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DRIVE ACROSS COUNTRY Departure time finally rolled around and after a grand celebration of Larry’s 70th birthday on January 2nd, we packed our things and headed for the Friday Harbor Airport. Our destination was Harbor Island, Bahamas and mode of travel, what you could call, the long way, was driving across country in January and not the southern route. We’ve driven across country many times to avoid having to fly with Ziggy and this trip was no different except that Larry had the bright idea of driving only to Atlanta because “Delta has a direct flight right into Eleuthera”. “It’s only an hour flight, surely Ziggy can do that!” he said. It sounded reasonable so I agreed though for weeks leading up to this I thought we’d be flying from Fort Lauderdale or Miami and then I would have time to get us some warm weather clothes. Finding anything that resembles “resort wear” on San Juan Island in the winter is out of the question. “Oh well,” I thought, “I’ll drag out our old stuff from two years ago, again, and maybe I’ll be lucky and find some resort wear in Atlanta before we catch our flight.” Thank God for Roche Harbor because they have their “End of the Season Sale”. Though I wasn’t in the mood for buying summer clothes in the cold days of fall, I picked up some good buys there a few months ago and they just might get me by for this trip.
PACKING DILEMMA This biggest dilemma for this trip was how and what to pack. We had two flights, one on a very small plane from Friday Harbor to Seattle and the other on a bigger plane, but small by most standards, from Atlanta to Eleuthera, Bahamas. We had Ziggy, his cage, his “stuff”, and our “stuff”, and clothes just to keep us warm just for the drive across country, but not too many, as we didn’t want to have to lug cold weather clothes to the Bahamas. Then we had to plan for the drive back which would end up in California for several days and then finally back home up the West Coast to San Juan Island. That plan didn’t even include a mid stream trip for Larry to Maine to check out some Lobstah boats. Who could pack for this trip and be light? That was a lot of different climates to pack for and not much room to carry. It was difficult to figure out but somehow we managed but in the end I think really we brought way more than we needed.
Friday Harbor flight was no big deal. Everyone is easy going there, and Zig just sits on my lap the whole way looking out the window. I must say he was really interested in what was out the window too. I don’t know what he thought when we gained altitude and everything he knew was getting smaller and smaller beyond any dog’s comprehension. Who knows what goes through his very active and intelligent mind. He was fascinated the whole way though. Once we arrived in the small Boeing Airport (for small planes), Larry left us and a huge pile of baggage in the lobby and took the airport shuttle to SeaTac to get us our “rental van” that would be our next mode of travel for the next several days. As Zig and I waited, we could see out the windows a storm was brewing. The skies quickly grew dark and ominous and the winds picked up. Soon we had rain and it was freezing out. Not a good combination for driving I thought. Finally Larry arrived and in the pouring rain we managed to pack all of our “stuff” in a handy little Chevy Van he rented, you know, the ones with the push button side doors. We padded a little area with towels in the center between the two front seats for Ziggy sit on and off we went.
FIRST STOP, OUTSIDE PORTLAND The first day was a short one because
the flight from Friday Harbor didn’t drop us in Seattle until mid
afternoon so we only made it as far as Portland the first night.
Actually, we stayed just east of Portland in a small hotel near the
beginning of the Columbia River Scenic Drive. We knew Seattle was
expecting a strong storm and it was approaching quickly, they said it was
due in early this week (and you sure could feel it coming) so we were glad
we left two days early. Suddenly though the news reports now said the
storm was arriving earlier than expected. There was talk of roads likely
to close and at the very least drivers will be required to put on chains
for much of the road we had expected to travel on. The next morning the weather didn’t
look great but we got a good early start. We made a quick stop at a
nearby grocery store and stocked up on food so we wouldn’t have to waste
valuable time stopping along the way to eat and therefore gain some time
on the coming storm. The drive along the Columbia River was breathtaking
even through we saw it in a downpour of rain the whole way. Once we got
more into the mountains the weather turned really bad and the roads were
becoming icy and many areas were hard pack snow which was quickly becoming
hard pack ice. At least we had one lane free of ice on the two lane
highway. We pretty much stuck to the lane that was traveled by the trucks
and they were breaking up the ice and pack with their chains.
