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I headed east on I-90 through Washington, stopping around noon for lunch at the lovely Molly's Diner in Spokane. Here I happened to do something that would form one of the major bases for this summary: I used my phone to send an SMS to Sean saying I'd just had lunch. After talking to him later, we decided I'd check in with him mostly this way, talking to him primarily in the evenings. Eventually, I realized I had a send record.
At the time, however, I drove on through Idaho and into Montana. I stopped for dinner in Bozeman, at a local pizza chain called Mackenzie River Pizza Co. Tasty, good about dairy and they even had a vegetarian pepperoni option. Mike from Gig Harbor flirted aggressively but to no purpose (other than tip improvement, of course) and was sport enough to bring out the Yves package so I could look at it. I spent the night in Billings, near a convention center that had pretty much booked all the local hotels, but the folks at the Quality Inn were nice enough to call all of the other places until they found me a non-smoking room. It was a Comfort Inn "suite", but only cost $61.55 (real total). I almost stayed at the Motel 6, but it was right next to an adult bookstore, which gave me pause. I drove from 7:30 PDT to 10 p.m. MDT and did not keep records after that about travel time. I had fruit to snack on in the car, which I tried to keep in good supply on the trip, not always successfully.
In the morning, I made the first important food discovery of the trip: Comfort Inn has peanut butter in the continental breakfast included in the cost of the stay. I got crappy gas that made my engine knock for several hours, and caused me to worry about car trouble. I stopped in Gillette, Wyoming (land of good NPR coverage and pretty on a sunny fall day) for lunch at a Village Inn. In Rapid City, I headed south to see Mt. Rushmore. Keystone, the entry town to the park, is, in Ielleen's immortal words, a "kitsch vortex". It panicked me, so I drove on. I did the presidential walk in the park (described as strenuous -- apparently that means it has a lot of stairs) then proceeded to the Crazy Horse monument. A nice couple from Portland emphasized repeatedly that I should drive through the Badlands, which I had not planned on doing.
After Crazy Horse, I tried to catch the evening program at Wind Cave, but it turns out it wasn't a cave tour, but rather listening to elk bugling, so I continued to Hot Springs. Somewhere along the line here I lost the stylus for my Treo -- or at least I thought I had. Actually, I lost the screwoff top bit. Sean brought me replacements which he found at Staples. I had unsuccessfully tried Best Buy and Circuit City, but that would be later. I looked at the highly developed and about to close for the evening Evans Plunge and ate dinner at the Elk Horn. I stayed in a Super 8 next to the mammoth site (in situ mammoth bones) which was closed when I got there and I left before it opened.
I added to my discovery about continental breakfasts: Super 8's (and, it turns out, no other cheap chain) do not have peanut butter for breakfast. I caught the early tour at Wind Cave and was hungry already after, so I had a banana dipped in the (unsalted -- what was I thinking?) peanut butter I brought from home. Yum.
I headed north through Custer State Park, avoiding large wild life. Once back on 90, I stopped at Wall Drug for a buffalo burger, fries, free water and a purchased jug of water before driving through the Badlands, which are weird, wonderful and unbelievably windy. I did a few of the short walks: Cliff Shelf, Door and Window. I had planned to do a longer hike, but 30 mph winds are demoralizing and very drying to the eyes and other mucuous membranes.
After the Badlands, I barrelled through South Dakota, skipping De Smet, because it is the wrong time of year for the Laura Ingalls Wilder festival, also 55 miles off the highway (which is why I didn't stop on the return trip, either). I stopped for dinner and the night in Sioux Falls, which is an agricultural finance center and not much of anything else (which means downtown has a park, a bunch of one way streets, a cultural center dominated by a multi-plex, numerous parking garages and a lot of high-rise banks. No bistros. A precious few cheap chinese places, characterized by loitering youth of a less than savory countenance). My chicken sandwich at the Fryin' Pan (really) was raw inside. I ate none but did bite into it and was queasy the next day. They did a good job on the corrected sandwich, and their salad bar is a blast from the past and was a good source of veggies. The Comfort Inn was good enough to stop at a second time on the trip home -- I just didn't try to eat in town.
Another day on I-90, then south in Illinois to Springfield, where I had the best restaurant food on the trip. Trust Ielleen to find the tex-mex-fusion place (Cafe Brio) run by gay guys that does seared ahi and a great sunday brunch. Ielleen and her friend Janet had to run to see Hal Holbrook portray Lincoln, while I relaxed at a Fairfield Inn (not worth the extra money, although they did have peanut butter).
We did the Lincoln shrine tours ( New Salem, the outside of the old capitol, the house and the cemetary). I met and romped with her Corgi Colin. Some sort of bug got hold of me and I itched the next day. We ran into a man she works with while walking in George Washington Botanical Park -- really -- and his girlfriend or wife, who were pleasant. We also had thai food. She gave me some paperbacks, recommended some others and loaned me what would prove to be lifesavers on the trip home: The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler, and Tishomingo Blues by Elmore Leonard, on CD. I even got to do some laundry.
