Day 2 on the Alaskan Highway

     Milepost, the bible of Alaskan Highway travelers seems to try to scare its readers, warning of all kinds of difficulties, from rock slides to long construction delays to snow closures.  Anyone who complains about the Alaskan Highway has never driven across Mexico.   So far the road has been fine; yes, I did say so far, and you'll hear about any problems that befall us down the road.  To be sure, it's not an interstate; it resembles a not-so-great winding rural road in the US.  And we drove about 400 miles on it today.  The last 200 of those miles crosses the Rocky Mountains, so we had lots of ups and down and curves, requiring us to drive somewhat slowly.  But, the scenery was so spectacular that no one would want to drive through it rapidly anyway. Besides that, if we had been going too fast, we might have missed the brown bear, freshly awake from his winter nap, happily eating berries by the side of the road.  Neat, eh?

     We saw a sign advertising a stuffed albino Moose at a museum in Fort Nelson.  Who could resist that?  So, now we have seen the world's largest steer, the largest stump and an albino moose.  Those three sights alone would make our whole trip worthwhile.  We also got to see a 20 minute movie, which I think was produced in the 1940's by the US Army, about the building of the Alaskan Highway.  They built it in 20 months…all 1500 miles of it.   According to the movie it was built to get supplies to Alaska to "protect it from the Japs" and they even used "colored soldiers who did a good job" on the project.  For Marcella and I, seeing the movie and learning the history of the road (in spite of the Japs and colored soldiers) makes driving its 1500 miles even more exciting.

     Tonight we are staying at a beautiful lodge on an even more beautiful lake called Muncho Lake.  No, I didn't make that name up and I have no idea who did.  The lake is all of five miles long, surrounded by high peaks and, strangely, the water is crystal clear up close, but when you view it from a distance, it's the most unique aqua color which, I'm told, is caused by minute runoff particles from the glaciers.  They use a large generator for electricity here and food for the restaurant is delivered by a truck twice a week from Edmonton, which is 800 miles away.  Where there's a will…    We will gas up in the morning since this is the only fuel to be had within a hundred or more miles in either direction. 

Glacier, Banff and Jasper

     This area received 275 percent more snow than normal this year.  Spring thaws have to go somewhere.  That, along with excessive spring rains have caused flooding everywhere.  It has rained some part of the day for each of the thirteen days that we have been on the road.  We drove into Glacier National Park, where rain at lower elevations produces snow up there where we were.  Every road that we ventured down was closed because of snow. For some reason they didn't tell anybody that the road was closed ahead until you had driven ten or twelve miles on it.  It would have made since to put up the barrier at the beginning instead of the end.  At any rate we had no choice but to turn around and head for Canada.  The border crossing was an easy one; just a few routine questions and we were on our way north to Calgary where we spent the night   

    In the morning we headed west toward Banff National Park.  The weather was somewhat cloudy, but they were high clouds and it was still very bright.  As we traveled into the park, the mountains were only partially blocked by the clouds and mostly the views were amazing.  We stopped at The Banff Avenue B & B, to say hello to friends of our friend from Sarasota, Bob Collins.  We met Jamie and Connie, and Connie's son, Kyle.  We so enjoyed meeting them.  Jamie MacVicor is the author of a new book called Advance Man which is about his experiences as the person who makes the arrangements for the soon-to-arrive circus. Our friend Bob was also an advance man for Ringling Bros Barnum and Bailey Circus.
     We left Banff, heading north toward Jasper.  There really are no adequate words to describe that ride.  You'd have to be a great poet or writer, or perhaps a composer to come close to telling the story.  The peaks are snow covered, sometimes glaciated, stick straight up to the heavens...just spectacular.  Each scene is as astonishingly beautiful as the one you just saw and that goes on for 200 miles.  We came across four bighorn sheep along the highway and they were kind enough to stand there while we took as many pictures as we wanted.  Those curly horns are amazing.  Then, later on we saw an elk, then another, then still another, each standing by the road munching on grass.  Their antlers are covered in velvet and not too big yet.
     Eventually we headed out of the park east toward Hinton.  We'll never forget this day's ride.  We are staying here in Hinton tonight and will continue toward Dawson Creek and the Alaska Highway tomorrow.