BOISE As we made our approach to Boise, we had a couple more hours of day light left and probably could’ve made it all the way to Twin Falls, the next big stop down the highway, but we needed to stop at an Auto Club to get maps and tour books to help determine our stops across the country and to help us to at least find dog friendly hotels easily. Larry had Googled the Auto Club for Boise so we knew where it was so and what turn off to take so with little daylight left that’s what we did.
As we walked in the door, we got the youngest clerk I’ve ever encountered at the front desk. She couldn’t seem to grasp that we were driving across country. I wanted a trip tick, which is a packet of detailed maps of your whole route but she was determined she was going to handle us her way and that was to give us what she thought we needed. We insisted on books to cover each state we were going to be traveling through not knowing where we’d stop. All we got for a map was one cross country map of the US with no detail and she quickly and with what seemed without much thought drew a big globby orange marker line across the country without a moment’s hesitation. That was to be our route. She first wanted to direct us to Las Vegas Nevada and then across country that way on Route 70. Was she crazy we thought? That’s way out of the way. We said a big “NO” and so without another thought drew this strange line orange line that we to follow all the way to Atlanta. How this girl who didn’t look more than 14 have the power to determine where people go across the country? It was beyond us but at least we got the books, but other than that, not much more. We managed to find a nice hotel nearby not with any help from the Auto Club and luckily it was near the highway and several restaurants which was handy and what we needed because it had been a long hard day of driving and racing the storm.
RACING THE STORM Again, we watched the news in the hotel room. Again there was mild hysteria that the big storm was approaching the area. All the news channels were covering it and talking it up as “the big storm” and will surely cause highway closures. I was up and ready to go at 5:30 AM waking and shaking Larry saying we needed to get going as the last report I watched said the impact of the snow would hit Boise at 7:00 AM. We left in the dark and hit the snow almost immediately. So much for the NEWS MEDIA and their accurate weather predictions. It was a big storm as we encountered
winds and snow flurries up to 30-60 mph during much of the day. You were
tense and there was no let up.
After hours and hours it finally seemed like maybe we were ahead of the storm again. We began to see patches of blue sky in the far distance. We keep driving though, stopping only for refueling and bathroom breaks, and continued to eat our meals in the car still having food we purchased at the market in Portland. I felt a bit like that astronaut woman driving across country to confront her forlorn lover though we did refrain from the diaper bit. How did she do that?
NEXT STOP, LARAMIE, WY
We found a brand new Holiday Inn that wasn’t in the Auto Club book. It was certainly upscale for Holiday Inns I’d say but they forgot to put sound insulation between the walls. We awoke to the sun peeking up over the last mountains we would have to tackle on this long journey across the country that most people just fly over. Today we’ll be traveling the downward slope of the last mountains from here to the prairies. The landscape became suddenly different and more interesting with interesting red earth rock formations and strange piled up rock sculptures all teetering and piled high by Mother Nature. You wonder what she was drinking on this stretch of land. Some were so precariously balanced we did quick double takes just to make sure they weren’t falling over. The scenery developed quickly into soft rolling hill country, sparsely populated and sprouting these strange looking man made structures that we realized were uranium mines spewing out odd orange colored toxic looking gases blending into the air we were breathing.
Soon, after days of virtually no
population to speak of, we scratched the outskirts of the new Denver
Metropolis growing like a cancer out of control. We couldn’t believe our
eyes as the prairie land that we knew years back when we lived in the
quaint town of Boulder, CO that was then surrounded by golden grasslands
was no longer as we knew it. It was now filled with sprouting box like
structures, minimally spaced, and monotonously the same. All we could
see was miles and miles of crowded housing tracks and strip malls all
identical. It was an ugly mutation of our new society. The traffic on
the highway began to match the visual disappointment. The developing
landscape had out grown the roads and we were all suffering for it with
horrific traffic jambs and aggressive drivers. What happened to this
place? It just became worse and worse as we neared Denver. Scary how
quickly this ugliness sprouted up with no concern for planning or
aesthetics or living conditions. We passed factories spewing out big
black and grey clouds of whose knows what, and warehouses with acres of
asphalt parking lots filled with row upon row of containers ready for pick
up and delivery across country. The sky was filled with planes, all qued
in an invisible line in the sky waiting their turn to land on the new
tarmac of the international hub of the Denver airport. The horizon was
laden with a brown haze of smog as far as the eye could see. It was a sad
and shocking site. Finally we came to the tangled maze of the multi
level, multi directional highway interchange strangely located in what
should be prairie land. It was at least as complicated as the
sophisticated interchanges in LA.
