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"Central America" - Mid-West and Great Lakes States

 

Day 13:  Thursday, October 17, 2002

 
Starting Location:  Cheyenne, Wyoming Stopping Location:  San Francisco area, California
Weather There:  Clear, 25°F Weather Here:  Partly cloudy, 56°F
Starting Time:  5:42 am Mountain Time Stopping Time:  10:26 pm Pacific Time
Starting Mileage:  271,909 miles Stopping Mileage:  273,073 miles
Total Miles Today:  1,164 miles   Total Miles:  8,373 miles
Total Travel Time:  16 hours, 54 minutes Pepsi Today:  0.78 gallons

This would be a day of little interest, really.  Why?  Two reasons.  One, it's the fast run back home, without many stops.  Two, it's through Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and after dark, California.  Honestly, there's not much to see along Interstate 80 between Cheyenne, Wyoming and home.  And, the first three hours were in the dark, and the road is all you can see, and it's not interesting.

Long day, lots of driving.  It wasn't too horrible, though, if you ignore the distance and the fact that some tubby twit was grumpy after neglecting to stop for breakfast.  Or lunch.  Or.... oh yeah, dinner.  Just Pepsi.  Lots of Pepsi.

He did get to read about 75 pages in Thomas Harris' Red Dragon, which admittedly is out in theatres, but the book is darn near always better.  I had to let him drive once it got dark, though, as he couldn't read, and otherwise would have wanted to talk about how poorly I drive most of the time.  

Trip Stats

Tour Summary - Central America, October 2002

Well, this is probably my favorite part.  Summarizing it all like a snapshot of 13 days of my life into a couple of bullet points.  Fun, eh?
  • Least Attractive Motel:  Motel 6, Sharonville, Ohio.  I'm assuming those were cockroaches, but definitely roach-based creatures.  They were civil enough, it's just not something you expect to see crawling from the TV's 'Lazy Susan' stand.
  • Average Price per Gallon of Gas:  $1.48, averaged across the whole trip.
  • Most outrageous hotel fees paid: Ottawa, Illinois. But then again, it was a Super 8, so of course it was pricey.  
  • Worst Litter-Bug:  Several seen, but worthy of particular note and embarrassment:
    • The winner was the white guy with blonde hair and a goatee, driving a black Dodge 4x4 truck, personalized Illinois plate 1WOLEN, in East Saint Louis, Illinois.  It seemed he tossed an entire candy bar wrapper out the window, piece by piece.
    • Runner-up is California plate 6V52575 Nissan pickup, driver unseen.  Tossed a plastic water bottle out the window.  How can a blue-ish plastic liter bottle be subtle?
    • Some sort of Alero, Missouri plate TZR946, single plastic wrapper, white, but it stands out on a gray afternoon.
  • Favorite State:  Indiana.  Sure, it gets snow, but they all do.  Affordable housing, quaint roads, good skiing?
  • Funniest Accent:  Wisconsin, Sandy in the Wal-Mart.  Even though she's originally from L.A., she's giving it her all to fit in.
  • Most Attractive Girl Encountered:  She knows who she is.  
  • Best Place to Observe Native Behavior: Wal-Mart still the all-time favorite.  Appleby's wasn't too horrible, but no accents discovered (unlike Wal-Mart).
  • Cutest Animal Seen:  Me, wings down.  
  • Universities Found in Unexpected Places:  Georgetown College.  In Georgetown, Kentucky.  Who knew?
  • Favorite illegal driving:  We don't drive like that.  But in Cheyenne, there were a number of creative interpretations of the vehicle code, safety, and what "wrong way" means, anyway.
  • Places Not to Be:  Any town hosting a large football game - motels are outrageously expensive.  (Notre Dame - Philly game in South Bend, IN on Saturday, 12 October... Motel 6 jumped from $42 to $85 a night; we stayed elsewhere.)

Trip Map

 
Trip 5 - "Don't Tread on Me" is coming up in the fall of 2003 (gotta get them fall New England colors, y'know).

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