A quick and disappointing update to my Replacement UPS batteries and RefurbUPS.com post from last year. Unfortunately, one of the replacement UPS batteries from RefurbUPS has already died and the second one seems to be on the fritz as well. I contacted RefurbUPS through their website and haven’t heard back. That was 3 months ago. Once this one finally goes kaput I’ll be replacing it with an OEM battery.
I no longer recommend RefurbUPS.com.
My fiancé Rhonda and I have picked up and moved to Seattle so that she can pursue a job at Boeing working on their 787 Dreamliner. We opted to make the cross-country drive rather than fly. This series of posts will be a recap of our drive. Here’s our adventure…
Day 6 was our last and final day of driving cross-country from Atlanta to Seattle. It was our longest day of driving of the entire trip (well the longest planned day). We were leaving Twin Falls, ID for Seattle, over 600 miles and supposed to take over 10 hours.
We left the hotel around 8:30 AM, gassed up the truck, and hit the road. Rhonda had looked up the story behind Twin Falls before we left and read that the falls were actually worth seeing. I made a deal with her that if they were within 5 miles of our hotel we would take the detour to go see them. It turns out Shoshone Falls was only 4.7 miles away. It turns out Shoshone Falls is actually taller than Niagara Falls, interesting because Rhonda and I had visited Niagara about 6 months earlier.
After Shoshone Falls we made our away across the Perinne Bridge across the Snake River Canyon and were surprised to see someone jump off the bridge!
I read after the fact that just down from this bridge, Evel Knievel unsuccessfully tried to jump the Snake River Canyon on a motorcycle (see Wikipedia).
After the excitement of the falls and the BASE jumpers, the rest of the drive was pretty boring. The next notable bit of scenery came as we passed into Washington and saw hops fields on our way into Yakima Valley.
As we finished the drive into Seattle our excitement began to build as we thought of the coming weeks and months as we settled into our new home. Washington seemed to be the most beautiful stretch of the drive since we left Atlanta, undoubtedly influenced by our excitement. As we arrived in Seattle, the sun was shining and there was barely a cloud in the sky. We took it as a sign of things to come.
Total driving on our last day was over 600 miles and right around 10 hours.
My fiancé Rhonda and I have picked up and moved to Seattle so that she can pursue a job at Boeing working on their 787 Dreamliner. We opted to make the cross-country drive rather than fly. This series of posts will be a recap of our drive. Here’s our adventure…
The next morning I set out early to check the roads for our escape from Tetonia. The night before at least 6 inches of snow had come down. I swept off as much snow as I could from the truck and hit the road. As I turned down Highway 32 for the second time I noticed the sign we had missed the night before, “TRAVEL AT YOUR OWN RISK”. A plow had gone through before I got there and I drove a decent ways down to get a feel for the drive. Once comfortable I texted Rhonda and told her we were hitting the road.
Once I picked up Rhonda and the dogs we made our third attempt for Yellowstone. Turning onto Highway 32 again we reminisced about the night before and how much better the roads were. Unfortunately the road had only been cleared a few miles down the road and we hit packed snow and ice again. Not knowing how far the roads would be bad we kept going. A few miles later we passed a plow going the opposite way and the roads were fine the rest of the way to Yellowstone.
We passed through the entrance to Yellowstone around 10:30 AM and made our way toward Old Faithful. On the road to Old Faithful, we saw many Elk and Bison along the side of the road and in the middle of the road in the case of some Bison. Our dogs, Blue and Violet, pitched a fit with every animal we passed. The Bison were easily the largest animals Blue and Violet had ever seen, I only wish I knew what they were thinking. In some cases the Bison were only a few feet from our car.
Old Faithful was about 30 minutes away from erupting when we arrived. We walked the dogs around and tried to stay warm. We were one of 5 people when we first got there and by the time Old Faithful was about to erupt there was a crowd of about 30. I think we were the only 30 people in the park that day. Old Faithful erupted and captured everyone’s attention for about 90 seconds, Blue and Violet’s included. I had visited Old Faithful once before when I was about 10 years old but couldn’t remember how amazing it really was. Water erupting from a hole in the earth is a truly magical site and one that occurs seemingly like clockwork is even more amazing.
