8,000 Miles by air & land - Home Safe

Piney Point Lighthouse, built in 1836  - just down the road a bit from "home"

I am prepared to leave again tomorrow, but I sure hope I'm staying home for a time.  I attended my first Potomac Beach holiday picnic and met many of my neighbors for the first time (after living here for five years).  I have a long list of things to do and I am finding working from home requires a fair amount of discipline.

May 25, 2007

Day Six - Sheboygan, WI to Zanesville, OH

This was the most tedious day of the long cross-country journey.  Traveling through Indiana and Ohio is about as dull as Kansas, except the traffic densities are ten times worse.  Leaving on the start of a major holiday wasn't exactly a  brilliant idea as well. The Chicago Eden's Expressway was a mess - next time I'll avoid the Loop and take the Tri-state, of course I always say that and never learn, opting for a view of the Chicago Skyline.

A new record in filling up the tank: $58.75.  I drove through Chicago thinking gas would be cheaper in rural Indiana.  I was right by a penny: $3.749 for premium.  No photos of this day, there's nothing I care to remember.  After a good meal (fresh blackened Halibut) and a good night's rest, I have 442 miles left to go to Piney Point.  Tomorrow's drive will have some adventure back in it, as it is the last day!

May 24, 2007

Day Five - Sheboygan for a Day and a Half

The fully restored Sheboygan Theater

This kind of trip to my childhood home town never works too well, as it is incidental to the objective of getting back to my present home in Piney Point.  It was well intentioned, but delays in Seattle made this stop far too brief with too many people to see and no time to see them.

I did have the mandatory fish fry (lake perch) and brat fry (charcoal grilled bratwurst on a real Sheboygan hard roll) thanks to my sister and brother-in-law).  And I did make some improvements to my mom's living environment.  All too short, as tomorrow I begin the final two days of my cross-country journey home.  I do need to come back and visit everyone and photograph this amazing city. It will take a week or so and I want to do it this summer.  Parts of the old city, as I remember it, are gone.

View of the Jetties from North Beach to North Point - Sheboygan, Wisconsin - 05-24-07

May 23, 2007

Day Four - Hudson, WI to Sheboygan, WI

Wisconsin Highway 23 west of Ripon

Everything seems greener, friendlier and tastier in Wisconsin.  To most, the Midwest is the Midwest, but I always sense a distinct and notable difference - and I left this state thirty years ago.  Even a long abandon home has fresh flowers and a couch to watch the traffic go by in the summer shade.

Wisconsin Highway 23 east of Ripon

So many of the old barns are slowing decaying.  Some of the farmers restore them, many let them die in peace and those that still need to earn their keep may get covered with red aluminum or plastic siding.  Steel building are replacing the barns on the real operational farms.  How sad that so many of the old barns will be gone in the next decade or two.  I'd like to spend a month photographing barns in Wisconsin, if only I did not have to earn a living.

May 22, 2007

Day Three - Bismarck, ND to Hudson, WI

Fresh Walleye Fingerstrips at Green Mills in Hudson, Wisconsin!

North Dakota is the reason they made the movie Fargo.  Uneventful except for rain and periods of no rain.  Minnesota is about the same, but I did slow down as the population and state trooper densities seemed to increase.  There is a notable transition from cattle and hay to corn and other crops during the journey.

I hit rush hour through Minneapolis, thinking that the only reason this city exists is because its Nordic founders actually found a warmer climate to live in.  Just kidding of course - a great bustling city and home of both Prince and 3M!

I crossed the mighty Mississippi River at about seven PM and stopped in Hudson, Wisconsin for the night - kind of a suburb of the twin cities.  Ah, to be back in this Germanic/Nordic culture where the food is magnificent, even if eating it habitually will give you a heart attack or stroke.  Where else can one have fresh Walleye fingerstrips deep-fried in parmesan cheese for an appetizer.  Absolutely delightful!

Tomorrow, I'm back in my home town for a day before completing the journey from Pusan to Piney Point.

