An American Journey: Eastbound

…Continued from At Home.

It took me longer to load the car than I had planned, and it was after 8:00 before I was on my way.  By this time though, the remaining ice on I-5 had melted (it had caused a major accident earlier in the morning) and the roads weren't bad...yet.

After passing through Portland and entering the Columbia River Gorge on I-84, the highway gradually got more and more snow-covered.  As such storms are rare, Oregon doesn't have the snowfighting equipment of other states, like huge fleets of plow trucks (there are a few) and deicing salts.  I, like most everyone else, stopped to put on chains (they were required for trucks, and recommended for everyone else without snow tires).  Cable chains are mediocre at best, but they worked.  The most annoying thing about them was the end of the cable wouldn't stay in the clip meant to hold it, and it would strike the wheel well with each revolution of the wheel.  Upon reaching The Dalles a little after Noon, where I stopped for gas and lunch, I stopped at an auto parts store to get some cable ties for $3.99 to solve the annoying chain noise.  As it turned out though, just past The Dalles the road cleared up considerably, and I ended up taking the chains off.

With the roads cleared, I was able to travel at freeway speeds again, but I wouldn't be able to make up my lost time.  Originally I was planning to get to eastern Montana, or maybe even Wyoming, before stopping for the night.  Now, I was hoping I'd be able to get across Lookout Pass and into Missoula.  The roads were good for most of the day, though they were heavily sanded (since Oregon doesn't use salt in winter, it uses liberal amounts of sand instead) and I got a good-sized rock shot into my windshield, resulting in a good-sized chip.  Fortunately, it was on the passenger side and not in my field of vision.

It wasn't until Spokane that the weather started to worry me again, and when I reached Coeur D'Alene, the snow covered roads suggested to me that I shouldn't attempt Lookout Pass till morning.  Apparently, I had caught up to the storm, and felt I'd better let it pass.  This was discouraging, as it was only 6:30 when I arrived in Coeur D'Alene, and I really wanted to keep going, but I checked into a Motel 6 and went to bed early, hoping to get an early start.

The next morning I started up Lookout Pass with the daylight, and found the road covered with snow.  It was mostly packed snow however, and after trying the chains for a while, I decided they weren't doing any good and took them back off, proceeding at near-highway speed.  I caught up to Idaho state plow trucks, and stayed behind them to the summit, where they turned around.  Fortunately, the Montana side had also been recently plowed, and posed no trouble.  Though it was cold outside, the trip remained uneventful through Montana.  Homestake Pass was once again no problem.  As I entered Wyoming, it began to get dark.  I made up my mind not to stop in Wyoming unless I absolutely had too.  I wanted to start Sunday in South Dakota if at all possible.

It was 7:30 PM when I stopped for gas in Sheridan.  It might be a late arrival in Rapid City, but I was confident I could make it.  As I passed Gillette, I was tempted to spend the night at the motel I had stayed in just two weeks before, put instead I plunged on.  It was starting to snow lightly, but wasn't a problem.

Unfortunately, as I headed toward South Dakota, I realized I had caught up to my storm once again as the weather got worse; however, I couldn't readily tell how much worse.  With almost no other traffic, snow sticking to the road, and nothing else around, I hadn't realized how much visibility had dropped.  I was aware that my visibility was reduced, and thus wasn't traveling anywhere near the 75 mph speed limit.  I was, however, in the 50s.

Suddenly, I saw taillights appear in the snow ahead of me, and I was closing on them fast.  I tapped the brakes and quickly realized that in the snow they weren't going to stop me in time, so I moved into the snow-covered left lane and coasted past a short line of cars.  I slowed down to pace the line of cars, and found they were going less than 30 mph: excessively cautious, even for this weather.  The two cars at the front of the line had license plates I didn't recognize, and I had become familiar with the plates of the nearby states.  These people had probably never seen snow before.

I passed the line of cars, and sped up into the 40s, which I considered reasonable, so long as I didn't encounter any more slow-movers like those.  Other drivers, probably more used to snow, passed me by, stirring up the snow and reducing my visibility considerably.  Once this happened on a curve, and I was completely unaware of where the road was until I saw the guardrail out my right side window.