We made it as far as Hays, Kansas that day. Not a memorable stop by any means and by far the worst hotel/motel yet. It was smack dab in the center of farming country, miles and miles from any big city, and it must have been the oldest Holiday Inn we’d ever seen. The bank of rooms that we were assigned to was within a hallway and none of us (the other travelers) in our look-alike rooms had a window to the outside only a window to our joined long hallway. Many people had their doors ajar to get air we guessed or maybe they just felt friendly. I realized later that night that the heater/AC was sucking in and spewing out some kind of fumes all night long and soon realized why everyone had their doors open just to get a breath of some kind of air even if it just was from the inner sanction of the hallway.
That Holiday Inn motel room was the
room from hell but traveling with a dog you soon learn to expect rooms
like this. For instance, further back, we passed on one in Laramie where
the motel clerk said were going to have to stay in the smoking section
with two twins if we had a dog. It’s a special kind of punishment that
some of these hoteliers or moteliers feel privileged to do to people
traveling with their best friends. They must just hate dogs and dog
owners I think. Lately too they don’t think anything about charging
exorbitant fees for your dog’s stay in the room, some shockingly as high
as $150 a night! “That’s the first night charge” they say, “after that,
it’s free!” Whooptyi-do, I say! Where are the days when I remember my
family would travel across country and we’d simply sneak our dog into the
motel room? We always did that and everyone else did too. No one does
stuff like that anymore.
“I’LL GET YOU, YOU LITTLE PRETTY, AND YOUR LITTLE DOG TOO”, THE WICKED WITCH OF THE WEST STORM CAUGHT UP TO US We were also rewarded with a thick
pack of snow on the car in the morning and Larry had to spend 15 minutes
in the freezing blowing cold to scrape the ice off the windshield. That
darn storm caught up to us again and just when we thought we had it behind
us. We headed out as quickly as we could, skipping breakfast and still
making do with the food we had purchased in Portland. Our
biggest fear was getting stuck in some God awful place like this for a few
more days waiting for the storm to travel through. The windshield washers
decided to act up now. They suddenly decided not to spray out anymore
nice anti-freeze
We wouldn’t give up though, and feeling pretty crazy to put up with all of this for a darn dog, we continued on down the highway, heading across the flat lands of Oz and watched with weary eyes as the dark foreboding skies started looking more and more like a huge monster with dark cloaked arms and long scary finger nails reaching and stretching our way trying to catch up with us.
We kept traveling and traveling, passing frozen farms and barns, and lonely snow covered trains, slowing shuffling across the landscape on a single track leading as far as eye could see towards some unknown destinations off into the grey landscape.
Photos from Alberdene, KS
No more doggy hotels we decided. We searched our trusty Auto Club book and found the most upscale hotel we could that would take dogs. It turned out to be the Westin and it was the hotel from heaven, or at least we thought so that night. We had a view that you wouldn’t believe up on the 14th floor and tube like walkways below us that got you from one side of the city to the other without even getting wet, cold or snow blown. What an amazing place this town is! We loved it! Imagine this is the city that many of the jazz greats were from. We drove past all their old haunts, ghosts of the past. Back to the room, we ordered up room service and munched away enjoying the protected view. They are doing a wonderful job restoring the downtown and all the old brick buildings. I do think it’s worth a stop to come back and see their progress.
Though strangely Larry thinks we are out of the reaches of the storm now and we are starting to feel a little more relaxed. Our next stop, we decide, will be St. Louis. I had never seen the city and Larry was here so long ago he can’t remember it. So we thought it would be a good idea to stop to see America. Larry vaguely thinks he came through here on the train as a kid so we plan to check out the old train station to see if it strikes us any memories.
Finally towards the end of the day, we had the city within sight but shockingly noticed mile after mile on each side of the Interstate numerous abandoned buildings and houses, boarded up and derelict. The place is like a ghost city. It was eye opening to see, shocking, as block after block, mile after mile, nothing but emptiness and abandonment. It was a dead city. What happen here we wondered? All these old brick buildings, house and factories, empty like a poison gas bomb had dropped. We caught our first glimpse of the cities famous arch, the symbol of the city as the gateway to the West in centuries past and now a sad symbol of what? It was massive and impressive.
