The breakfast at Country Kitchen is spectacular. Somehow my buddy Stephen even gets the farmer discount. Cultivating Facebook pages for clients must count as farming nowadays – ha! I say goodbye and head on down the road.

Potato season is just about over in rural Idaho and the sugar beet harvest is just ramping up. All along the road trucks full of sugar beets are headed from the field to wherever it is they process the harvested crop. It’s amazing to me that the sun is barely up and there are so many trucks with full loads already.

I’ve got an 11:00 appointment at ATK Motorcycles in Centerville, UT and I pull up right on time. I’m here to meet Frank White, CEO of the company to do a video interview for the MotoGeo site I’m building with my motorcycle buddy Jamie Robinson. I talk with Frank for a couple hours, learn all about his business, riding bikes in the Utah mountains, his father’s acting role on The Jack Benny Show & as director of the Pasadena Playhouse, and Frank’s role within the government regulating off-highway vehicle usage.

The conversation with Frank is great and I hope to be back in Utah soon riding some ATK bikes both around town and out on the Bonneville salt flats. As I make my way south toward Vegas I stop off in Provo to grab a quick bite to eat and get a little relief from the 20 miles of construction taking place on Interstate 15.

A week’s worth of driving has left my iPod selection a bit less “random” than the mode suggests so I opt to play a couple movies. I don’t actually watch the movies, just listen to them. Heck, I’ve seen the movies I’ve got on the iPod so many times I can visualize them all anyhow. The drive seems to go much faster with the movies playing in the background and before I know it I’m at Las Vegas Fire Station #3 saying hello to my long-time friend Lee. As soon as we shake hands a call comes over the loudspeaker and he’s off to work. It’s pretty cool to finally get to see him drive the big engine out of the station with the lights flashing and sirens blaring. A good end to a long day’s journey.

This will likely cap off my trip blog. I’ve been on the road for a week and will be here in Vegas a bit hanging out with my buddy Lee and his family. See you all on the next adventure…

< Read about Days 6 & 7

< Start reading from Day 1

It’s pretty nice to have the kind of gig where you can work wherever you happen to be. Here I am in a small Idaho town where the nearest Walmart is a 45 minute drive and I’m editing motorcycle videos from an event in Indianapolis. Pretty cool.

When Stephen gets back from his office we decide to go to the little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in town. It’s a Monday night and not much is going on in Aberdeen. Actually, I’m pretty sure we could just shorten that to “it’s night and not much is going on in Aberdeen”. The food is awesome – I have a fajita burrito and the thing is so huge I’ve got enough for lunch tomorrow. After dinner we hang out and talk about business and motorcycles. Not a bad evening at all.

I wake up Tuesday morning and immediately get to work. I’ve got a new web site design to launch, another site design to start and now a video to edit. Things are moving right along. I also get a hold of the folks at ATK Motorcycles and arrange a meeting/interview with their CEO on Wednesday in Utah. I’ll be using the video interview for yet another project I’m working on and it will be great to get to know the folks at the U.S. based bike manufacturer.

Dinner tonight is going to be at Homer’s Bar & Grill in Springfield. You Simpsons fans let that one soak in for a minute. Apparently tourists tend to wander into this bar now & again thinking it has some affiliation with the TV show. But make no mistake, this is a tried & true locals bar and it’s just plain cool.

The first thing I notice is that Stephen and I are the only guys in the bar without full beards. The next thing I notice is that Stephen knows half of the guys that are in here. These guys are great! A bunch of old farmers & ranchers & such with local roads named after them and a million great stories to tell. Here’s an example…

“About 20 years ago I was taking a piss down by the culvert. I didn’t know it but I dropped my wallet and I had 180 dollars in there. I figured it was lost for good and then about a week later I get a notice that my wallet is down at the post office. I go and pick it up and the money was all in there.”

