MindlessCode.net

[Written at 10:00 AM EDT]
Hi All! We made it across the country in 4 days (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday). We left Oregon at 2PM PDT on Tuesday and made it almost to the Utah border (we slept in a so-called “cow pasture”–BLM land with cows on it). On Wednesday we made it across Utah and Wyoming and stayed at a motel in Cheyenne. On Thursday, we went through Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois (hit Illinois at 12:03AM). Friday morning (aka, after 12AM), we made it through Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York and then Massachusetts. Right now we’re driving down Mass Turnpike, with a ETA of 4 hours to Rhode Island.

* Oregon
Having never really been out of western Oregon (in a car, anyway), central and eastern Oregon were really very different that the western half (duh, I suppose). In central Oregon the land along the Columbia river was amazing. Sheer cliffs dropping down 10s of feet from beautiful sloping prairies on the N side of the Columbia, and amazing cliffs 100s of feet tall with tons of tali at the bottom of them. Water falls dropping 100’s of feet down these cliffs and crashing into rivers. Eastern Oregon was also beautiful with rolling hills, sage brush, and no trees for miles.

* Idaho
I have no idea–it was at night.

* Utah
The mountains we drove through on I-80 were amazing, with huge rock cuts on either side of the freeway. We also passed thousands of acres of “desert”–sage brush.

* Wyoming was very similar to Utah, with mountains and desert (even more that Utah). In eastern Wyoming we saw a “huge” wind-farm that was generating power for California. I’m sorry, but I think wind-farms are pretty, and I have no idea what people are talking about when they say that they “pollute the landscape”. If anything, it’s the oil field and refineries that do that. (Yes, we did pass a few refineries, but I didn’t get a picture for comparison.) We also met someone who collects dinosaur fossils–apparently Wyoming is full of the things. He gave us a fossilized dinosaur bone. Thanks!

* Nebraska
We sped through this state, only stopping for gas and lunch. The desert looks all the same from the road, but when you actually get out and walk around in it you realize that it’s actually very diverse with many different kinds of moss, flowers, and rocks (for those of us who are interested in moss, flowers, and rocks!). Trees are nowhere to be found, except tiny shrubs.

* Iowa
Ahh…this looks a little more like home! We started seeing green rolling hills, corn planted in terresces. many more trees (they’re also closer together!), as well as a few more wind mills. After we made it out of Iowa I went to sleep–I have no idea what Illinois or Indiana looked like.

* Ohio
Ahh, it’s the east–we have toll roads. It’s starting to look like the Eastern US here. I’m seeing lots of trees, water, and grass. We drove through Cleavland which is full of (old) factories made of solid brick (including the smoke stacks–made of round brick!). We stopped at Lake Michigan for lunch, which is huge and blue.

* New York
We avoided New York City like the plauge (hey, we’re from a small town!) and went through northern New York. It’s very nice up there with the interstate going through forests and farm land. Nice!

OK, so we’re here–it’s been a nice break-neck tour of the US, but I wouldn’t trade in anything for Philomath/Corvallis OR. We saw lots of spots that we would have liked to stop at (if we had time…). After the wedding, we are going to meander our way back across…fun!

This entry was posted on Saturday, May 28th, 2005 at 1:55 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.