Sunday, February 28, 2010

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho.

Driving was easier than I'd expected. I'm towing a big-ass cargo trailer with a non-big-ass engine, so I worried about getting over the pass, but nope, it did fine.

God I'm tired. The last three days have been some of the most exhausting of my life. And I don't even own a lot of crap! I think the organizing and cleaning were worse than the packing--I took more stuff to Goodwill or the dump than I put in the trailer--so hopefully moving into the new place won't be quite as painful. (Also the new place does not have roommates to stick me with their messes that I only discover at 9 AM on the day I'm supposed to leave. Argh.)

I drove through a lot of climates today The western part of Washington looks like Washington, the central part looks like Arizona, and out east it's Kansas. Trees, desert, plains.

The guinea pigs are all right. They're not happy getting stuffed in a little carrier and subjected to horrible noises and bumping around, but they're eating and drinking and acting like guinea pigs. I think they're mostly just annoyed at me.

I made about 320 miles today. Which really isn't that much, but I got a late start and I'm dog-tired because I did about three hours of heavy lifting this morning. With eight hours' sleep, an early morning, and less painful muscles I oughta start doing 600 or so if the roads are good. I'm getting about 22 MPG which isn't TOO terrible considering the trailer.

It's both freeing and frightening to be pulling around literally everything I own. I have a route planned, but shit, I could go anywhere! If I don't mind losing a little money on the apartment I could take a turn somewhere and go make my new life in Kentucky instead and nothing would stop me.

This hotel room is really nice. Like REALLY nice, like I'm almost embarrassed that little ol' me is shmancying it up in a place far too rich for her blood. It still costs less than a shithole flophouse in SeaTac. Gotta love the boonies in off-season. (I am shmancying it up, because I could've stayed in a shithole flophouse here for like nothing, but I'm tired dammit and I can spare an extra $20 to be comfortable. I'll flop tomorrow, I swear.)

Man, America is beautiful. Well, that's not fair, the world is beautiful. The vast majority of it at least. (SeaTac not so much.) I drove past snowy mountains and rolling hills and endless fields today and they were all gorgeous. It's a cliche, but the skies really are big out here--clouds look so different when you can see every part of them. It's almost frightening to a forest dweller because every kind of weather looks kinda like those photos you see of giant thunderstorms out on the plains.

I wonder why there are so many horses out in the country. It seemed like I saw nearly equal numbers of cows and horses, even though cows make milk and meat and leather and horses make... horse poop. Well, and rides of course, but I've always thought of horse riding as a relatively uncommon luxury, one that would account for a few stables per town, not giant herds of horses all over. Are there a lot more horse-riders than I thought, or are there not that many horses and I'm just crazy, or what?

This hotel room has a free teapot with good tea! Truly this is the land of milk, honey, hope, and glory. I'm gonna take a bath and drink tea in the bath.

10 comments:

  1. Where I live, every person in the neighborhood has the option to own up to two horses in their backyard (and quite a few do). So it's not too uncommon a hobby I suppose.
    Good luck! Enjoy the tea and hope and all that good stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Eeee! Oh, I love road trips so much, for exactly those reasons. The "if I wanted, I could totally drive to Maine right now" feeling of freedom, and the incredible beauty of all the in-between bits- I wouldn't want to live there, but it sure is good they exist.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Well gee I am in southern Idaho. Ya could crashed in my spare bed and only driven 500 or so miles out of your way. I have been border to border and coast to coast and liked it(mostly) Enjoy the flatland for at least the first day. :>

    ReplyDelete
  4. Vinnie - Gosh. I wonder if there are any readers in Montana, preferably a bit east of Billings on I-90...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Driving cross-country is a wonderful experience. I try to drive up to Johannesburg twice a year (but I only manage to to it once every two years. Ah well :-)

    Drove up there last weekend (to collect shooting irons, which can't be mailed, have to be couriered). 1500 km (bit under a thousand miles), 04:30 to 20:30 ish.

    I'm planning to drag the family to the states next year, and we'll drive from San Diego to Yellowstone (current plan).

    Enjoy!

    (and the Lehrkind Mansion B&B in Bozeman MT is gorgeous, but expensive).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Louisville KY would not be such a bad place for you to land. The economy here has not been hit as bad a much of the country. And the cost of living vs. quality of life is better than many areas.

    Also, there are parts of town where open minded people like yourself fit in just fine. We're not all hillbillies.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wrm - Bozeman isn't in the right spot anyway, I wouldn't make enough miles today if I stopped there. :/

    Jimbo - Oh, I wasn't trying to knock Kentucky or say it would be ridiculous to move there, it was just the first random not-close-to-Massachusetts state that came to mind.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Holly - I know, I was suggesting maybe you _should_ move here. Anyway, good luck on your journey...

    ReplyDelete
  9. It's almost frightening to a forest dweller because every kind of weather looks kinda like those photos you see of giant thunderstorms out on the plains.

    You ain't kidding. The first time the ladies and I drove out west to visit family, we called ahead to ask about the hurricane that was obviously brewing ahead of us. It was clear we'd have to stop somewhere and wait it out.

    A quarter of an inch of rain later, we rolled into town, more than a bit embarassed.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Re horses out west- a surprising number of them are basically just pets, not even riding horses. They're surprisingly cheap to keep if you can pasture them on your own land rather than paying for boarding. A horse you do ride is also basically an intelligent ATV that runs on hay and grain rather than gas, which, if you have a lot of land and fences to keep track of, is a very useful thing to have around.

    Riding for pleasure is less common than riding for work in many parts of The Great Flyover. :)

    ReplyDelete