Mountain Home
Having completed his tech training, my son is now stationed in Mountain Home, Idaho. In between, he took some leave, visited home and friends in NC and Virginia. Having a number of possessions he needed to get to his new base, including a car, he opted to drive. It is a tough trip, and doing so alone would have made it tougher, so I surveyed my options and decided to take the opportunity travel with him. I’m glad I did.
Technology made a big part of my decision. We had three GPS capable devices, one a dedicated device that was the one we mostly used, and two cell phones that have GPS capability that we used to plan minor excursions such as finding gas, food, and lodging. I also have a MIFI and was on-line much of the time when I wasn’t driving. I generally took the morning shift... roughly 6am to noon, and he took the afternoon shift: noon to 6pm. After 6pm we switched off. This allowed me to be on-line a good portion of the work day.
Our trip started through Greensboro which is a place we visit occasionally as it contains a number outlet malls. Not much new there, at least not to me.
From there, we headed up to Charleston, which was the first time I had been there. We didn’t stop, and based on the view from the highway it appeared that Charleston largely consists of all of the chain stores that you see in pretty much every US city. Note: I have good friends who are from there and are proud of their city who just may end up reading this, so take this review with a grain of salt. :-)
Next up was Louisville which was the biggest surprise. Again we didn’t stop, but from the road, we saw a city with lots of cranes (implying a vibrant city and growth) and most of the buildings looked like they had interesting architectures, bordering on whimsy. And there was even a sky-scraper sized baseball bat. Co-existing with all of this was plenty of bridges that once served trains or car traffic, but now were abandoned, in disrepair, and often incomplete. In all, it looked like a city worth getting to know.
On to St. Louis. 30 minutes east of St. Louis there essentially is nothing. Inside of St. Louis is a large thriving city with everything you would expect, including at least one large casino. The Mississippi river wasn’t as large here as I would have expected. West of St. Louis there are sprawling suburbs. In all, St. Louis looked like a city worth visiting as it has something for everyone. And, yes, Shelley, I did wave. I hope I got the direction right.
Next up was Kansas City where we spent the night. Kansas City looks to be at least three cities... two on the Missouri side, and one on the Kansas side. We slept at an embassy suites, which allowed me to check my email in the morning while allowing my son to sleep in a bit. The surrounding area was an eclectic mix of buildings from the 1960s, 1920s and nineteenth century, much with a theme of stagecoaches and other western themes. That didn’t match our tastes, but as we headed out in the morning, we saw a more modern city (with skyscrapers) and then onto Kansas (the state) where there was a smaller city.
Instead of heading onto Omaha and then across all of Nebraska and Wyoming without much of a chance for a break, we headed to Topeka. East of Topeka there are some gentle rolling hills and trees. West of Topeka there is straight road, amber waves of grain as far as the eye could see in 360 degrees, with an occasional random tree. Driving this was mind numbing. The only breaks were unintentional humor (Leavenworth being the last “free exit”, and random signs by the religious far right interspersed by signs for Brown vs the Board of Education museum). That and a few windmills. Kansas also had long stretches of road where one lane was blocked off by cones, with lowered speed limits and dire warnings about fines and jail time if you hit a worker... and not a worker to be seen anywhere. All in all, a bit maddening in every sense of the word.
Next up: Denver. Again, 30 miles east of the city you see virtually no signs of civilization. Get to the city, and you have a mix of blue collar and fine arts. From what we saw, however, the city was mostly a meh. Biggest surprise was that we still hadn’t seen any mountains. North of the city apparently is a bit more affluent... we saw Wal-Marts housed in impressive stone buildings as well as majestic overpasses.
The plans were to spend the night at Cheyenne, but those plans changed. The first hotel I went into I stood in line, and when it got my turn, the phone rang, the clerk asked me to wait a minute, and then proceeded to give the last room in the hotel to the person on the phone. I went to the next hotel, and was told that there was no rooms. I asked for recommendations, and the clerk there looked at me like this was the first time anybody had ever asked her this question, and told me she didn’t know. It didn’t help that there was snow on the ground, it was 38 degrees and dropping, with 100% humidity in the form of dense fog.
We continued on to Laramie. This was a white knuckled affair - dark, foggy, down hill, high speed, and there seldom were guard rails. Hotel was fine, and we slept soundly. In the morning we continued on and if anything it was worse. At this point it was raining, and being able to see only triggered my acrophobia. That’s not hyperbole: I was terrified, and often driving 45 MPH in a 75 MPH zone, getting routinely passed. By Rawlins, the road mostly straightened out, and what we saw was a tundra and hilly version of Kansas, without the humor. And we realized then that we nearly had made a significant tactical error. Not only did we risk our lives on this road, we could have gotten stuck there. Unlike in the north east where the policy is to plow the roads when it snows, here the policy is to shut down the highways. Apparently we were lucky enough to plan our trip between snowstorms.
My final stop was Salt Lake City, a city that I regret that I didn’t get to see more of as I had a plane to catch. The scenery was gorgeous, a stark contrast to the portions of Colorado and Montana that we got to see. My son’s parting words when he dropped me off was “that was more fun than I thought it would be”.
I have to agree.