Then there is Bill, who was in the military and stationed in a UK town in the 1960s where Stephen’s relatives happened to live. Well after Bill took a dip of his Long Cut Cougar chewing tobacco he proceeds to tell us how he only had to work a few hours a day and then he’d travel around to all the country towns in Scotland and drink beer and meet loose women. “They loved Americans back then,” he said “and I could do no wrong.”

We have a couple drinks (which all come with crocheted beer cozies and a round of which were bought for us by Bill) and some pretty darn good bar food. The french fries are out of this world – most likely because the potatoes came out of the ground up the road this morning. How cool is that? As I’m eating I see a guy order a beer, say goodbye to everyone, then leave with the bottle. I mention what I saw and a fellow next to me says “Yeah, he ordered a Sterling beer.” Looked like a Bud to me. “No, you know Sterling Road. The one back off the highway. You take that one to get back into town.” Unreal, you order a Sterling beer (which comes in any brand you like) and drink it on the way home taking the back road to avoid the eyes of the highway patrol. Wow. I’m driving so Stephen orders the Sterling.

Tomorrow I head to Utah for the interview  and if I’m not too tired I’ll push on to Las Vegas to spend a few days with my buddy Lee and his family since he’s got a bunch of days off. After that I’m California bound and the trip will be complete. Less than 900 miles to go…

Read about Day 8 >

< Read about Day 5

< Start reading from Day 1

Once the generators start rumbling along RV Row I decide to wake up and get going. Today I’m off to Aberdeen, Idaho (AKA the potato capital of the world) to meet up with Stephen Clark who’s business is powersports photography. He’s been nice enough to offer me a place to crash for a day or two which will be very nice after my days on the road. First though, I’ve got to go say goodbye to my Yellowstone neighbors so I hop in the car and take a gander out on the grasslands. Sure enough, the bison and elk are awake and stirring this crisp, clear October morning.

I leave Yellowstone park through the west entrance and come down off the mountain along a nice stretch of highway that becomes increasingly more rural as I near my destination. I stop off and get some gas and since I have a decent signal on my phone I decide to update the blog with the day 4 story. As I get back on the road I realize that I forgot to clean the windshield back at the gas station (too busy on the computer – woops) and I take the next exit to do just that. The weather has been absolutely perfect the entire trip which I’ve enjoyed thoroughly, but from the looks of the splattered mess that is my windshield all the suicidal insects in this country are enjoying their last seconds of fall sunshine as well.

I meet Stephen at his new office space in downtown Aberdeen, where the potato harvest is nearing its end and the truck traffic is finally dying down. Before I get there though the GPS decides to route me off the highway and down a few farm roads before sending me back to the very highway I just left. “The shortest distance between two points,” she utters. “Is a STRAIGHT line.” I reply, “And that was anything but.” Hopefully she’ll be a bit more cooperative on the final days of the trip.

Stephen and I leave Aberdeen to see some natural geo-thermal pools called Lava Hot Springs. Along the way we head off on some dirt roads to put his new truck to the test. We head up some access roads where in the winter months he shoots snowmobile photos for magazines & manufacturers (not a bad gig). As we’re driving along we have to stop for a herd of wandering sheep that seem just as content along the roadway as they do on the grassy hill.

We make it to a good turn around point and stop to enjoy the view. The F150 has performed well and makes me miss my truck. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Element but that car isn’t going to make it up these hills.

The first place we stop near the hot springs is a little local bar called the Wagon Wheel Lounge. The fellow next to us (named “Moon Dawg” according to his leather motorcycle club vest) strikes up a conversation and proceeds to tell us all about his job as a nighttime truck driver in the remote, high-elevation oil fields in eastern Utah. Apparently he transports oil in an off-road worthy truck pulling an extra trailer with a total of 109,000 gallons of liquid capacity and he does this year-round. So, during bad winter weather he’s got to take a big lunch in case the off-road chains lose their grip and he gets stranded miles from anywhere and has to wait for a rescue. Moon Dawg ended up in Utah because of a girl he met after he bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles from his home in Boston. When things didn’t work out with her he started driving truck from L.A. to New York and when he got tired of that he found work in the oil fields which is closer to his current stomping grounds in Utah. The things you learn in small-town bars…