We did love the old buildings of the city and took a walk through the old and what was the biggest train station in the world at one time, and imagined how the city must have been in it’s hey day. Sadly I think their plan for recovery is starting with a big new casino right down on the waterfront of the Mississippi River but what else can they do? It may be their only hope for economic recovery, well that and the new baseball stadium that is exquisitely designed to look old but is new and fits in with the style of the old warehouse buildings downtown. I think they are trying to give the area a big push for restoration. Good luck St. Louis!
NEW HARMONY For the first time, in days the
landscape began to become hilly with occasional patches of trees. We’d
pass field after field of what was corn during the growing season and now
just filled with the leftover dried corn stalks. We passed beautiful old
farm buildings one right after the other and many were again abandoned,
just decaying wood structures, nothing more than a hint of a lifestyle and
time now past.
As we were heading down the Interstate I read about a little city that was nearby called New Harmony. It caught my eye so we decided to take a much needed detour from all this driving and it was sure worth the visit. The town was settled by a German religious group in the very beginnings of the 1800s and has not changed much from its original days. It was like a town set in time, preserved, which is amazing these days. It hasn’t yet been ruined by tourism. In fact there were no fast food restaurants, or chain hotels, motels, or chain restaurants. It was the real thing. It was a beautiful stop.
AUTO CLUB FELL THROUGH THE GAP After spending some quality time walking the little town and having lunch in one of the neighborhood down home cafes, we took the country road back to the main highway which in all this travel over the past few days would finally turn our direction south and gosh I hope for warmer weather. This is the point where the Auto Club girl from Boise really fell through the gap. She plotted us with that orange felt tip maker southward on the map without realizing that the Interstate just disintegrated into city streets, traffic, stop lights, and lost highways. Oh well, we managed somehow to figure our way with no help from this cross country map she gave us that had no detail whatsoever. Soon we were on an Interstate again and heading in the direction of Nashville.
We managed quite nicely on our own surprisingly without a map and soon could see the amazingly huge skyline of Nashville in the distance which is nothing like what I imagined the Country Western capitol of the world to be like. Instead it was a big glittering flashy city. We felt like country bumpkins as we drove through the city and its tall sun obliterating skyscrapers and streets crowded with city people after driving for days across the plains with hardly a person or car in sight. We also were covered in a thick crust or road crud from the icy snowy trails we left behind us. We were in immediate culture shock with all the people and traffic. We found our way to another big city hotel, the Sheraton this time, a sister hotel to the Westin that is also dog friendly and checked in. Surely we were the scruffiest characters there. Everyone was dressed fit to kill, either going to a big fancy wedding or the performing arts center nearby. We on the other hand, were covered in dog hairs, and wearing pretty much the same clothes we had for a week, but always clean fresh new underwear. These people had no idea what and where we’ve been and what we’ve been through and where we were going, to give us the excuse to look the way we did. Nevertheless we discreetly snuck our way through the lobby the best we could and up the glass fronted elevator to heights beyond comprehension and into our nice room. Soon after unpacking, we headed back down to see this amazing bustling city. It was like Las Vegas in a way, with all sorts of flashing colored lights, and crazy characters, with cowboy boots and hats and every street corner had a character or two trying their best to show they were the next big country western star. Bar after bar had Karaoke singers in the front window with sound piped to the street and we couldn’t but help but stop to listen as they were all amazingly good. We found a nearby brewery where we could get something casual to eat and where we wouldn’t feel too out of place the way we looked and put Zig in the car. What a cast of characters this town draws is all I can say.
NEXT MORNING, we’re on our way to TENNESEE with a stop to see Larry’s son and family. Boy has their town changed, growing like a whipper snapper. It was too short a visit but we had to keep moving so next stop was… CHATANOOGA, TN We headed south now on country roads towards Chattanooga, first heading up over the Cumberland Mountains and the first big hills for days now. Suddenly now, we’ve got crazy drivers who insist on driving right on your tail. We don’t understand it but it’s consistent and they were like that all the way to Atlanta. We made a road stop for some real southern food, complete with turnip greens, and BBQ pulled pork and burped all the way to our final stop for the day, Chattanooga. On our arrival to Chattanooga, it
reminded us a bit of St. Louis as they too have this strange thing going
on with abandoned useless buildings, city block after city block, until
you reach the water front and then there is a new building craze going
on. Why they didn’t try to restore some of their old buildings we
wondered?