May 21, 2007

Day Two - Bozeman, MT to Bismarck, ND

Three days of rain, rain, rain, in the forecast for Yellowstone, so a missed opportunity and I change my plans - get home as soon as I can.  Damn, but Yellowstone will be around for another visit.  After an hour east on I-90, blue skies and some regrets for leaving, but not for long - driving rain and clouds for the next eight hours.

Foolish - I got speeding ticket in eastern Montana - 98 mph in a 75.  The Passport Radar Detector is slow to react to laser radar from oncoming patrols.  Past Billings, MT I-94 is near deserted and perfect for 140 mph - I know, driving at 140 is stupid, but I drive a BMW, and it goes that fast without too much effort.  My driving style now is modified.  Montana had a period of no speed limits - missed by me and gone forever.  $70 cash for the ticket and I lose my "Safe Driver" status next year on my car insurance.  Who cares?

Outside of Bismarck, I race to beat a killer thunderstorm to my hotel, and I roll into town and it's 80 F (the entire trip was 40's and 50's).  Big T-storms are rolling through as I try to get some sleep.  I guess I'm back in America.   Busan is a fading memory.

May 20, 2007

Day One - Everett, WA to Bozeman, MT

It was snowing when I left Everett (well very light flurries anyway).  Cloudy the entire trip - which means horrible photos.  700 miles anyway, and I'm in Bozeman, Montana.  Given I was delayed for four days because of the car problems, I'm uncertain if I want to go through Yellowstone with more clouds and rain in the forecast.  Clouds and rain do render interesting photos now and then, and when will I ever be at Yellowstone again?

May 16, 2007

Pusan to Piney Point via Yellowstone Park?

Public domain photo of Soda Butte, Yellowstone National Park

I left Pusan (Busan) on May 9th as my work in Korea is finally complete.  I must say that I do miss the many wonderful people that I have worked with so hard and so long.  I did promise one special person that I would return someday soon.  When, I'm not sure, but I know that I will.

Yet it feels great to be back in the US. To celebrate I had a great cheeseburger a "Z's" in Mukilteo and a Mexican Feast with a margarita the night before.  Now it's back to a healthy diet of streamed veggies, fruit and lean grilled fish and meats.  I never considered cooking as a luxury, but after a year on the road, it is an absolute treat.

After leaving Korea, I spent a night in Nagoya, Japan at the Marriott, built on top of massive Nagoya Train Station.  The city seemed quite familiar aside from an impressively twisted new high rise building going up in view from my room.

They changed the airport bus route, to my dismay, as it previously stopped right by the Marriott's back door.  No more - it was a ten minute walk with four bags through Nagoya Station to the hotel.  When you are traveling with that much luggage, even the express train (which I took back to the airport) is a pain in the ass.  The old bus route was easier than a cab.

 

 

 

 

 

Anyway I made it back to the airport with time to spare and had the luxury of an empty seat next to me on the Northeast flight to Seattle.  Even in business class, that empty seat is simply wonderful.

I arrived back in Everett on May 10.  The good news: I will continue my assignment and use my actual home as "home base."  What a great idea!  That, of course, means I have to drive the 325xi across the country again, with a little time to be a tourist in the US (and no blizzards in the forecast like the trip out to Seattle last year).

I was planning to take the Oregon and Northern California coast down to San Francisco and then take I-80 just about all the way to Maryland.  But that is an 800 mile detour at a time when premium gas to approaching $4 a gallon in California.  Why do I have a feeling that big oil is going to hammer us harder than last year and reap record profits again - of course in the sacred name of "supply and demand."

So Plan "B" is to take the direct I-90 route with a two-day stop in Yellowstone Park.  I am leaving two days behind schedule because of the little issue described in the side bar.  The weather looks a bit iffy, but shows some promise for some good photos in the park if I arrive this weekend.  I can't wait to be on the road.  The new plan calls for a Friday departure from Seattle.  We'll, make the Saturday, I hope.

~~~

My last shot of the mystical Oryuk Islets and the massive high rise project that is burying a small village.

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