Sunday, May 29   

     We had kind of a tiring day today, near its end finally getting on to the long-awaited Alaska Highway.  On our way we saw a momma black bear with three very small adorable cubs, but they scurried off into the brush before we could get their picture.  And we also saw a moose which was too far enough off the road to get a good look.  So, indeed, we're seeing lots of wildlife...that's what we came to see.  We drove about fifty miles on the Alaska Highway landing for the night in Fort St. John.  So far the road is just fine, but if what I read is true, that's not always the case.  I'll let you know.

     Canadian gasoline is about $5 per gallon.  Not surprising, gas cost more in Middletown, NY than anywhere else on the trip across the entire country.

May 25 and 26 - rain, rain go away

     May 25...we got a late start out of Gillette, Wyoming; we first had to get the oil changed and tires rotated.  The fellow at the station told Derek about road closings on I-90 due to flooding. Of course, it was exactly in the direction we were heading.  I-90 was open as far as Sheridan, WY where we stopped for lunch at Subway.  There were two police officers having lunch there so Derek asked them what they knew about the road closing.  Sure enough, they said, the interstate was definitely closed.  We needed to take a 100-mile detour through a little town called Greybull, then back to I-90 towards the Montana border.  It wove through the Blackhills National Forest and we couldn't have chosen a more beautiful road if we tried.  As we wove our way through the mountains, at one point we came to a huge patch of white.  "Is that snow?" I exclaimed as I grabbed my I-phone to take pictures.  "It sure is", Derek said as I clicked away.  Immediately after that we went around a bend and it was snow city...a true winter wonderland!  We continued up, up, up some more, to the top of the mountain and stopped at the Burgess Junction Visitor's Center.  There had to be two or three feet of snow on the ground and the ranger told us that it had snowed 15 inches on the weekend, closing the road. (pic 1)  Fortunately the road was now clear and we were surrounded by beautiful, huge sloping fields of snow and tall pines. 

     As we came down off the other side of the mountain we emerged into a totally different red-rock canyon with a stream teeming with spring run-off roaring alongside the road.  And, sunshine!!  As we neared the Montana border we hit a 30-minute stretch of dirt road...make it mud road.  It was the proverbial washboard road and by the time it ended our blue car was brown.  Then, a bit further along, we had to crawl through a foot of water that flooded the road.  We finally got to I-90 at Laurel, Montana and that is where we spent the night.  Mother Nature had entertained us once again with snow, rain, flood, and even a bit of wonderful sunshine.  We tucked in excited, tired, happy.

Marcella

     May 26...We got on I-90 west, knowing full well that we might encounter more flooding.  It was all over the local TV.  In fact, I-90 east was closed right where we were heading.  Sure enough, a hundred miles down the road, a foot of muddy water covered our lane and the east-bound side was closed for good reason; it was under much deeper water. (pic 2) We went through two such places before getting off the interstate and heading north on Rt 89 toward Great Falls.  It was a beautiful ride, sunny but cold, getting down to 30 degrees.  Then, off in the distance we could see what looked like snow falling out of a cloud. (pic 3) It was bizarre looking.  Eventually we drove underneath that cloud and indeed it snowed on us.  It was mixed with some rain and didn't stick, but it was kind of exciting if not a little worrisome.  And, somehow the sun managed to continue shining all around us.  Go figure!

     I've gotten more interested in Lewis and Clark since we've been, more or less, following their trail, so I bought a copy of their journals which I've just started reading.  So, we went to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center this afternoon here in Great Falls.  It's a very well-done presentation and we learned a tremendous amount about them and their journey.  Most people were surprised when they returned after 28 months...everybody thought they were dead...rightfully so.  Those guys were pretty cool.

     Great Falls, Montana has the distinction of frequently being the coldest place in the lower 48.  It's in the low 40's outside our window right now.  If it snows tonight, I'm going back to Florida tomorrow.

Derek

May 24 - Gillette, Wyoming - We survived the apocalypse

     We were close enough to Mt. Rushmore that we changed our mind and decided to go see it.  It was foggy as a glass of milk when we left Rapid City and it didn't change any when we got to Mt. Rushmore.  We paid the outrageous $11 parking fee and walked to the viewing area.  See that picture of me?  If you squint your eyes up real tight, maybe you can see just a hint of Jefferson just over my right shoulder.  Yeah, right…not a chance!  Fortunately, we saw it in bright sunshine a few years ago.  We went through the museum and watched a short movie about the building of the monument; all in all we had a nice time in spite of the fog.  I felt sorry for the busloads of senior citizens and Baptist church groups who came from who knows where and got to see only fog. 

