An American Journey: The Return Home

…Continued from Eastbound.

The Dynasty, May 2004, shortly before loading for the next trip

Fast forward to May 2004.  I had just graduated from MSOE, and without a job was faced with returning to Oregon while I still had enough money to do so.  It wouldn't be until June 1 that I actually got everything taken care of and got the car packed.  As this was a one-way trip, I had to pack everything I had in Milwaukee into the Dynasty, about 1000 pounds worth of stuff.  The car was packed completely full, with just enough room for me, but I got everything in.

I tried to sleep as much as could during the day on the 1st, so I could leave that night and drive all the next day before stopping.  It was difficult to sleep, but I managed it.  It was around 10:00 PM when I left Milwaukee for the last time.  There are no pictures from this trip either, as the batteries in the digital camera had long since died, and I never put in new ones.

I had an almost full tank of gas, so my first stop for gas was Sparta, at the same gas station I had stopped at in January when returning to Milwaukee.  I think the same cashier was working at the counter.  Incidentally, I stopped for gas earlier than I needed to.  With the weight of all the stuff in the car, I was expecting worse gas mileage than I had experienced in the winter.  Plus, the car was sitting much lower in the back than normal, and I was concerned that the fuel gauge might not be accurate.  This stop indicated that my mileage was as good as in the winter (it would actually turn out to be better in the end).

While traveling through Minnesota, I realized the extra weight was causing one problem.  The car was sitting so low in the back that my headlights were now aimed too high.  Also in Minnesota came the one major problem.  A large piece of debris blew across the road right in front of my car.  For the split second I saw it, it seemed to be a large piece of cardboard or thin plywood.  I felt the car run over it roughly, and saw sparks flying from the back of the car.  As I pulled to the side of the road, my fear was a flat tire.  Normally, this would not be that bad, but to get to my jack and spare, I would have to unload most of the trunk, which was packed completely full.  Also, I only had a mini-spare, which would have limited my speed, if it held the excessive weight in the car at all, plus I would end up buying a tire as soon as possible.  As it turned out, it wasn't a flat tire at all.  The debris has ripped the muffler off, which was now wedged under the excessively low back bumper.

I kicked the muffler out from under the bumper and to the side of the road to cool down.  It wasn't a catastrophic problem, but now I had to wait along the side of the road for the muffler to cool so I could put it in the car until I found a place to get it put back on.

FULL DISCLOSURE: I have been too embarrassed to mention this until now, but in the interest of telling the whole story, here it is.  When I got out of the car here, I locked myself out of it!  In Milwaukee, I had developed the habit of locking the driver's door whenever I got out of the car, only this time I had left the car running and the keys inside!  The Dynasty's doors automatically lock at 20 mph, so all the other doors were locked as well.  Fortunately, the door hadn't shut completely, and I was able to flag down a kind truck driver, who provided a metal strap we were able to use to hook the manual door lock and pull it up, unlocking the door.  It was actually very MacGyver-like.  I don't know if that truck driver will ever see this, but I would still like to thank him for his help.  I might have been stuck there all night if not for him.

By the time I got back into the car, the muffler had cooled enough to put in the car, and I was on my way again.  The car was now VERY loud without a muffler, and I was a little concerned I would get pulled over if I happened to pass a police car, but it was too early in the morning to find anything open.  I decided to just continue on to Sioux Falls, where I would have the best chance of finding a place to get the muffler put back on.

It was about 10:00 when I got to Sioux Falls.  I got off the freeway at an exit that looked promising and searched for some kind of garage.  Fortunately, I hadn't gone too far when I came across a muffler shop.  The old muffler was pretty well shot, with a dent in it and all the stuff inside knocked loose, but the mechanic welded it back on for $20.  He said that the muffler itself didn't look like it had been in bad shape before, but the exhaust line leading up to it was heavily rusted.  He asked, "Are you sure you ran over something?  It looks like it just fell off."  I assured him I had.

On the opposite corner from the exhaust place was a Sinclair gas station with gas for $1.919 a gallon.  This was the cheapest gas I'd seen in a long time and would be the low-price leader for this trip.  It was considerably lower that the stations near the freeway.  If you are traveling and looking for the best deal on gas, I recommend getting away from the freeway a little way; the price may drop dramatically.

After lunch in Sioux Falls, I was on my way again.  South Dakota was, as usual, uneventful, however; the bugs were incredibly thick and I found myself stopping at every rest area to clean the windshield.  Also in South Dakota, I began encountering road construction.  Some parts of the freeway were being completely rebuilt down to the base gravel, and as a result both directions of traffic had to use one side of the freeway as a two-lane road in some areas.  I would continue to encounter construction, though usually not of this scale, all the way through eastern Montana.  I also got another rock chip in my windshield, this time on the driver's side, but very low, so not in the way.  To be fair to South Dakota, which I've suggested is boring, I did stop at a rest area in the state with a built in Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center, which was quite impressive and informative.  In the winter, this had not been open.

