Road Trip Part 1 - Washington to Oklahoma, 2200 Miles and Counting...

Oh my, what a week it’s been – has it only been a week?  Wow… well a lot to write about and in the hopes that I do not bore you all to pieces, I will try to skim through the high points.

Finishing up packing, selling, donating, trashing, and recycling all my stuff just about wiped me out.  I had the amazing help of Richard and Kathryn Beck who valiantly took some time to help a poor weak-kneed lady move what she had left into storage.  So yay for downsizing!  Now everything I own is in this storage unit or in the trunk of my Corolla, Raptor One.

July 9

Once I finished cleaning my apartment and dropping off a rice cooker in the U District, I headed out east on my way to Spokane.  It was a half day of driving, which was good because I was starting at 2pm.  I have to say I was a bit sad leaving Seattle; it finally hit me that I wouldn’t see my Needle for quite awhile.  But once I hit Bellevue I whooped and hit the top of my car and zoomed on.  Time for adventure!  Starting in…. Spokane!

First stop was at a nice house outside Spokane in Mead, WA.  It was your run of the mill AirBnB except for this amazing garden the owner had been working on for years.  I had a chance to walk around and take some pictures in the morning as well as visit his chickens and rabbit behind the waterfall.

July 10

I reached Glacier National Park about noon, paid my entrance, and began the slow drive on the Going-to-the-Sun Road.  At first I will admit I was a bit impatient to get to the top of the mountain, nodding at streams and rivers and lakes, setting my cruise control at a normal pace.  Once I began to climb upwards I found myself stopping more and more often.  The views were OUTSTANDING.  The pictures just don’t do it justice, the depth and scale of these mountains and drop offs was something I had never seen before.  Wildflowers dotted the landscape – red, yellow, white, and purple.  I loved the “Weeping Wall” where hundreds of streams of water ran down an outcropping and really looked like the rock wall was crying.  Once I slowed to reach Logan’s Pass I noticed all of these cars were stopped in the road and swarms of children were approaching my car.  My first thought was, lock the doors Sarah, you don’t know what these “youths” are going to do.  Then I realized they were pointing up and above my car off to the side.  I followed their outstretched hands and saw a mountain goat, not six feet from my car with… a BABY MOUNTAIN GOAT.  It was like Christmas come early.  I snapped a shot or two of them before they disappeared behind the hill, probably sick of the paparazzi.  What a treat!

Well nothing could top a baby mountain goat, nothing.  But there were plenty more amazing views after that.  The east side of Glacier was very different, purple rocks dominated the paths and there were a lot more dead trees.  Most of the pull offs were closed for construction so I pulled over at a boat launch and got a few pictures.  I almost thought this area was the prettiest of the whole afternoon.

Once I left Glacier I traveled down 89 South for such a long time I thought I was lost, there were no other cars on the road and the sky started darkening just a bit with rain clouds.  Thankfully I found my way through an Indian Reservation or two and saw some familiar road signs.  I drove to Simms where my next room was awaiting me – at Bloom Ranch.

When I arrived at the ranch I was taken aback, I didn’t realize the Blooms actually owned the ranch.  I turned in their driveway and crawled up the 2.5 miles to their ranch house which sat silent and dark.  No one seemed to be there except four farm dogs who seemed too tired for more than a tail wag or two.  I found my way to the bunkhouse where I was staying and holed myself up in there for the night. 

I did have some wild dreams that the Blooms came into the Bunkhouse to introduce themselves to me… while I was still laying in bed.  They pulled up chairs and were telling me stories about their ancestors who lived on the ranch generations ago.  Very friendly, but very awkward since I was… still in bed.  When I actually woke up and packed my things, the actual owner (who looked nothing like dream Mr. Bloom) called me over to have coffee and cookies for breakfast.  Really nice guy, told me he had gone to New Zealand for a month or two to learn new grazing rotation practices and what he learned there had been invaluable to his business.

July 11

Day three of the road trip was basically driving without any stops.  I did have a chance to relish driving through Montana and seeing that big beautiful sky.