     We left and drove through more constant fog to Devil's Tower, a hundred miles away, fully expecting that we wouldn't be able to see anything there either.  As we drove into the visitor's center the fog suddenly disappeared and was replaced by this beautiful blue sky.  It didn't lift, it just seemed to move aside for two or three hours, until Derek and Marcella were through doing their thing.  Cecil B. DeMille could have filmed it for one of his epic movies, like the parting of the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments.  What luck…it was unbelievable.  Put Devil's tower in the place where you scratched out the Corn Palace from your bucket list yesterday.  Adjectives like amazing, incredible and fantastic are hardly enough to describe it.  For me, it's right up there with the Grand Canyon.  We walked the mile and a half trail around the base gazing upward the whole time.  We talked to some climbers who climbed the tower yesterday, but held off today because of the weather.  It's over 900 feet high and comprised of vertical flutes and requires a lot of technical skill to scale.   We sat on a bench to rest and were joined by a man, a friendly sort, perhaps in his sixties.  As we were talking, he was fumbling with a piece of copper wire and a pair of little pliers.  As we got up to leave he handed Marcella the neatest wire hummingbird that he had formed right there in only a few minutes.  It's a great little gift and we have it stashed away in my ukulele case for safe keeping.  Devil's Tower was the very first national monument (1906) and I can understand why it was chosen.  I mean it, you need to make this monument a must see.  To use the vernacular, it's totally awesome!

     As we drove away, we could see black storm clouds looming on the horizon, not all that far away.  The sky got blacker and blacker and lightning zigzagged as we drove closer to the storm.  Shortly after we turned onto I-90 it all unloaded on us.  We had to pull over to the side of the road along with everyone else.  Neither Marcella nor I have ever seen it rain so hard in all our lives.  Pea sized hail also pummeled our car, accumulating on the road at least two or three inches deep, with rivers of water forming ditches in the ice. (It's the photo in the upper right...I haven't figured out how to move them around yet.)  I started to wonder if those wackos that were predicting the apocalypse were just off by a few days.  After about fifteen minutes it let up and we were able to drive away at a crawl, carefully driving over the ice on the road.  A few miles down the road and we were back in the clear.  The sky in our rear view mirror was black as midnight and looked amazingly like one of those storm chaser scenes that you see on the Weather Channel.  Glad it was behind us.

     At some time today we crossed into Wyoming.  Interestingly, the only rural roads that have speed limits here are the interstate highways - 75 MPH.  Otherwise you can go as fast as you dare on all the others.  We make pretty good time.

     We landed for the night in Gillette, Wyoming.  It has been quite a day.  Incidentally, we've spent every night so far in a Super 8 motel.  Every one of them has been perfectly clean, comfortable and inexpensive.  I think they've improved over the old days; every one seems to have been recently renovated.  They all have free internet and breakfast (which Marcella doesn't like, but I do).  Prices have varied between $39 and $59 and we belong to some Wyndham rewards program that gives us a free night for every eight that we pay for.
Derek

May 24, Rapid City, SD - reporting yesterday's activities - light drizzly rain this morning

     We saw the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD this morning.  It's only redeeming value is the free admission.  It's my opinion that you should scratch it off your bucket list. 

     . . .so Derek says and I agree.  But let me start from the beginning of our day.  Let's see, today is Monday, May 23^rd.  We left Omaha pretty early—before 7:30 AM.  We headed north on I-29 and picked up I-90 at Sioux Falls.  Once we were on I-90 which runs straight as an arrow across South Dakota, we flew…the speed limit was 75 mph which means we drove at least 80!  I drove for a couple of hours.  We reached Mitchell around 11:30, the home of the infamous Corn Palace.  After a short visit to the palace, we had lunch at Taco John's.  We were looking for a Wendy's, but there wasn't one in Mitchell.  After lunch, I took the wheel again and we continued to zoom west.  It was a beautiful day with big blue skies, fluffy white clouds and plenty of sunshine. I was hoping to see buffalo roaming and antelope playing but all we saw were occasional cows.  The landscape here in South Dakota was flat during the first part of the day but turned into rolling hills later on and, of course, spring is here and the hills are covered in soft green.  So yummy for the cattle I'm sure.  When we got nearer to the western part of the state, we got off of I-90 and headed down toward the Badlands…not too far from Rapid City (not too far being about 80 miles).  On route to the Badlands we stopped at a prairie homestead.  At the beginning of the 20^th century anyone who wanted was given a 160 acre homestead.  We took a little tour of an old sod house...a soddy.  Very interesting and hard to imagine how tough life was back in those old days.  By 1916, many of the homesteaders had given up and moved out, frequently back to where they came from.  On the prairie homestead property there were scads of prairie dogs.  I always imagined them to be brown critters but they are very light—almost white.  The babies (pups, kits?) were a bit darker.  They're really cute and although I'm sure they are used to tourists, they don't let you get too close before they disappear into their burrows.  They also like to scold intruders.