I stopped for gas and dinner in Rapid City (the address of the gas station was 140 Disk Drive) and left determined to get to Montana before stopping for the night.  My temporarily mis-aimed headlights gave me difficulty through Wyoming; I could see better with my regular headlight than with my high-beams, which seemed only to light up the sky.

I arrived in Missoula, Montana around Midnight, and searched for a motel room, only to find all the cheap ones were gone.  Frustrated, I decided I'd just keep going and find somewhere to sleep in the car.  I was in need of gas though, and looked for the best deal on gas.  I paid for the gas with my debit card at the pump, but I went into the store anyway in search of something for dinner.  There was a large laminated highway map of Montana on the wall and I noticed a rest area about 20 miles west of Missoula.  I decided to spend the night there.  I bought a pre-made sub sandwich and chatted a little with the nice old man behind the counter.  I think he was the owner.

I drove on to the rest area, at which there were signs warning visitors to stay on the paved paths because of rattlesnakes.  I kept an eye out but never saw any.  I ate my sandwich in the car and tried to get comfortable in the car.  In an effort to hang a blanket to block out a light, I broke the rear view mirror off the windshield.  Though, with the car sitting so low in the back, it was really only giving me a view of the pavement behind me anyway.  I settled in as best I could and went to sleep.

The sun was up when woke up the next morning.  I tried to snooze as long as I could, but eventually ended up moving on.  I stopped at the first Burger King I came to for breakfast and coffee, but as I continued on I realized I needed a little more sleep.  I came across a fairly new, and nice, rest area, where I slept for a couple more hours.  At the rest area there was a group of Kiwanis members offering coffee for a donation, so I had a couple cups to wake me up before moving on.

After a stop in Missoula for gas and lunch, I headed across Lookout Pass.  It is a beautiful drive in the summer when you don't have to worry about the weather.  I stopped at the rest area near Coeur D'Alene, where there was another group offering coffee.  When I told them of my trip, they said "I hope you're going to stop soon," to which I replied, "At this point, I'm almost there."  I stopped at the Washington rest area as well for a pick-me-up.  Free coffee at rest areas is one of the few good things about Washington.

At Kennewick, I stopped at Burger King for dinner, and got my first taste of their great new Angus bacon-cheeseburger.  I also bought the most expensive gas of the trip at a Wal-Mart Mirastar station.

It started to get dark as I entered the Columbia River Gorge, and my mis-aimed headlights caused many trucks to flash their lights at me as if I had my highbeams on, but as it was just my regular lights, there was nothing I could do.  I took I-5 home this time (where I saw Amtrak's northbound Coast Starlight running many hours late), and I also took a quick detour.  Even though it was almost Midnight, I wanted to know how much stuff I had in the car, so once crossing back over the Columbia into Oregon from Longview, I went WEST on Highway 30 to Delena, where there is a small scale installed as a minor weigh station (that is never manned).  I pulled the Dynasty onto the scale and made note of the weight before returning home to Rainier and going to bed.

In the morning, I was curious how low the back of the car was sitting, so I measured some key points before I unloaded it.  After unloading, I measured the same points again, and found the back of the car had been down by about six inches (the rear mud flaps had been only an inch and a half above the pavement).  I also drove back to the scale to weigh the now-empty car and found that the car was 1000 pounds lighter.  Though I didn't take any photos of the car loaded, here is a graphic showing the difference between empty and loaded.

Here is a table showing fuel stops for this one-way trip.

CO-OP C-Store, Sparta, WI

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
10.383	$2.119	$22.00	263.7	25.4

Kings Inc. Sinclair, Sioux Falls, SD

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
13.546	$1.919	$26.00	317.7	23.5

Big D Oil, Rapid City, SD

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
14.509	$1.999	$29.00	345.6	23.8

Holiday Stationstore, Billings, MT

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
14.131	$1.949	$27.54	396.7	28.1

Noon's Sinclair, Missoula, MT

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
14.557	$1.999	$29.10	342.7	23.5

Mirastar (Wal-Mart), Kennewick, WA

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
11.822	$2.199	$26.00	341.1	28.9

