Wandering with Uncle Bud™
A long trip overdue ... a promise fulfilled (Part II)
Oct 8, 2004, 11:47
2-13-04
”To a friends’ house, the road is never long.”
-Anonymous-
By Uncle Bud,
Two weeks ago, we gave you part I of our trip across the United States to visit the Carolinas, and a little about the visit with fine friends who were the purpose of this long, but worthwhile trip. Here in Part II we’ll cover some of the routes, folks we met, and places we shall remember from this particular trip … let’s get back on the road.
We opted to travel a northern route via Highway 2 from Bonners Ferry to Duluth Minnesota before heading south … good choice for us as the road was well maintained the entire route and we encountered only two small construction projects that barely slowed us down.
Vote was unanimous in selecting Minnesota as the best vista state heading east. I spoke briefly with a Minnesota native at a rest stop and kidded him about not being able to fulfill a livelong desire to own waterfront property, as it was too expensive. He remarked that if I bought more than 20 acres in Minnesota … it would have a lake on it.
Cheapest fuel on this northern leg of the trip was $1.67.9 for regular in North Dakota. (Wait, we found some even more economical fuel costs on the southern leg … how does $1.63.9 in Kentucky grab you?)
Anyone care to offer up why we are charged, and paying over $2.00 a gallon for fuel here in the promised land?
Began our southern leg of the trip as we left Duluth and crossed Lake Superior into the town of Superior Wisconsin. Stopped in a large supermarket parking lot to purchase some lunch goodies (we made our own lunches each day as it was an added break in fresh air and gave our main man a chance to exercise) … stop was a mistake. A lady backed into our VW causing little damage to the body, but some serious damage to the paint.
Poor thing was all shook and rattled when she spotted our Idaho license plates. I was tempted to show her my concealed weapons permit instead of my drivers license to really ruin her day but that is just not your Uncle Bud’s style. (It is the thought that counts, right?)
As we headed south bisecting Wisconsin and Illinois, my bride remarked about the obvious pride the people in these two states had in their lawns … at least the homes bordering the highway(s) we were on. This pride in ownership display via nice lawns really began halfway through Minnesota.
Names … we spotted several, but three have stayed with me. About noon driving through our sister state Montana we spotted a sign that read: “Goat Lick” … I don’t think we’ll stop there for lunch. In Wisconsin we saw a directional sign which read: “Bloomer”… Do you suppose their high school football team is called the “Shorts”? Here is one from Illinois that just does not make any sense at all: “Starved Rock” … How is that accomplished?
Spent a night in the Wisconsin Dells area. Wow! Something for everyone, but expensive.
After ten days on the road, we had become addicted to critiquing rest stops. Iowa leads the pack of the fifteen states we traveled through with both Virginia and West Virginia along with North Carolina running a close second. Why Iowa?
Pretty elaborate building for a rest stop.
Iowa topped our rest stop list for several reasons … first and foremost, we found every rest stop to be filled with sculptures and informative static displays about this heartland state. All we visited were relatively new, or totally modernized. Each and every stop was dedicated to veterans of past wars fought. (We noted several roads and highways named for heroes of past wars.)
Honorable mention for placement of rest stops in scenic areas providing great vistas goes to North Carolina and Virginia. Before leaving the subject of rest stops here is an encounter worth reporting to you.
As “Ivan” was chasing us north we stopped for a quick break at a rest stop in North Carolina. I was just getting ready to walk my main man when a pickup truck pulled into the parking area next to our car. The driver, a guy, jumped out right away and headed to the restrooms, his passenger, a lady, took her time as she had to put her sandals back on and whatever. She then also left for the restrooms. Nothing new here, but there was in fact, a scenario building.
You ever get the feeling something is not quite right, but you struggle to put your finger on the problem? Well, the driver of the pickup returns, jumps in the truck and takes off … I thought, nice of him to move the truck closer to the restrooms for the lady … wrong, he kept going. For some strange reason I caught his license plate alpha and numeric characters as he was leaving.
Sure enough, the lady returns to a vacant parking slot next to our car and asks me if I saw the pickup. I told her yes, and that I watched the truck leave headed north on the interstate. She gets this I don’t believe this is happening look on her face and begins to break down. She then told me that they had been arguing for most of the last 100 miles and that her live-in “friend” of five years had threatened to leave her at a rest stop. She thought he was just kidding … at least the guy keeps his promises.
The plot thickens. I don’t know if there are any particular laws about abandoning someone. If not, there should be. Anyway, I advised her to call the state patrol and directed her to where the emergency telephone was located. She knew the make and model of the truck but did not know the license number … I gave her that information.
To this day I don’t know what prompted me to focus on that truck as it was leaving.
The lady made her call and we took off ourselves. Approximately 15-20 minutes later we spotted the truck in question with a state patrol car behind it. We slowed down a little and were delighted to see a state police officer with his finger pointed right between the guys’ eyes. Neither party had a smile either. Did the guy turn around and go back and pick up the lady in question? Did he at least offer to return her suitcase? We can only hope that he did and that the two will live happily ever after.
Will we be taking another long trip (driving) across our great nation? Nope. Trip proved that while 100 percent worthwhile, we are just getting a little too old to shoot, move, and communicate.
Having said that, there is no reason why the rest of you cannot get out there and carry the Idaho flag proudly across our nation. You will feel great as you pass through our heartland states of Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. You will also remember tales of buffalo herds as you pass through our Great Plains states both north and south. You cannot help to re fight the civil war as you pass through the Virginias’ and the Carolinas’, and wonder as we did, how come all these beautiful states had to fight one another.
Get on the road … you will be refreshed with meeting so many friendly people (scratch one lady from Superior Wisconsin) and smile as people tell you they visited Idaho once and loved it.
It was a pleasure having you with us on this trip.