We had a good time in Chattanooga. We stayed at the Sheraton in the old part of town which is by far the nicest hotel and restaurant in town. But first, we got the usual dog room, which was a terrible room. I don’t understand why because the hotel was practically empty so why would they put their few customers in their crummy rooms? It was claustrophobic and had no air, (and again everyone had their doors open) and was so small we could barely walk around each other. When you turned the air on you felt like you were inside a generating plant. No way was I going to stay in that room tonight! I went back to the desk and asked for another room and believe it or not they gave us a suite overlooking the hills (they called it the mountain view room but after where we’ve come from, these definitely were hills)! And for no extra charge. Go figure. I’ll never understand what goes on in these places. Anyway, I was glad I complained but wish that I didn’t have to get a decent room. We had a lovely dinner on the knoll overlooking the river that is now called the Art District and it really is an interesting area. They are doing some really fun things along the river, creating for one thing a 25 mile walk with interesting paths and sculpture to admire along the way. I think it will revive their economy and make this place a worthwhile destination Art District
Dam, where to stay in Atlanta? It was difficult to make heads or tails out of that stupid Auto Club book. They never offer an opinion on anything and there were so many areas to choose from in Atlanta. We thought down town might be too hectic with a dog but it might be okay like Kansas City and St. Louis, on the other hand I wanted to do some much needed shopping and somehow figured out Buckhead, an area north of Atlanta had the big upscale mall. That tweaked my interest right away. We decided we’d drive to the downtown area first and check it out, especially the Westin and if it looked too hectic we’d double back to Buckhead area. Everything was under construction in the city. We did our best to find the right off ramp but this place was a mad house and nothing but concrete. Not good for dogs. The town was hopping too, congested and busy. We thought the Sheraton was an option because it was smaller and not exactly right in the center of the chaos. It also had lots of planters and areas to walk Zig. It was close to the big underground mall too that we thought we wanted to see. But still, we decided to check out Buckhead. We got back on the highway and then the toll highway and finally the right off ramp several miles from downtown and found Buckhead and the mall. There was a Westin and we pulled in. After several minutes Larry comes back out. He says everything in the area is booked! They are having a Big Cancer Walk in town and all the hotels around here and downtown are full! Geez. Westin gave us directions to a Sheraton about six miles away and they had a room. We could stay there one night and then come back and check in to the Westin here for the following two nights. Off we went again, back on the toll road and up the highway. We followed the computerized Googled directions that the desk clerk from the Westin gave us. You know, .2 tenths miles this way and 1 tenth that way, and finally we found the place. It was great and right next to another mall and restaurants and all brand new. We decided to check in and just stay here, getting our shopping and laundry done, and getting ready for our flight to the Bahamas without having to move to another hotel. We made it. We were finally here and somehow, we raced the storm across country, suffered freezing weather, but had no mishaps. Zig was a great traveler and I can’t complain. I’ve had worse relatives who couldn’t travel as well as Zig. So now, our next step, get ready for the Bahamas!
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FRIDAY
HARBOR TO SEATTLE FLIGHT
We had thoughts of just sitting it out in the Portland area where there
would be things to see and do or taking the chance if we went that we
might get stuck in some remote area in the mountains. We finally decided
to risk it, take our chances and see how far we could get. We’ll just get
an early start the next morning we said and go for it. The conditions of
the mountain roads that we have to cross will be the deciding factor. If
we can keep ahead of the storm before they close the roads we’ll be OK.
The many trucks that were on the highway were doing a pretty good job of
breaking the ice so we followed one right after the other and let them
pave the way. Many trucks were pulling off at rest stops to check their
chains and just stop but we managed without chains all the way through.
It was our lucky day I guess. About noon, we were making good progress
and thought we could actually see some blue in the skies ahead. Gradually
we gained ground on the storm and knew we were now ahead of the Front but
not without strong winds and some hairy driving. 