Flying K, Longview, WA

Gallons	$/Gal	Total	Miles	Mileage
12.278	$2.199	$27.00	300.6	24.5

The average cost of gas was $2.055 per gallon.  This was about 28% higher than about 5 months earlier!  The least expensive gas was once again in Sioux Falls at $1.919 per gallon, though that station was away from the freeway and closer stations were higher.  The most expensive gas was in the west at $2.199 per gallon.  My total cost for gas for this one-way trip was $186.64.  I estimate that the cost for a round trip would have been about $373.28.  In general, gasoline seemed to be cheaper in the middle of the country, and more expensive in Wisconsin and in the west.  I averaged just over 329.7 miles between fuel stops, and averaged 25.4 miles per gallon.  This was an improvement over the wintertime trip, despite having the car loaded down with 1000 pounds of stuff.  I attribute this to more use of cruise control and more time at highway speeds; these factors are due to better driving habits and, more importantly, better weather.

Continue to Epilogue…

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…

An American Journey: Westbound

…Continued from Preparations.

I had originally planned to leave Milwaukee around sunrise on the 20th, but I was too excited to sleep well, so I ended up leaving earlier, around 4:30 AM.  I stopped for gas in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, and added fuel injector cleaner and cleaned all the windows for the first of many times.  This was at about 5:00 AM.

Daybreak in Wisconsin

I stopped briefly at a Burger King in LaCrosse, WI for breakfast around 8:00, and drank my first ever cup of coffee (I figured I'd need the caffeine).  I didn't need gas yet, so I moved on, crossing the mighty Mississippi River at the Wisconsin-Minnesota border.  As I had just bought the car, I hadn't driven it much, and wasn't sure what to expect in the way of gas mileage.  At about 8:45, I got off the interstate at the Rochester, Minnesota exit in search of a gas station.  Rochester isn't actually on I-90, and I had to search a little to find one, but didn't have to go too far.  I was only 260 miles from Brookfield, and so far my mileage wasn't too good, but I wasn't using cruise control at this point, and I had actually stopped sooner than I really needed to.

The Mississippi River

While in Minnesota, I stopped at a rest area with some photogenic views, and decided to try out the digital camera a little.  I'd only taken a couple of shots from the car at this point, but figured I'd get what stationary shots I could.  This being Minnesota in December, there was snow and ice everywhere, including in a newspaper vending machine!

View of I-90 from the Minnesota rest area

 

Large icicle hanging from rest area roof

 

Snow in the newspaper box

Aside from the break at the rest stop, Minnesota was largely uneventful, although I did spot a few electricity-generating windmills.

Windmills in Minnesota

As 1:00 approached, I stopped for lunch at Burger King in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and also got gas at a station named... wait for it... Kum and Go!  I don't want to know where they came up with it.  South Dakota is a big state with few places to stop, so I made sure to fill up here before moving on.

One thing I tried to photograph, but it didn't show up well, was the reddish color of the asphalt in South Dakota.
South Dakota is a big, boring state, the highlights of which are big signs for such attractions as the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore and others, and it was while in this state I finally turned on the cruise control, and really got to appreciate it.  Unfortunately I only turned it on after getting pulled over by one of South Dakota's finest for going 84 mph in a 75 mph zone.  Truth be told I had been going faster for a while.  I ran the car up to 100 mph briefly, just to be able to say I've driven that fast, though it's really nothing to be proud of.  Fortunately, the officer only gave me a warning, and I vowed to myself to use the cruise control as much as practical from then on, at least in South Dakota.  Also, it was right around this point that I found South Dakota's scenic highlight: the Missouri River.

Approaching the Missouri River

Around 4:00 I ended up stopping for gas near the Badlands of South Dakota, as I didn't think I could make it further, though I probably could have.  The gas station was in the middle of nowhere, and virtually closed down, though the pumps still worked with a credit card.  The store itself was shut down and no one was there.  The station probably did decent business, in gas anyway, as I wasn't the only visitor during the short time I was there.

The Badlands in the distance

I wanted to get as far as I could that first night, so I cruised on past Rapid City, despite being tired.  Originally, I had wanted to get into Montana before I stopped for the night, but considering it was dark when I entered Wyoming, I realized that wasn't going to happen.  Out there in the dark, I-90 doesn't feel like an Interstate, more like a country road.  Little other traffic, and you often can't see the lanes for the other direction.  I was going to try for Sheridan, Wyoming, but ended up stopping when I got to Gillette instead.  I was just getting that tired.  I checked into a Budget Inn Express, while proved to be much nicer than a Motel 6, but only a few dollars more expensive.  It even had an indoor pool, which I visited after dinner at a local establishment called Grandma's Kitchen.  It was the only non-fast-food restaurant I stopped at.

Continue to Westbound (Part 2)…