"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).