AUTO
CLUB
The
visibility was next to nil and a strange icy wind swept across the highway
in the form of weird ghost like threads. It was scary but we couldn’t
stop because there was no where to pull over, no towns or services for
miles and miles. We just kept going and at times were lucky to find a
truck to follow and tagged behind letting him be our guide. We were
amazed at some of the crazy drivers who would come out of no where and
speed by passing us with literally no visibility. 
We
were rewarded though after a long scary day of treacherous driving with
the most beautiful skies and remarkable cloud formations. It was quite
remarkable, skies like we’ve never seen before ever. 
We
actually made it to Laramie, much farther than we expected when we started
out and still just ahead of the storm again.
THE
HORROR OF DENVER
We took a breath and headed up one ramp curving straight up into the air
and suddenly somehow we were miraculously dumped out on Interstate 70
which lead straight out across the landscape towards Kansas in the most
monotonous straight line you could imagine as far as we could see, leading
us down a path as far as we could from Denver. 
THE LAND OF OZ
We had a fit full nights sleep
interrupted by the shutter and slamming of the exterior hallway entrance
door as late travelers or all night revelers came and went with no concern
for the sleep of the tired weary travelers that many of us were. If that
wasn’t enough, in the middle of the night, the power was going on and off,
and the lights in the hall would come on and go off a multitude of times
as the back up generator would take over. Little did we know the storm
was causing it as it had caught up with us again in the night and was
wreaking havoc on the countryside with power outages and road side
accidents. 
across the window to clean off the dirt and snow muck
that the trucks sprayed across our window and just when we needed them the
most. Nothing squirted out of the dam things and the sound of the wipers
scraping across the dirty windshield, icy and crusty as an old dog bone
was spine tingling. We had to stop several times so Larry could break the
seal in the lines so the fluid could go through. This would only work
temporarily. This car was getting on our nerves with all it’s automatic
locks and push button door openers that always seemed to open the wrong
door and then when you pushed the button to lock it, the button was so
close to the button that opened one of the side doors that I was always
making a mistake. One night I came out to the car to get something I
forgot and was shocked to find the whole side of the van was wide open. I
had mistakenly pressed the wrong button when I locked up for the night.
Nothing was stolen. Lucky I discovered it or everything would have been
covered in snow in the morning. It was treacherous driving again that day
to say the least. When I drove I just kept spraying the windows and
operating those wipers just to keep the window washing lines free from
getting clogged up. All I hoped for was that we had enough anti-freeze to
get us to the next stop.
NEXT
STOP, KANSAS CITY
It’s
morning again, and we’re back on the highway feeling like this trip will
never end. It was weird to have this big storm chasing us the whole way.
We felt like we couldn’t relax or stop to see anything. We had wanted to
stop in Salt Lake City but if we did that we’d get stuck with it, so we
just keep going and going and going. 
“WE’RE
NOT IN KANSAS ANYMORE TOTO”, ST. LOUIS, EMERALD CITY OF THE PAST?
We
had decided on another Westin for the evening located in the downtown area
but were having second thoughts after seeing the sad sight the city was
in. I must say though I was glad we were persistent and decided to stay
there as we had such a good experience at this hotel even though the rest
of the city looked sad and lonely. The new Westin is in a renovated old
factory (garment) building (in the old garment district) and is right
beside the new Cardinals Stadium. I loved this hotel as it was
beautifully designed and decorated. They are very dog friendly too and
there was no charge for Ziggy and they sent up immediately a fluffy white
down filled doggie bed, two food bowls with a doggie place mat along with
a delicious sounding doggie room service menu! It included salmon on a
bed of white rice, chicken and beef, and etc.
THE
GLITTER OF NASHVILLE
I
don’t know what they are thinking but they’ve got a tourist thing going on
at the river front and there’s no stopping them. We checked out the
old
train station where a suffering Holiday Inn is trying to make it but who
would stay there because across the street and all the surrounding blocks
it looks like skid row? Of course the Auto Club book doesn’t warn you of
that, only rates it as a three diamond which we have found that rating is
totally inconsistent all the way across the country. It was a sorry
sight and we left feeling quite depressed and wondered why our government
that runs the trains in our country can’t seem to realize that maybe
people would really love to ride the trains across the country not only
for pleasure but to escape the hassle of traffic. It was sad to see that
old train station and a past lifestyle crumbling in such disarray.
NEXT
STOP, ATLANTA!