BC Canada to Oklahoma Day 3 & 4

Day 3 found us in Jerome, Idaho and ready to head toward Utah.  We were greeted with a very beautiful sunrise which seemed to follow us for a whole hour.....:-).  It was a little later than what we wanted, but we still had a great start of a another 10 hour day of driving.

Since breakfast was not really being served that early, we left the hotel a little hungry, but enjoying the beautiful morning toward something to eat soon....:-).  My camera was having a hard time focusing since the light was so low.  Using the flash only made things worse.  So, some of the pics are a little blurry....:-(.  sorry

And we drove........and we drove....through endless miles of.......NOTHING.....toward Utah.

more nothing, but getting interesting (kinda) as the shape and sizes of "nothing" was remarkable!
more "nothing"........

After looking at all of that amazing "nothingness", we had to make a potty stop....I think "Ms Vickey" was secretly getting tired too!



The air was still thick with smoke from all of the fires that had been going on.  At one point, we had all of the windows closed and the vents closed to the air system in the car and I still had to cover my nose and mouth with a sleeve from my jacket to keep from coughing.  We stopped at a rest stop and ran into some fire fighters called "Bonniville HotShots".  They looked exhausted and were sooty. None wore a smile.  I felt sad for them and decided to take a picture of the vehicle and not disturb "them".  

We carried on toward Utah and drove several miles all the while hoping that the scenary would change to something a little more interesting than the last few miles.  That interesting nothingness was starting to give me "road hypnosis".

ok!  It's gotta get better from here! So far we have come through Washington, Oregon, Idaho and now Utah!

And I could not believe how different the "nothingness" could get!  But at least there was the promise of more colors other than brown or gold....

Then we looked at the tank and thought..."hummm, there is nothing between were we are and the nothingness we are about to drive into".  Better gas up while we have a chance!

And while we are at it, better grab some "grub" too!  Ain't no food in "nothing"!

This is not as good as it looks.....:-(.  I was a bit dissappointed as I have tasted Ginger Beer before that was very spicey.  This was just the "taste" of ginger.

When I looked around, I noticed how the landscape was beginning to change a bit.... 

There was actually some color on those mountains and hills that were quite striking.....:-)

After taking or potty break and checking "Ms Vickey" and "Maj", we decided to push on and cover as much ground as possible before stopping for the night.

I strolled around the rest area while Chris checked out scoots and the tie downs... 



and then we were on our way again.......the nothingness had given way to "Majestic".....:-)



Sometimes, it felt as if we were driving through the land of giants.....:-)

I wondered what would be on the other side of those hills........

We drove and drove until we reached the next destination........

And then, we ran into some rain.....it wasn't bad though.....:-)

Every now and then, we came across things like this.....

and then we look and notice we are at the half way mark again on the gas tank.  So, we stop in Little America, Wyoming to get some Sinclair gas. 

Here is there famous mascot....haha...Might be a distant cousin to "Barney"! 

and then it was time to go after scauffing down an ice cream cone!

We crossed the Contenental Divide and I was tempted to jump out of the car and stand in the middle of the road......"sideways"! haha... But, since there was a car coming, I passed...haha

These are Antelope.  The only living creatures other than occasional cars that we saw the whole time we drove.....I had to really zoom my little camera lense to catch them... 

by now, we had done 10 hours of driving and it was time to get some dinner and call it a night.  We decided to eat at this place called the "Hoot & Howl" where we had a healthy portion of ribs and onion rings.  But we decided to switch from the Quality Inn which is one of the hotels we use to........

This hotel across the road called "1st Choice".  It shouldn't have been.  It made for a miserable night's sleep!

 DAY 4

We woke up to another beautiful sunrise and headed out early.   

It was so dark that my little camera had trouble focusing.....:-(.  Sorry that I couldn't really capture that for you..  

When the light got better, the pictures did too.....:-)

I don't know how Chris saw anything with his eyes half closed, but he did! ....:-)



a lot of the time, the landscape looked like something from another planet.  Completely uninhabited.....Which could lead to a strange "weariness".  So, we thought we better stop, take a potty break and ......say "Hi!".......haha 

And then it went to this!

to this......

and THEN, to this........uh oh.  And here we go for several hours.......minus the "green"...





