Road Trip August 2006

Saturday, August 19: Saratoga to Elko, NV

Left Saratoga around 10:30 am. Stopped for lunch in Auburn at a little grill downtown. Had a brake light bulb burn out when we stopped to change drivers in Lovelock; found a replacement bulb at a gas station in Winnemuca, but had a tail light burn out in the same assembly as soon as we replaced the brake light bulb. Couldn't find a replacement tail light bulb. Lots of road construction in Nevada; one lane closed at one point for about 20 miles. Arrived in Elko but our exit was closed and we had to take the exit before and find our way without the benefit of any detour signs. Finally found our hotel and had dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Miles driven today: 578

Sunday, August 20: Snake River, Yellowstone

Left I-80 at Wells and took US 93 up to Twin Falls. Entered Mountain timezone in Idaho. Found a replacement tail light bulb at an auto parts store in Twin Falls; now everything works! Visited the Perrine Memorial Bridge over the beautiful Snake River Canyon, near where Evil Knievel tried his jump. Lunch in Pocatello, then continued on to Idaho Falls. Took US 20 up to the West entrance to Yellowstone and went to see the geysers. We got to Old Faithful about 6:25, and the sign said it would erupt within 10 minutes of 6:45 -- good timing! After a few preliminary water jets, it erupted at 6:52. Very impressive. Headed back to West Yellowstone, Montana, for dinner at Bullwinkle's Saloon and Eatery -- excellent food and the Moose Drool beer was good, too. Drove back down to our motel in Driggs, Idaho.

Miles driven today: 607

Monday, August 21: Grand Tetons, Yellowstone

Drove over the Teton pass into Jackson Hole, then up through the Grand Tetons National Park and into Yellowstone via the South entrance. Had lunch at the snack bar at Fishing Bridge, then drove up to see the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. Left the park via the East entrance (took an hour due to road construction), then headed towards Cody, Wyoming. Continued on via US 14 over Granite Pass to I-90 at Sheridan, then on to Buffalo for dinner at Bozeman's Trail Steakhouse -- two "gems" in the AAA tour book, but we were disappointed. The food was only fair and the service was slow. Drove on to Gillette, Wyoming, where we stopped for the night.

Miles driven today: 510

Tuesday, August 22: Mt. Rushmore, Wall Drug, on to Sioux City, IA

Drove from Gillette into Rapid City, then directly to Mt. Rushmore. Returned to Rapid City for lunch, and had to stop at a Best Buy to replace our cassette adapter (gotta listen to that iPod!). Continued on I-90 east to Wall, SD, where we stopped to visit the famous Wall Drug store (bought a few refrigerator magnets). Crossed into the Central timezone at exactly 4:00 (5:00 CT), then crossed the Missouri shortly after. Found beautiful scenery and fascinating land features all through South Dakota. Had dinner in Sioux Falls at Granite City Food and Brewery -- the Bock was good, and so was the food. Drove on to Sioux City, Iowa, to stay the night.

Miles driven today: 587

Wednesday, August 23: Sioux City, St. Louis, on to Evansville, IN

Continued South on I-29, along the eastern side of the Missouri River. We had replotted our route on Tuesday evening, eliminating Atlanta in order to spend more time in Charlottesville and give us a little more leeway getting to Syracuse. Stopped at AAA in Council Bluffs to pick up more maps; the guy there asked "Don't you Californians ever get your maps before you leave?" Had to stop again in Kansas City AAA office for one last tour book that Council Bluffs didn't have, then had lunch there. Headed east on I-70 to St. Louis and crossed the Missouri a couple more times -- very pretty drive all the way. Arrived downtown about 5:30 pm (heavy rush-hour traffic, but most going the other way). Parked near the Gateway Arch after driving around on the cobblestone streets of old downtown, then went to see the arch and took the tram up to the top (not for the claustrophobic!). Then we headed East on I-64 across the Mississippi into Illinois; stopped at a Steak 'n' Shake in Mt. Vernon, Illinois, for dinner.

When we got back to the car, we had another bulb failure indication! (What is it with this car and bulbs?) This time, it was a headlight, so we found an Auto Zone store just a few blocks up the road that was still open (at 8:30 pm). Two employees were standing outside the store on a smoke break when we pulled up, and we said we needed a new headlight bulb. While one went in to get the replacement bulb, the other had me open the hood and went to pull the old bulb out. He discovered that the connection had just worked its way loose (thanks probably to those cobblestone streets in downtown St. Louis), and the bulb wasn't burned out at all. He connected it back, even corrected the aim on our right headlight (which had been making it difficult to see the road at night), and then refused to take any payment at all! He even tried to give us his own flashlight in case we needed it later! On to Evansville, Indiana, for the night, and we were finally able to drive at night with a good view of the road!

Miles driven today: 705

Thursday, August 24: Evansville to Charlottesville Lexington, VA

So far, we've been blessed with perfect weather and light traffic all the way. While the perfect weather remained, we ran into a traffic nightmare in the most unexpected place.

