago to Onalaska, Wisconsin. Right now, we are both sipping Woodford Reserve whiskey, a gift from Robin. Good night.

First Post

On Saturday Jim and I will leave for Alaska. Several friends have suggested that I blog this trip, so, why not?