We figured we better get some gas at the next gas station.......we met these guys on their way to Casper, Wyoming.....:-).  I think they were coming from Florida.

and of course since I had never met anyone who actually wore a"handlebar mustache", I just had to get a picture of it.....ha

We wished them well on their journey and told them to keep the "rubber side" down...:-)



We decided that we needed to make this day an early "quit" as we had been driving for several hours a day every day since we started the trip.  I was excited to see some "life" and color after so long a time of rock formations and mountains with no signs of life.

and within a few minutes, it went to this.........these are reported to be over 2 million years old......it was like driving through another planet in the solar system......



I mean, can you image living back then???  They were probably much taller, but have been worn down from errosion.... I couldn't decide if it looked more like giant play dough or fossilized dinosaur poo.....    ??? ha

and then it was time to get to the next destination, so we did!

It was also time to get some gas since we didn't want to have to do it in the morning.  Chris was looking tired and I was feeling tired so we made the stop.

We met these gentlemen after filling up with gas......Dale, Paul and....well, Paul! Funny enough Dale was Paul's father and Dale said that the two Pauls were brothers! ha.... I have no idea why two brothers would have the same first name, but here they are...They were fascinated with Ms Vickey and Maj, but especially our trailer.  Our trailer has wheels on its side to assist in rolling it into a garage for storage.  It can be turned on its side and rolled away.  They were on their way to do some ATVing on 1000 acres of land......:-)....wow... 

after spending so much time in the land of "giants and dinosaurs", I was ready to see some people.  Colorado was beautiful........:-) 



And to my amazement,.....houses!  with real people and a lot of them too! haha  YaY!  Not that I would meet them, but at least you knew they were there.....:-)

There were even places of worship......:-)..... 

but now, that we have reached Colorado...it was time to find the nearest WI FI signal at a Starbucks and find a hotel for the night.....

We were both very tired and happy to be packing it in early and finding a hotel quickly.....Can you see how relieved the man looks?  ha

the view from our hotel room at the Comfort Inn......

 

BC Canada to Oklahoma Day 1 & 2

Day 1

Well, this trip has been long awaited and I was exhausted from all of the preparation that had to take place before we starte out on this longggggg road trip. Since our condo is currently on the market for sale, we had to be sure that the house was still ready for showings while we were away. Which meant three long weeks of packing and planning before we even left! Chris was happy about the trip and enjoying it before we even we even started! ha   Needless to say, I was simply exhausted when we finally did pull out at 5:45 and head to McDonald's drive through.





We finally, after a small breakfast....made our way to the border which was 1 1/2 hours from our house.  We decided to use the "Peace Arch" crossing this time and were glad we did.  The border guard looked at us and said "you guys are good"....so we just flew right through the border.   

I was glad to be back in my own country for a while........even though things are quite messy here right now.  Sorry about blurr....:-(

 by the time we had gone for a few hours, that 4:30am wake up started wearing on both of us as we did not get to bed until after 1:00am!  Poor Christo!  He was driving with his eyes closed and I was praying that mine didn't close as well!

Hey, Somebody had to keep their eyes open and look fabulous! Might as well be me.....haha.  By the way, all that stuff behind me.....well, I had to have "some" creature comforts....haha....

 We got to the first rest stop in Custer, Washington just across the border and used that time to check on "Maj" and "Ms Vickey"........:-).  Seemed like they were tired too as they were leaning a bit!  We got that straighted out before going further.....

 tires.....check.  yellow and orange tie down straps....check.  wheel bearings.....check.  Good to go!

We stopped at a place called "North Bend, Washington" and had some lunch.  Clam chowder and a mushroom/swiss burger seemed to be a good idea.  We were starving!  AND...it gave us a chance to test out our new phones that we had just gotten the day before.  Talk about  a learning curve!

The burger was so big we decided to split it....I mean after all, we were going to be sitting for over a week!  Who needed a whole burger!  hahah

I didn't want "Ms Vickey" to feel abandoned, so I took pic with her and "Maj"...She was already a little embarrased that she didn't have a "bra" on since we took her and "Maj's" windshields off to help with the wind drafts that would hit them.  So, she was pretty happy to see me....:-).