    The Badlands are amazing.  Mother Nature has done some of her best work here.  The wind and rain has, over the millenniums, carved beautiful formations with spires and pinnacles in creamy shades of beige, taupe, gray, tan, etc….all those warm earth tones.  There are plenty of pull-ins where you can stop and walk on a trail to some amazing viewpoint of incredible rock formations or deep canyons.  No green until you get to the lower prairie area.  There, the little mesas have grassy green tops, not having been eroded into pointy grooved spires yet.  There are plenty of birds around and there must be snakes and creepy, crawly creatures too.  We saw  signs warning us to beware of rattlesnakes.  Oddly enough, near one of those trails, there was a little tiny "swampy" spot (yes, this was green) and we could hear frogs croaking.

     We made it into Rapid City around 6:30, both us pretty tired, but feeling as if we had a very good day.  Tomorrow we will go to see Devil's Tower in Wyoming…not so very far from here.  We've pretty much decided to skip Mt. Rushmore this time since we've seen it before, but we don't want to skip Devil's Tower, which we've seen before, because it is SO IMPRESSIVE.  After that we'll head northwest and probably cross over the Canadian border day after tomorrow.

Marcella

Sunday, May 22 - still in Omaha

     We'll leave Omaha tomorrow morning and head north on I-29 through Sioux City (of Sioux City Sue fame for those who know the song of at least sixty years ago..."Sioux City Sue, trade my horse and dog for you...") then pick up I-90 in South Dakota and head west. 

     We have had a memorable time here in Omaha, visiting Bill Witty, my office mate from 1969 at Arizona State University, along with his son, Will.  Yesterday we walked across the Missouri River, AKA Old Muddy, on a pedestrian bridge.  It's the longest river on the continent at 2341 miles, forming in Montana and joining the Mississippi in St. Louis.  We wandered around the old market in downtown Omaha for a while, but didn't buy anything. Today, we went to the DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge, which is actually just over the border in Iowa, the site of the sinking of the 187 foot, Missouri River steamship, Bertrand, in 1865.  It struck a snag and sank in twelve feet of water settling into the muddy bottom; fortunately everyone survived.  Over the years, the course of the river has shifted and in 1969, a couple of archeologists located the Bertrand a few hundred feet from the current river bed, buried under thirty feet of earth.  Excavation of the site began and over the next year, 250 tons of cargo, well preserved by the oxygen-free mud, was unearthed.  Since the steamship had been on its way from St. Louis to both the Montana gold fields and farms in the territory, it carried the tools and personal items needed by the settlers who were making new homes in the Montana Territory around present-day Helena.  The cache included shovels, plows, mining equipment, scales, clothing, shoes, carpenter's tools, clocks, door knobs, canned goods, lamps and candles, dishes and flatware, pots and pans…even intact bottles of Champaign.  The items from the Bertrand provide a uniquely accurate picture of nineteenth century America and the goods available to people on the frontier.  They did a nice job of cataloguing and displaying the items.

     As we were leaving the museum, we happened to see to a couple of fellows in a row boat fishing for carp in the river shallows with bows and arrows.  All of a sudden, one guy pulls back his bow and twang, the arrow, with string attached, goes into the water and he pulls out a fish at least two feet long.  Very cool!  It looked like a lot of fun and I'd like to try it someday.

     The value of getting together with old friends cannot be overestimated.  Seeing Bill meant more to Marcella and I than we could possibly have known.  Marcella cooked a farewell supper of meatloaf, mac & cheese and broccoli for all of us at Bill's house.  Bill has lived in his apartment for four years and it was the first time his oven was ever used.  That should tell you something about his eating habits.  The two men, both single, ate like it was their final meal on death row.  It was great…really great.

     Time to pack up and ready for the morning's travel.

