Road Trips and Hike Reports

My Dad's flight out of KC was at 6:05 am. So we did our best to get to bed before 8 pm on Friday night.  We were awake slightly before our 3 am alarm time.  We got to the airport before 4 am so my Dad certainly had plenty of time to navigate through it.  I headed East on I-435 from the airport then south on MO-291 and South on I-470 until I got to US-50.  I then stayed on US-50 all the way through Missouri until it dumps onto I-44 in the far Western suburbs of Saint Louis.  To get around STL I took I-44 East to I-270 and eventually I-255 and finally a few miles on I-64 until that road crossed US-50.  Then I drove all of IL and IN on US-50 East. I had hoped to make it as far as Cincinatti OH before calling it a night Saturday but as it started to get dark, my 13 hours of being awake with a short night of sleep the night before suddenly seemed like plenty even though I still had a few dozen miles of Indiana left before entering Ohio.  I stayed in the small city of North Vernon Indian

As with the rest of the high mileage days, we started pretty early.  Being Thanksgiving, there were VERY VERY few things open in rural Nebraska. We looked at the very few franchised fast food places we passed but none of them were open and we didn’t see any diners or cafes open either.  Finally, at Grand Island (about 110 miles into our trip) we found a truck stop with a few choices.  It was just barely adequate grub but it was nice to have anything. As we continued our long drive south on US-281, I spotted an unexpected sign and had to turn back.  A very brief drive down a not quite even a mile long KS-191 and we were at the dead end where the monument, complete with a chapel, flag and various other tributes to the geographic center of the contiguous 48 United States .  It was fiercely windy and while the temperature was allegedly 40, it felt frigid in that wind.  I took a handful of pics and did a FaceTime with Brian, my Dad mostly stated in the vehicle. After the monument, which is

Today went very well.  I didn't expect to do much except drive and drive the first 2 days out of Oregon but I had hopes to have a little out of the car time in Nebraska.  Today we headed out around 8 am and drove to Scottsbluff NE by 10:30 am.  We spent a bit of time in the museum including watching their introductory film.  Afterwards, I walked to the top of the bluff which is a wonderful 1.6 mile hike that goes from the museum to the top of the bluff, gaining 435 feet along the way.  My father met me at the top in the rental vehicle and we walked around the top of the bluff to enjoy the overlooks together. Lunch was at a bar/restaurant that had a big BBQ sign outside.  We expected to have some great BBQ but in reality, the only remotely BBQ thing on the regular menu was pulled pork. We both had burgers and potato salad.  It was very basic and filling. After Scottsbluff we drove East a long ways along US-26, US-385, NE-2, NE-7 and US-20.  It was all perfectly nice conditions with

Finding time that aligns with available cell phone or wi-fi coverage has been tough this past 4 days.  My time in Eugene went by very quickly.  I helped my family with a few minor computer tasks on Saturday mostly.  We had some good meals and my step-mother participated in a swap meet type sale that my Dad and I helped deliver and remove merchandise from at the start and end of the day on Sunday.  The trip to move the furniture started VERY early Monday morning. We left before 6 am and headed briefly south on I-5 then east on OR-58 to US-97, North on US-97 briefly then south on OR-31 to Lakeview.  From there we took OR and eventually NV-140 down to Winnemucca.  After lunch and a brief casino visit, we drove east on a nearly empty I-80 to Elko where we had another casino visit and dinner.  The end point for our day was a topic of much discussion and ultimately, we stayed in Wendover Utah which is an interesting contrast with West Wendover Nevada which is largely dominated by casinos.  W

After being up for about 20 hours on Wednesday, I slept like the dead but also woke up very early since my body clock was very out of sorts.  I headed out from my John Day hotel towards Redmond while it was still dark out and towards the end of my 2+ hour drive I got to enjoy the sunrise over the Ochoco mountains.  The Eastern side of the pass was badly burned a year or two ago but it made for wide sweeping views.  It was interesting that as soon I as I crested the pass (and entered Crook county) it was as if there had never been a fire. They look to have used the summit as a fire line and it worked. It’s great seeing the snow capped mountains, part of the enormity of the Western landscape that I miss living in New York. When I arrived in Redmond it was great to see my mother and step-father.  It was very foggy all day on Thursday which is truly a rare condition in the high desert where sun and dry tend to rule.  We went into Bend to eat at Cafe Yumm, a chain that started in Eugene and