After Old Faithful we walked around the geothermal pools for a while and decided to head for the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. We passed many more Bison and even sat in park on the road for about 10 minutes waiting for some to clear from the road. I would have been happy to sit there and watch them except that an RV drove up from the other way and waived a plastic bag out the window and scared them off the road. We found the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone, snapped some photos, and made our way for the exit. Being the first week the park was open to visitors, most of the park was actually still closed, so we saw as much as we could.
Yellowstone gave us one last surprise on our way out… a gray wolf!
That night we had reservations in Twin Falls, ID about 4 and a half hours away. We made it in roughly that time on smooth, dry, non-icy roads. It was a welcome change from the night before. We arrived at our La Quinta in Twin Falls and I went out to pick up some dinner. We ate dinner, had a beer or 2, and turned in for the night.
Total driving on day 5 was about 300 miles through Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.
My fiancé Rhonda and I have picked up and moved to Seattle so that she can pursue a job at Boeing working on their 787 Dreamliner. We opted to make the cross-country drive rather than fly. This series of posts will be a recap of our drive. Here’s our adventure…
Day 4 we left Fort Collins, CO with our eyes set for West Yellowstone, MO driving through Jackson, WY. The day started out as any other day, little did we know what we were in for…
The drive to Jackson was uneventful as were the previous 3 days except by the time we arrived in Jackson we realized we had made a crucial error in underestimating the drive. Somehow in the confusion of mapping the drive, booking hotels, planning the move, and so on what we thought was a 7 hour drive to West Yellowstone was really a 7 hour drive to Jackson and West Yellowstone was another 3 hours down the road.
Not having done our research on the weather or Yellowstone, we trekked on to the South entrance of the park through Grand Teton National Park. We soon learned of our second crucial mistake for the day, though the severity of it would become apparent later. It turns out the South entrance to Yellowstone was not yet open for the season. The snow on the ground should have been our fist clue… Our only option was to go back through Jackson and around the park. We saw as much of Grand Teton National Park as we could (see exhibit a below) and made our way back to Jackson. Almost as soon as we had turned around I spotted two moose (meese?) off the road. We pulled over and snapped a few hundred photos of them. Once we had drawn a crowd of other cars and once the dogs had taken notice of the moose and started to pitch a fit we kept on moving. (As Rhonda would learn the next day in Yellowstone, if you see a car on the side of the road, there’s wildlife nearby.)
Back in Jackson we turned onto Highway 22 for West Yellowstone. As with the snow, the “RETURN TO JACKSON WHEN FLASHING” sign should have been a warning of our impending doom. Nevertheless we kept going and soon found our way going through what I now affectionately call Dead Man’s Pass. Dead Man’s Pass is the stretch of Highway 22 that passes through the Grand Tetons from Jackson to Idaho. As we climbed the Tetons it began to snow. As it snowed the road became icy. Soon enough we were going about 15 MPH on packed ice and snow. Unfortunately the cars ahead of me decided to slow to a crawl and then to a stop and my truck was unable to get traction again and we were stuck. The late 80’s Ford Taurus behind me (one straight out of Christmas Vacation) was stuck as well and the cars behind him just began to pass us. After several futile attempts at getting moving again we slid and backed up enough to get going back down the mountain. Once I found a suitable place to pull over we stopped and collected our thoughts. The Taurus had already turned around for another try. Despite the conditions I convinced Rhonda to let me try one more attempt before giving up and staying in Jackson for the night.
This time I was able to make it all the way up the mountain and down the other side. Had we had to have stopped as before we would have undoubtedly been stuck again but luckily we did not. Our friend in the Taurus was not so lucky as we passed him as he was heading back down the mountain as before. On the Idaho side of the Tetons the roads cleared up again and I thought we were home free. We passed Grand Teton Brewing Company in Victor, ID (of which I’ll posting a review of their Sheep Eater Scotch Ale soon) and once through Tetonia we turned onto Highway 32 for West Yellowstone. It was about 7:30 PM at this point and I was anxious to get to our hotel. Unfortunately it began to snow again. After about 2 miles or so I was following an invisible car’s snow tracks in front of me and after a couple more miles the only thing visible was the enormous snow flakes that were about 5 feet in front of the truck. At this point we turned around and followed my own tracks back to Tetonia.