Derek

Friday, May 20, Omaha, Nebraska

     Well, we have seen him.  Not Big Ben, which is, of course, a clock, but Old Ben which I mistakenly mislabeled.  Believe me, he could have rightfully have been called Big Ben…he weighed 4720 pounds and that's a lot of bull.  In the building next door to Ben is the stump, which is claimed as the world's largest Sycamore stump having a 23 foot circumference.  It was estimated to be 800 years old before the tree blew over in a storm.  And, we got to see the rest of Kokomo, which is only minimally impressive.  The Beach Boys, in their song about Kokomo, as it turns out were referring to a place, not in Indiana, but someplace off the Florida Keys.  Somebody should have told me that before I drove 200 miles out of my way to see it!  Actually, all in all, it was worth the trip out of our way and we're not complaining.

     West Lafayette, Indiana, home of the Purdue Boilermakers, was right on our way back north toward Interstate 80, so we drove around the campus a bit.  I hadn't been there since I finished my master's there in 1967.  There was almost nothing in West Lafayette that I recognized; most of the current campus wasn't even there when I left it 47 years ago and anything that wasn't new I seemed to have forgotten.  It was a little disappointing.

     From there we traveled due west on Rt. 24 crossing into Illinois.  We spent last night in a tiny town near Peoria called Chenoa and this morning headed north to get back onto I-80.  It was great to get off the interstate for a day and to pass through some of the small towns that make up rural Indiana and Illinois.  The farmland is unbelievable…beautiful freshly plowed fields, on both sides of the road, for as far as the eye can see.  The landscape is dotted with farm houses and barns that all seem to be well cared for, freshly painted with neat yards and flower gardens, and a noticeable lack of old cars, rusty farm implements and other junk laying around that I seem to see on most farms in my neighborhood.

     Once back on I-80 and heading west, we crossed into Iowa.  We were surprised at how the terrain changed from the very flat farmland of Indiana and Illinois to hilly countryside in Iowa, especially as we went further west.  There are still plenty of huge corn fields, one after another, but it's all up and down rather than on a plane.  We try to stop from time to time at rest areas, not only to do the obvious, but also to spend twenty minutes or so exercising.  We stretch and then walk around the complex a few times at a brisk pace.  Doing that three or four times a day makes a surprising difference in our energy level.  As we were zipping along the interstate, I happened to notice a sign for Grinnell, Iowa and remembered that our friend David Flood who lives in Hawaii, graduated from Grinnell College, as did David's son, Brian.  It was time to exercise, so we drove into town and walked around the small campus, stopping in the bookstore to pick up a post card to send to David.  He's always on my case because I never write so he'll be presently surprised.  Marcella also took my picture in front of Carnegie Hall, the college library, which was funded by Andrew Carnegie in 1905…so I guess there are two of them.  I wanted to go inside and sing a song so I could say I sang at Carnegie Hall…Marcella vetoed the idea.

     Finally, after driving through more torrents, we have arrived in Omaha, Nebraska where we'll spend three nights.  We crossed off two more states today that we hadn't been in before, Iowa and Nebraska.  Only Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, Montana, and Oregon to go and we will have been in all fifty.  We drove almost 500 miles today, so we're a bit tired.  We're meeting our friend, Bill Witty, tomorrow morning after breakfast.  I wonder if any of us have changed in the last 32 years.  Bill has a full day of activities planned for us so I'd better hit it.  Nite-nite.

May 19 - Ohio

May 19, 2011, 7:08 AM: Avery, Ohio, ten miles south of Sandusky:  Miles traveled 515. 

     Derek here:  Torrents!  That pretty much describes all of yesterday.  It rained all day with the exception of an hour at most, and the sun actually showed its welcome face for about ten minutes.  There were times when the rain came down so hard that we had to slow down and use our flashers.  We spent most of the day on I-80, traveling through the hilly countryside of Pennsylvania.  We passed a sign informing us that we were at the highest point on I-80 west of the Mississippi, at 2250 feet elevation.  The vegetation is incredibly beautiful, full of that lush springtime green that doesn't occur any other time of year; the rain makes the trees and fields seem to glow and show their color even more vividly.  Crayola needs to add a 65^th crayon to their big box of 64 called "springtime lush green in the rain." 

     I downloaded a free APP on my I-phone4 called "Gas Buddy."  It's pretty amazing…the screen shows our location on the road, and superimposed are little miniature gas pumps that show the price and also how current the pricing is; most info is only one hour old.  If you click on a pump it gives you directions how to get there.  Gas prices have hovered everywhere within a few cents of $3.80 per gallon…once we got out of tax hungry New York.