This is Keechelus Lake at the Snowqualmie Pass.....but it was very cloudy as there had been several fires in the area. You cannot even see the sky for the smog.  It was like this for several miles and the air was thick with the smell of burning pine trees.....

I was glad to see this truck stop called "Price Creek" rest areaas I was in need of a serious potty break!!!

After having lost about 5 pounds between the two of us in the rest room, we were "relieved" and ready to keep moving!  haha...Thank God for weight loss!



And then the air started getting thicker as we got close to where the fires had been.  But you still couldn't see anything as of yet.  I thought the landscape was unusual as it looked like someone had draped these slopes with a camel color velveteen fabric.

This was a lake you could barely see because of the smog just south of Yakima.....

More velveteen covered hill......:-).  Wish it wasn't so smoggy....:-(.  The picture doesn't do the beauty any justice.  But it got old after several hours of ......welll...."nothingness"!

I mean miles and miles of GEN-U-WINE ....nothing!  One could get road hypnosis real quick out there! 

We finally made it to Kennewick, Washington....the smog was still thick and was really bothering both of us....at one point, I put my blouse over my nose just to filter some of the air...it was coming through the vent system of the car!....sheesh! You can see how hazy the sky is in this picture.
 

After 12 hours on the road, we were hungry again and decided to get dinner before going to a hotel.  This sounded like a plan.....:-)

Poor Christo was tired, but the tought of some chow seemed to give him some "renewed" strength....haha... Notice the eager look on his face?  ha

I was in desparate need of some protein and decided to get some fried chicken, the shrimp and noodle something that I should have left on the food bar and some green beans that weren't terrible, but not that great either....but hey.....it's dinner and I was hungry. Now, the dressing on the other hand was a slam dunk!

After dinner we checked into the Quality Inn and crashed for the night!  What a long day it had proven to be!  We covered the bikes before we went in and made sure we parked where the security camera was pointed at the parking space.

Day 2

As you can see, the sun is barely up and we are rolling again.  First stop, the post office to mail a package and then we're off again.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear? 

Yes, it is a donut shop that Chris visited with his parents in 1962!  They make their donuts out of potatoe flour.....:-).  Now, we're in trouble!!

A master at work.......:-).

 Chris was filling the lady in on his last visit......:-)

the sky was turning "pink"......:-)

and the sun was still trying to break through the smog........wow.....I just discovered that my camera lense was dirty and I had nothing to clean it with.......:-(.  Sorry 

We decided to take a short detour and visit the locks and see if we could spot any big ships coming through.....  NOPE......not a one.  Just a few little boats fishing.

But we did see these just above us where we were parked.....they are Basalt cliffs.  Basalt is the kind of rock that these are and they are used for retaining embankments along the highways and for road construction in some places......(Christo told me that).....:-). 

You can't really see the tiny boats in the water, but they were there...

We decided that we had lost enough time between potatoe donut stops and this so we started across the bridge......

I've always liked bridges as they speak to me of "transition"........:-)

and then.......BOOM!  We had made it to Idaho!  Home of the famous potatoe...ha



Christo celebrated out progress by devouring one of his donuts! hahah 

We drove for hours and saw a lot of NOTHING......I could not believe how much uninhabited land there is ..........then we started see some water.......this is the "Snake River"..........

Then it was time for lunch.......I'm getting worried about this fast food habit.  But there is no room in the car for anything else.  We have a small cooler for water and milk to make our own coffee in the mornings......Anyw, we ended up here for lunch, but ate in the car.

 

It wasn't a large lunch.....just a couple of egg rolls and some water....ha

After 10 hours of driving, it was time to call it a day..  We stopped at a Walmart super store and picked up a couple of things to heat in the microwave and came back to this hotel that we spotted on the way in.....this looked like a good idea...ha.  I am road weary and could use an egg-cellent breakfast in the morning! 

  

We got checked in and was glad to have a nice place to sleep again.......4:30am comes early!

Chris started checking mail on his new phone and started heating up dinner......



I wrote my "drive report" and headed for bed!  Good night.....