Frank's Place | U.S. Tour - Lewis & Clark Expedition, Day 8

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	"Lewis & Clark Expedition" - Pacific Northwest
	Day 8: Saturday, May 18, 2002

Starting Location:	Salt Lake City, Utah	Stopping Location:	San Francisco area, California
Weather There:	Clear and windy, 58°F	Weather Here:	Warm and windy, 61°F
Starting Time:	6:24 am Mountain Time	Stopping Time:	3:12 pm Pacific Time
Starting Mileage:	249,487	Stopping Mileage:	250,207
Total Miles Today:	720 miles	Bad Jokes Made:	0
Total Driving Time:	9 hours, 31 minute	Pepsi's Drank:	2 (1 liter each)

This was by far the dullest of days. We awoke at the usual hour, and after packing up the car, and an odd encounter when checking out, we were off. (By odd, I mean the boy trailed a somewhat disoriented lad into the office, who was looking for the "pop" machine and change for the taxi cab, who had arrived to pick up himself and a slightly too thin blonde girl. Our discussion after the fact revealed the tubby lad's view that the guy was either intoxicated or otherwise not his usual, non-chemically-affected self. And with that, we grabbed a Pepsi and some gas, and made our way for the interstate [80].

On the way out of town, and by extension, the state, we managed to get pictures of Salt Lake, and further down the road (over an hour later), the salt flats where the water has evaporated, and nothing remains but the salt itself. Yummy... actually, yes it is; the boy is sort of infatuated with salt. At 8:06am, the magic of time zones makes it 7:06am as we just finished crossing over the state line into Nevada. An hour later, we were back at Wells, and much like a repeat of anything that repeats, we found ourselves back-tracking our steps back home. Obviously, considering we've already been there, we didn't do much more than drive. (To see what we say on the way out, see Day 1.)

All in all, a good trip. The scenery was far more rustic (read, rural) than the Remember the Alamo tour, but that worked out generally in our favor. The trip highlights, maps, and stats are below as well.

Trip Stats

The Pepsi was consumed by others; ducks prefer bottled water (the local water may not necessarily agree with me, of course). Overall, the trip was roughly within budget (the allocation remains unchanged at $100 a day for food, gas, lodging, and overdue library book fines), on schedule, and without having to deal with the boy having phone numbers of attractive local girls written on him in lipstick. (Like there's much risk of that happening, of course.)

Tour Summary - Lewis & Clark Expedition, May 2002

Stories to be told, laughter to be shared (although mostly at the expense of local residents). FrankStuff was distributed throughout the trip, of course, given none of us are very people-oriented, we generally just left the merchandise on tables, counter tops, with restaurant servers, in malls, etc., across several states. We got plenty of curious stares, but no one really asked about me. Although there was still that woman in Idaho Falls that called me "fat"; hag. Some of my other observations of other places:

Most bumper stickers on vehicles: California, still. Utah was a distant second.
Weirdest smelling Cities: Salt Lake City, Utah. The rumor is it's the lake.
Happy Cows Seen: None outside of California, as that is where happy cows are from. Unhappy cows were observed in Montana and the Dakotas, however.
Most outrageous hotel fees paid: None, really. The highest rate was the EconoLodge in Rugby, North Dakota, but they were also really the only game in town. And even then, $60 a night isn't really an outrage. It's no Naples, Florida from the "Remember the Alamo" tour.
Nicest parks: Gillette, Wyoming. They had a pond that a young duck could swim and hit on other young ducks.
Most Anal Customs Official Met: Feight, at the North Dakota/Canada border. (Lashbrook was far more a congenial sort.)
Oddest Place to Find a Battleship: South Dakota (USS South Dakota). While the real battleship wasn't there, it still seemed odd.
Favorite State: Minnesota (largely due to the accent thing, although I'm not a huge snow fan)
Funniest Accent: Detroit Lakes, Minnesota (Wal-Mart). The favorite was Kirk ("Did you go to the lake with your new boat?"), followed by Wayne. To fully appreciate the humor of the accents, rent and view Fargo.
Cutest Fast Food Employee: Billings, Montana (Lee, Applebee's)
Best Place to Observe Native Behavior: Wal-Mart, the local Stop-n-Go gas stations.
Cutest Animal Seen: Me, still. Although some of the antelopes were wretchedly adorable as well.
Universities Found in Unexpected Places: None; there was a staggering lack of well-known educational establishments discovered, but plenty of state-funded schools (and some that didn't specialize on farming and agricultural lessons).
Hooters restaurants visited: Aurora, Colorado. I was surprised to learn there was actually one in the Salt Lake City area, but Lard Lad was too tuckered out to drive me there.
Nicest cop cars: Salt Lake City, Utah. The newest cars have the Vista light bars from Federal. Very brilliant designs.
Favorite illegal driving: The u-turn off the highway in Denver and the odd red-light/stop sign run in Fargo.
Worst Snow Cones Made: Again, Salt Lake City tops the charts. The theory is the ice wasn't cold enough, and as a result, it did more of a slushy thing (a la Slush Puppy beverage) and not a good quality snow cone.

Trip Map

Stay tuned. Trip 3 - Northern Lights is next on the plan...