My room for the night was nestled near Devil’s Tower in Wyoming… in a tipi.  Hell yes.  It’s tipi time folks.  I made it to Devil’s Tower near sunset and was welcomed warmly by the tipi campground owner Juliana who showed me to my tipi… yes MY tipi… for the night.  She had set up a sleeping pad with pillows, there was a camping stove and coffee/mugs for the morning.  I felt just like Pocahontas. 

Juliana told me some wonderful stories about how Devil’s Tower was named.  The one I remember best involved sisters being chased by a bear and asking the Great Spirit to help them.  So he raised the tower and the bear clawed and clawed (which explains the marks on the tower) but he couldn’t reach them.  They thanked the Great Spirit and then asked him how they were supposed to get down, so he put them in his hands and raised them into the sky where they became the Seven Sisters Constellation. 

So now it’s time for night and I’m not going to sugar coat this... something terrifying happened.  I was so excited and happy to be in my tipi, futzing around and getting ready for bed.  Juliana had warned me that sometimes field mice came in but not to worry, they would leave me alone if I didn’t bring food into the tipi.  Okay.  I turned out the lantern and nestled into my sleeping pad, looking forward to communing with the Great Spirit.  The following is a loose transcript as to what happened next:

Me: Sigh, good night tipi!

Rustle rustle rustle

Me: Wh.. what’s that?

Rustle rustle rustle

Me: Oh… that must be the mice, it’s cool, it’s cool. 

RUSTLE RUSTLE RUSTLE [patter of little feet]… … … BAM!

Me: What the WHAT!

[Orchestra swells, rustling increasing to a crescendo and all of a sudden comes from multiple locations around the tipi]

Me: AW, HELLLLLLLL NO.

[Light turns on and I see three mice zooming around the tipi like pinballs]

Fade out to the black night with a silent tipi and one long, loud scream.

Yup, so that’s about how that night started.  I stayed up with the mice for about two hours watching them, studying them, trying to figure out how this was going to work.  I read some, I attempted to meditate, I contemplated sleeping in the car.  But NO dammit, I was going to sleep in this tipi.  Finally I was so tired I fell asleep with two flashlights on and gave in, let them come.  I have been defeated…. [rustle rustle rustle]

I woke up and they were STILL AT IT.  But at this point, I was packing up and ready to leave.  I was a little worse for the wear, but I had successfully survived Mousescapades 2015, and I was proud of that.

July 12

After my less than restful night, I realized what a long day of driving I had ahead.  I stopped at the first rest stop in South Dakota to freshen up and to get a map for Mt. Rushmore.  Ed, the friendly vet who was manning the information booth gave me some great direction (or so I thought) and recommended that I also see Crazy Horse and take this nice leisurely drive through Custer National Park… which he said wouldn’t take me any more time than my original route.  [This proved to be false.]  He also got excited when he saw an American flag on my shirt and then pulled his hand away and gasped when he saw it also said “Stonewall Democrats.”  He started sputtering and just walked away, he wouldn’t even make eye contact with me after that.  So that led me to believe South Dakota is rather conservative, which did prove to be true. 

I had a nice breakfast at Perkins – very weird to sit by yourself at a four-top table during the after-church crowd.  I got a few looks from the seniors as to what in the hell I was doing taking up a four-top at peak time.  Luckily I only took about 20 min to drink a cup of coffee and eat two eggs before I relinquished my table to four overly eager gentlemen.  Then I was mowed down by a lady in a walker on her way to the cash register.  Had she had a hand free I’m sure she would have given me the finger.  So at this point I’m a little wary of South Dakota.

Drive through SD on the way to Rushmore was really nice, I could already see the change in landscape, redder soil, shorter hills, and even the trees were changing.  It was a very warm day and I stopped a few times to stretch my legs in Black Hills National Park.  

I was shocked when I arrived in Keystone (where Mt Rushmore is) to see how crowded and touristy it was.  It was insane.  Ice cream parlors, fudge shops, old timey western photos, wine tasting, saloons, souvenir shops, biker bars, wood carving demonstrations, it was like a freaking circus.  I took the turn to go up to Rushmore thinking there would be a few stopovers and then realizing this was untrue once I was ushered past the gate where the fee is collected (word to the wise, if you go, there is ONE turnoff right before this area for like 3 cars, stop there if you want to take a free picture).  I did stop where you can see Washington’s profile.  SQUISH!