After Springfield, on through a circuitous route to Clayton, a small town south of Raleigh, to visit my sister and her step daughter and their "dog" (half "malamute" half arctic, half grey wolf), Evalina. Along the way, I tried Wendy's Oriental Salad, which is good and genuinely dairy free, but not hugely filling. I called my broker, who had been unable to contact me while I was without coverage in South Dakota. I also tried the heavily advertised Six-Dollar-Burger at a Hardee's in West Virginia whose employees had some of the worst teeth I've ever seen. That was the worst of many fabulous Hardee's burgers I had, usually costing between $4.19 and $4.25 after tax, never requiring modification, eatable while driving and guaranteed to avert hunger for five or more hours.
This was the day I learned Sean's lesson: 1000 mile days are a bad idea. Outside Winston-Salem, my geography failed me, and, confused about whether I-85 N was east or west, I chose wrong and did not discover my error until almost into South Carolina. I made it to a Comfort Inn just west of Greensboro, in Archdale, where a kindly old man (really) at the desk set me right in the morning.
Rachel met me at the Lowe's grocery store (a lot like QFC in its hey dey, but not a lot of organic food), to lead me to her home. We got some groceries, which (when combined with the recipe from my website) enabled me to make mongolian beef. Over the next few days in NC, I also had some tuna fish sandwiches, assorted breakfasts, pasta with red sauce and sausage. Even more important than eating my own cooking, I got an oil change in Smithfield, home town of Ava Gardner, a museum in whose honor I passed on the way to the local library, where I checked my e-mail.
We spent some time shopping, with varying degrees of success. The towels shed even after the first washing. The VCR that wouldn't connect to the TV defied efforts to purchase new connectors. Replacing the TV revealed that the VCR didn't work properly (or the connectors were even weirder than we thought. Basically, we only got black and white). Swapping the new TV for a new VCR did fix the problem. Getting chains to close the kennel effectively and a stake and chain for Evalina in the yard were extremely successful and calmed her down a lot.
The bread on the trip just kept getting worse, softer, lower in fiber and completely crustless. The chili burger at Gypsy's Shiny Diner was tasty, but had to be eaten with a fork. The bun was not up to the task.
Rachel and I daytripped to Wilmington on the coast after she passed her phlebotomy test. We had excellent Chinese food. We drove along Carolina and Kure beaches, saw Fort Fisher (which Rachel recognized from a favorite soap opera) and Topsail Island. We had dinner at Ragazzi's, a local italian chain which serves the salad family style.
Rachel and I drove to the Blue Ridge Parkway between Linville Falls (cool rocks, unbelievably polluted water) and Mt. Mitchell and did some minor hiking. Mt Mitchell may be the tallest mountain in the lower 48 east of the Mississippi (with a tower on top, in classic East Coast fashion), but we only had a view of the upper parking lot, due to clouds. My sister looooves mushrooms, stopped for each and every one. I encouraged her to join a mycological society, but warned her that the other personalities involved might be a bit of a damper for her. I introduced her to the awesome Hardee's burger and we tried a Denny's on the way back. They aren't having a great year. We returned home to find Amanda, her boyfriend and another pair of their friends having a quiet party. They kindly offered to share. We declined and worked on the chianti classico.
I talked to Mary Kaye for a long time on the phone, unable to reach Sean. I had been reading Blaze Harlequins that Rachel had found garage saling for a dime a piece, all 2002 copyright. She also had a Jayne Ann Krentz Uneasy Alliance which I later spotted at a Pittsburg mall in reprint, but hers was the original Harlequin. I read and left the book I'd started on the trip (Janet Gleeson's The Arcanum). On one of the shopping trips, Rachel picked up Miriam Nelson's Strong Women, Strong Bones, which suffers from having been written in 2000, before the latest about HRT, but not much. The Blaze, in order read, and getting worse each time, included: Cara Summers Intent to Seduce, Jo Leigh's Sensual Secrets and Janelle Denison's A Wicked Seduction, which was bad enough to get me to stop. The first one was funny -- Summers is worth watching for. Miss Match by Leslie Carroll from Ielleen was amusing but forgettable.
We finally got the VCR mess untangled today, and a swivel for the goat rope which hopefully will leave Evalina in a relatively calm state after my departure. And, best of all, I talked to Sean and my period started. I caught up on laundry, got an address for my destination in Pittsburgh and directions online at the Clayton Public Library and made plans to stop for a day by myself before Pennsylvania.
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Copyright Rebecca Allen, 2002.
Created October 25, 2002 Modified March 19, 2006