     We stopped for the night at a Super 8 along the Ohio Turnpike just south of Sundusky, Ohio which is on Lake Erie.  A few miles further south of us, in Milan, Ohio is the birthplace of Thomas Edison, which we wanted to visit, but it doesn't open until 1:00 PM, so we're going to miss it.  However, good news…Marcella has agreed to venture off the Interstate a couple of hundred miles and we'll head south to Kokomo, Indiana, the home of "Big Ben," the world's largest steer.  This critter died in 1902, I think, and someone had the good sense to stuff him for future generations to see.  And, if that's not enough, in the same complex that houses Ben is the world's largest Sycamore Stump.  Can't wait!  Haven't been this excited since my tenth birthday.  Is there anybody that doesn't like the sound of the word "Kokomo?"  It feels good rolling off your tongue. 

     After we see the steer and the stump, we plan to head back to I-80 going through West Lafayette, Indiana, the home of Purdue University, where I spent a couple of years in graduate school and also one summer teaching.  I haven't been back since I left in 1967.  I had a great job there as the night clerk at the Travel Lodge Motel until one night a fellow stuck the barrel of a 357 magnum revolver right against my nose.  I gave him the whole store.  The experience required a change of underwear.

We're leaving on Wednesday

         

     Well, we depart on our journey the day after tomorrow, Wednesday, May 18.  I can't believe how many last minute things I have forgotten to take care of…like having someone pick up our mail, canceling the newspaper, who's going to mow our lawn and water our vegetable garden, and all the rest of what seems like an endless to do list.    

     Alas, we have decided not to take our little Yorkie, Ernie with us.  Our preferred stopping places are B and B's and lodges and after looking through my copy of Milepost, the bible of all mainland US to Alaska travelers, we could find precious few places that were "pet friendly."  And, leaving him in the car while we are having dinner or looking at some attraction would be very worrisome for us.  So Ernie will be going to visit his cousin, Oliver, an adorable Pomeranian at Derek's brother's house.  If you can believe it, Oliver weighs only about half as much as Ernie, who barely tips the scales at five pounds.  To be sure, we'll miss our little tyke, but we can relax knowing that he's in good hands with Doug and Barbara.

     We have a Garmin Model 1490T GPS thingy that can do anything.  Regrettably, I know how to take advantage of only its most rudimentary features.  So, today I downloaded the instruction manual…all 63 pages of it and decided to read it.  By the time I got to page six, I had forgotten all of what was on pages one through five.  I gave up.  However, I was able to check it out and, indeed, it does include maps of Canada.  Yea!!  Hopefully, it won't leave us stranded somewhere in the far reaches of the Yukon.  I'm sure it has a little hand that comes out of the side of the machine and turns itself off at the end of each day, if only I knew how to access it.  I need to find some twelve-year-old to help me figure the stupid thing out.

     Our pile of absolutely necessary things to take on our trip is too big.  Way too big.  It takes up half of our living room.  We would need a moving van to haul it all.  So, we are now in the process of culling out the unnecessary…separating the wheat from the chaff so to speak.  I guess I don't really need to take that Boy Scout mess kit that I've hung onto for fifty years or those heavy cast iron frying pans.  We need to travel as lightly as possible and still bring everything that we're going to need.  Not as easy as it looks!  I probably should have gotten rid of that Boy Scout cooking kit forty-nine years ago.

     Hopefully, come Wednesday morning, our trusty GPS will get us from our home in Rock Hill onto I-80 in eastern Pennsylvania where we will stay for a very long time.  In fact, our first stop of any significance will be Omaha, Nebraska where we will visit with Derek's graduate school office mate, Bill, who we have not seen in 35 years.  Derek's brother, Doug, just recently attended the funeral of his college roommate whom he hadn't seen in many years.  They just never seemed to manage to get together.  Bill and I aren't going to wait that long.  I'll let you know if we see anything of interest between home and Omaha.  I've heard there are white squirrels in Onley, Illinois and my brother told me about the world's largest stuffed steer somewhere around there.  I may have to convince Marcella that those are things we need to see.  We're still not sure exactly where we will head in a northwesterly direction and cross the border into Canada.

     We plan to post our mileage for each day's travel and, like Thoreau, keep an accounting of our daily expenditures…unless we start spending too much and we want to keep it a secret!

Derek (and Marcella)