Because I didn’t pay the entrance fee for Rushmore I decided to pay it for Crazy Horse, not realizing the statue isn’t even complete!  There is no horse to see, hahaha, joke’s on me.  I did go around and see some of their exhibits.  What struck me the most was the art done by Woody Crumbo, it was just beautiful.

Now I was ready to get back to the highway.  I had lingered too long.  Unfortunately I didn’t realize Mr. Democrat Hating South Dakotan Ed had told me to take a way that took me through four parks.  As in four toll ways to pay for 5 miles of driving each.  I was so tired of going 20 miles an hour behind bison searching minivans that as soon as I found a road I thought was out of the park I floored it… and got pulled over by a Park Ranger three minutes later - my first speeding ticket, ever.  Oh I was so pissed, you have no idea.  The park ranger told me it took so long to look me up because the state of Washington said I didn’t exist (well that was nice) and that normally because I had such a good attitude about the whole thing he would let me go… but Sturgis was next week and they wanted to set a good example.  Uh, great.  I drove away (at the right speed) and pulled over to collect my thoughts when I noticed to the right of me there was some movement.  I slowly turned my head and saw at least twenty prairie dogs in attention on their hills observing me.  I would like to name this moment “Prairie Dog Companion.”  I thought they were statues until they slowly lowered themselves into the hill except for one, the largest one, the wisest one.  He communed with me, I believe that and he told me it would be okay with his little prairie dog mind.  (Very hard to get up close pictures of these guys, but here is one of "The Wise One.")

I also chatted with my friend Kate who was familiar with the Tipi Mousefest story and wisely told me that the Park Ranger was probably a thousand mice camouflaged in a Park Ranger’s outfit, nicknamed Mouse Cop.  After a good laugh I felt okay enough to continue on (at the right speed of course).

I was able to see some bison before I left the park.  It was pretty cool to see them in person and not try to shoot them while playing Oregon Trail.  Oh yeah, and there were BABY BISON!  Again, what a treat!

And I was STILL so far from my next spot.  At this point it was coming on 3PM and I had at least seven hours of driving with a time change in there somewhere.  But I rallied, with the help of the Avett Brothers and a lot of caffeine I drove through the rest of South Dakota and across most of the state of Nebraska before reaching Kearney.  The last hundred miles was in the dark (something I hadn’t done yet on this trip seeing as how the days are so long).  I had 100 miles left when I noticed dots of light all around my car, lightning bugs!  There were hundreds of lightning bugs all around the highway, it was beautiful.  I felt like a star ship going through light speed.  Then I started noticing that not only was a traveling through the lightning bugs, I was also murdering dozens of lightning bugs with my windshield.  That was not a proud moment.  Raptor One had morphed from a bad ass star ship to a cruising corpse mobile.

Thankfully I reached Kearny so tired I couldn’t feel too bad about the dead lightning bugs.  I got into my room and almost cried with joy seeing a flat screen, normal bed with clean sheets (and no mice) and a shower.  It was nice to be back in civilization.

July 13

Today was basically driving due south through Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma.  The temperature increased steadily, especially once I hit Kansas.  Lots of corn fields on either side, but no dead baseball players came out to say hello (or creepy children). 

I was lucky enough to stumble on the World’s Largest Ball of Twine in Cawker City, KS.  I took a few pictures but there was really nothing else to do. 

As I approached Oklahoma things started to get more and more familiar (as I was finally reaching known territory).  Pulling into Stillwater felt like coming home.  My Aunt Laura and Uncle Ted greeted me once I arrived at their house and put together a great dinner and led me to the “most comfortable bed in the world.”  I am not joking; I seriously considered never leaving it once I sat on top of it.  There is nothing like family after time spent on the road!

July 14

More family time today.  I finally had the chance to take a day off without driving anywhere new.  I got to spend some quality time with my grandmother and my aunt and uncle.  My succulents started wilting in the car due to the temperature creeping towards 113 F (inside the car).  I pulled them out and hope they survive the rest of the trip.

Tomorrow I drive to Bartlett, TN to stay at a Suburban Farm.  I am driving through Arkansas, so wish me luck!