It was almost Midnight when I finally arrived in snow-covered Rapid City and checked into a Motel 6, though I had gained an extra hour crossing into Mountain Time when entering Montana, so to me it was more like almost 11:00.  Still late in any case.

After breakfast and gasoline (which I didn't really need yet, but I wanted a full tank to make it to Sioux Falls) I left Rapid City at about 9:00 the next morning.  I had to make it back to Milwaukee by tonight, but on my westbound trip I had gone farther in one day, so I was sure I'd make it.  It just might be really late if I caught up to my storm again.

The trip across South Dakota was uneventful, except that I found that my bottle of Windex had frozen solid in the car overnight, so no unscheduled window cleaning.  Though I put the bottle under a heat register in the car, it remained frozen for the rest of the trip.  I stopped at Sioux Falls for gas and dinner at McDonalds (my only stop at McDonalds, I usually prefer Burger King or Arby's) and again for gas at Sparta, Wisconsin around 8:00, though I was now in Central Time, so it was more like 7:00 to me.

As I approached Madison in the dark, the weather turned bad again.  Turns out I wasn't going to get break for the home stretch.  The weather didn't get quite as bad as my approach to Rapid City, but it was close, and the roads were worse.  Wisconsin's road salt kept the roads slushy and slippery.  Milwaukee itself had the most difficult roads of the trip.

I finally arrived back at my apartment at around 11:00.  I learned there had been a huge accident on the freeway in Madison due to the weather, but somehow I had missed it.  I never did take any pictures on the return trip.  Either the weather and/or roads were too bad for me too worry about pictures, or I already had taken pictures of the area on the westbound trip.  Plus, I had realized how much the pictures from the camera sucked anyway.

Here is a table showing fuel stops for the round trip.  The last two columns show the miles driven since the last refueling and the average gas mileage for those miles.

Brookfield Square, Brookfield, WI

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.253	$1.629	$21.59	216.9	16.4

Marion Gas Mini Mart, Rochester, MN

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.075	$1.499	$19.60	260.1	19.9

Kum and Go, Sioux Falls, SD

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
12.405	$1.459	$18.10	232.4	18.7

Badlands Trading Post, Philip, SD

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.019	$1.599	$20.82	268.2	20.6

The Rock Stop, Sheridan, WY

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.008	$1.499	$19.50	316.8	24.4

Thriftway, Butte, MT

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
15.144	$1.519	$23.00	354.2	23.4

Templin's At Tokio, Sprague, WA

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.625	$1.689	$23.01	374.1	27.5

Flying K, Longview, WA

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.369	$1.459	$19.51	353.6	26.4

Astro, The Dalles, OR

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
12.507	$1.639	$20.50	277.7	22.2

Tesoro 2Go, Coeur D'Alene, ID

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.007	$1.599	$20.80	308.6	23.7

Exxon Town Pump, Butte, MT

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
12.182	$1.519	$18.50	295.0	24.2

Texaco, Sheridan, WY

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
15.212	$1.479	$22.50	355.3	23.4

I-90 Standard, Rapid City, SD

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
10.672	$1.499	$16.00	248.6	23.3

Shop 'N' Cart, Brandon, SD

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
15.082	$1.459	$22.00	348.7	23.1

CO-OP C Store, Sparta, WI

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
15.007	$1.599	$24.00	310.2	20.7

The average cost of gas was $1.599 per gallon.  The least expensive gas was in or near Sioux Falls, South Dakota or at home at $1.459 per gallon.  The most expensive gas was in The Dalles, Oregon at $1.689 per gallon.  My total cost for gas for the round trip was $309.43.  There didn't seem to be a trend for gas prices based on the part of the country.  I averaged just over 300 miles between fuel stops, and averaged 22.5 miles per gallon, though the first mileage figure is almost all driving around Milwaukee.  Removing that figure puts my average for the trip at 23 miles per gallon.

My three nights in motels cost a total of $101.46.  My cost of gas and lodging for the trip was $410.89.  There was also a cost for food that I wasn't able to keep track of.  I don't include the cost of supplies, as those were things I would have needed for the car anyway.

Continue to The Return Home…