It was a day of pure driving -- no sightseeing at all except for the beautiful scenery we passed as we drove through Kentucky and into the Appalachians. We started out from Evansville and headed east on I-64 towards Louisville. Crossed into the Eastern timezone about 9:00 am (10:00 ET). Crossed the Ohio River into Louisville around noon, and continued on through Frankfort and Lexington. Stopped for lunch at a Shoney's (no Big Boy) in Morehead, Kentucky, then headed for Huntington, West Virginia.

About a mile short of the West Virginia border (where I-64 crosses the Big Sandy River just as it joins the Ohio River), traffic came to a complete stop. We inched forward little by little, and as we finally came within sight of the last Kentucky exit and the bridge beyond, we saw that traffic was being diverted off the Interstate and onto northbound US 23, a four-lane highway that runs along the Kentucky side of the Ohio River. The right lane wasn't moving at all, as all the traffic was waiting to turn right to cross the Ohio River from Catlettsburg, Kentucky, into South Point, Ohio. With all the traffic from I-64 trying to fit onto that bridge, and with frequent trains blocking the turn, it was going to take forever. We moved into the left lane and went a few more miles into Ashland, and took the US 52 bridge into Ohio, then followed US 52 down the Ohio side of the river past South Point (where all the other traffic was still waiting to get across the river), and breezed our way back across the Ohio into Huntington, West Virginia, and onto I-64 again. Total lost time: about 90 minutes. Turns out that a truck with an oversize load had crashed on the bridge, closing the eastbound lanes.

We drove on all the way through West Virginia and into Virginia, then stopped at Applebee's in Covington for dinner. We were still two hours from Charlottesvile, so we decided to drive another hour and stop in Lexington (the Virginia one) for the night.

Miles driven today: 582

Friday, August 25: Charlottesville and Washington, DC

Just out of Lexington, I-64 joins I-81 and follows the Shenandoah Valley up towards Staunton, where it again turns eastward towards Charlottesville and Richmond and crosses the Blue Ridge Mountains at Rockfish Gap. At the summit, we exited the Interstate and drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway south for a few miles just to see the views of the foothills to the east, which were covered by the typical blue haze that gave this mountain range its name. We then returned to I-64, but took US 250 instead of the Interstate from there into Charlottesville. When we got into Charlottesville, we explored for a bit, found the houses I used to live in, and I got to see how much the town had changed in the 39 years (!) since I left. Then we headed out to Monticello and took the tour through Jefferson's home. After that we returned to Charlottesville and had lunch at Panera in Barracks Road shopping center (the shopping center was there 39 years ago, but I saw no resemblance at all).

After lunch, we headed for DC. We thought we knew what kind of traffic we would be getting into, but we really didn't! Getting into Washington was fairly easy; we took US 29 north to I-66, then took I-66 into Washington and drove straight down Constitution Avenue. We even found a parking space in front of the Capitol and got out to walk around a bit. Then we drove west through the Mall past the Washington Monument towards the Lincoln Memorial. Behind the Lincoln Memorial, we kind of got caught on the Rock Creek Parkway, and headed out of town for a bit. We got off the parkway at Massachusetts Ave., and worked our way back towards the mall and down 14th St., across the Potomac on US 1 and past the Pentagon onto the George Washington Memorial Parkway. Big mistake -- it took us an hour or more just to get to I-495 (thanks to all those drivers in the left lane who kept passing and cutting in at the last minute to get on I-495 northbound). We took the beltway to I-270 and headed towards I-81 and Pennsylvania. Another hour and a half later we were only as far as Frederick, Maryland, where we stopped at Pargo's for dinner. We had an excellent dinner (probably second only to Bullwinkle's), then continued on to Pennsylvania.

We were hoping to stop in Harrisburg for the night, but couldn't find a vacancy anywhere nearby; we were too close to Hershey Park, and it was apparently the last weekend before school starts around there. We finally found a room ten miles up the road in Pine Grove. It was a smoking room, but it wasn't too bad as the hotel had only been open for 2½ months.

Miles driven today: 387 (but it sure felt like more)

Saturday, August 26: Syracuse

From Pine Grove, it was only about four hours to Syracuse, so we had a leisurely morning and didn't get on the road until after 9:00. We might have been happier waiting even longer, as central Pennsylvania was covered in fog. We drove on I-81 for quite a while at speeds between 45 and 55, all the while amazed at the drivers (especially truckers) who kept passing us at unsafe speeds. The fog finally cleared enough to drive at the speed limit as we got near Scranton, and we made it to Syracuse about 1:00. We got Rebecca checked in at the housing office, made two trips to get her boxes from storage at a friend's aunt's house (had to make a third Sunday to get a forgotten box, then had a late lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon moving stuff upstairs to her bedroom and unpacking, then went to Dinosaur Bar-b-que for take-out.

Of all the states we drove through, New York is the only one that numbers freeway exits sequentially instead of by mileage.

Miles driven today: 234

Trip Summary