Artist’s Impression of Highway 32:
Back in Tetonia we called the few hotels in town and finally found one that was open and allowed pets. Rhonda asked if they had a Boeing rate and I chuckled as if anyone from Boeing had ever passed through Tetonia enough to have negotiated a corporate rate.
Once in the Teton Mountain View Lodge we realized it was after 9:00 PM and we were hungry. I left Rhonda, Blue, and Violet at the hotel in search of food. Tetonia, population 247, only has a few restaurants and bars and this night only one bar was open. Walking into Dave’s Pub I got quite a few looks from the locals as I approached the bar. I asked the bartender if her kitchen was still open and she said all they had was pizza. I ordered the supreme and watched as pulled a DiGiorno pizza out of the freeze and tossed it into the oven. I ordered a Bud Light in an attempt to fit in and the fellow next to me introduced himself. His name was Jim and said “my daddy always told me to make friends with the biggest man in the bar.” (I’m 6’4”.) I told him our story and turned down his many offers of tequila as I waited for my DiGiorno to finish. I felt validated in my need to turn around and give up for the night as more locals came through the down exclaiming “it’s coming down out there” in much more colorful language. Jim informed me the snow wasn’t normal for this late of April and as my pizza finished he wished me good luck on my drive back to the hotel. We ate our pizza, finished our growler of Blue Paddle, and called it a night.
Total driving on day 4 was over 500 miles through Colorado, Wyoming, and Idaho.
My fiancé Rhonda and I have picked up and moved to Seattle so that she can pursue a job at Boeing working on their 787 Dreamliner. We opted to make the cross-country drive rather than fly. This series of posts will be a recap of our drive. Here’s our adventure…
Day 3 we left smelly Lexington heading for Fort Collins, CO. The drive through the second-half of Nebraska was much like the first-half, boring and uneventful except for a burnt-out headlight. As mentioned in a previous post, my “get up and go” personality doesn’t like not moving forward, so fixing it was not on the books.
The scenery changed almost immediately after passing the Nebraska-Colorado line. What was mostly drab plains and farmland became colorful rolling hills. Colorado was the first state that we saw wind turbines (though my memory may be blurring the states…). For whatever reason I am mesmerized by these and would point them out to Rhonda whenever I spotted them. We saw almost as many turbines as we saw pronghorn antelope.
We planned for a short drive this day so we could visit New Belgium Brewing in the afternoon. Prior to the brewery though we checked in to our hotel and grabbed some lunch. We ate at Wild Boar Coffee right next Colorado State University. Wild Boar’s food was awesome and their beer list was equally impressive. I had Odell Brewing Company’s Myrcenary Double IPA and Rhonda had Odell’s 90 Shilling Ale.
After lunch we made our way to New Belgium. Not wanting to leave the dogs cooped up in the truck for the 90-minute brewery tour we decided to hang out in the tasting room. Rhonda volunteered to drive so I could partake in New Belgium’s numerous offerings. Blue Paddle was still my favorite of the day but Drew’s Ale and Abbey were equally tasty. My least favorite was Sara’s Red brewed with beets, licorice, fennel, and rosemary. I agreed with my server that the fennel and licorice were a bit redundant, especially since I like neither. Unlike breweries in Georgia, New Belgium is able to sell direct from the brewery including growlers. We filled up our growler with Blue Paddle, picked up a 12-pack of Sunshine and bombers of Le Terroir and Imperial Berliner-Weisse, as well as a shirt for Rhonda and one for a friend back in Atlanta.
The highlights of the drive were the beautiful scenery of Colorado and of course our stop at New Belgium Brewing.
Total driving on day 3 was only 300 miles through Nebraska and Colorado.