After the Wagon Wheel Lounge we head up to what’s supposed to be a good Thai food restaurant. Sure enough, the food at Riverwalk Thai Food is great – and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been eating nothing but dried fruit, peanut butter sandwiches and beef jerky for the last four days. We each have an excellent meal and make our way to the Laval Hot Springs. They’ve done a great job remodeling the facilities and the hot springs are almost like a mini resort – complete with on-staff massage therapists. Back at the bar we heard from a local that the magical healing powers of the hot springs water are less a result of magic and more a result of the radon gas bubbling up from below. That fellow said that equates to low-level does of radiation exposure and since they use radiation to treat cancer the radon gas must work for everything else. Sounds a bit like the duck/wood/witch logic from Monthy Python’s Holy Grail to me but hey, we’ll go with it for now and jump in the mystic waters.

The next few days of this road trip are up in the air. I’m going to try meeting up with a motorcycle distributor in Centerville, UT and stop in Las Vegas to see my buddy Lee and his family. Between those two points, I’m not quite sure…

Read about Days 6 & 7 >

< Read about Day 4

< Start reading from Day 1

I’m nudged awake by the sounds of morning Montana traffic to which this comfy motel bed happens to border. Looks like another early start and I’m eager to make it to Yellowstone with plenty of daylight left to illuminate my exploration.

Last night I took a look at my road atlas and found the closest town to the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park to be Gardiner, MT. When I jump in the Element and turn the key I immediately reach in the glove box and pop the GPS on the dashboard. “Hello my old friend,” she says sweetly. I blush. “I thought I wasn’t allowed out of the box this trip.” “Yeah well,” I mumble, “the road atlas doesn’t show me how to get out of Great Falls and the dude at the front desk of the motel was kind of sketchy.”

Now that me & the GPS have made up we’re off to the races. Luckily, she guides me through a jaw-droppingly beautiful section of the Lewis & Clark National Forest. Every five minutes I want to stop and take a picture. The fall colors are dripping off the trees on the hills all the way down to the river we’re paralleling. I resist and stop only a couple times. Today’s mission is Yellowstone.

I reach that little gateway town and pass through the Roosevelt arch at the north entrance of Yellowstone. Again I resist the urge to take a touristy photo and press onward into the park. My patience is instantly rewarded around the first few corners past the entrance. The Yellowstone River is flowing swiftly and framed with a riot of autumn foliage.

Under one bridge I spot a pair of elk bathing in the river. Along every ridge the evergreens are mingling with their fall-fashioned cousins. It seems that every curve in the road reveals a more awe-inspiring view than the one before…and I’m only a few miles into this massive park.

The first campground I see is a bit too barren for my taste. The RV to pine tree ratio is decidedly Winnebago. Since I’m traveling in the “Mini-Bago” I opt to keep driving and try my luck 20 miles down the road at the next campground still open this late in the season.

My patience is rewarded again and I snag a good spot amongst the RV crowd (actually I seem to have ended up in the employee wing and feel a bit the odd man out) where my upward view is the tops of 50 foot pines. The location is fairly central to the park and should allow me a good launching point for my day of tourism.

I set off from camp with the goal of Old Faithful. I mean how can a first visit to Yellowstone be complete without seeing the spout? I make plenty of stops along the way and get to see many geo-thermal wonders, curiosities, and oddities. Geysers, bubbling mud pits, and steaming moonscapes are all around the park.

I get back on the road and head toward Old Faithful. It’s about 15 miles from where I’m at now and there’s road construction for 11 of those 15. The signs say “expect 30 minute delays” but here in Yellowstone that’s no big deal. Nature provides you with roadside entertainment such as the Grazing Bison Adjacent a Flowing River show that was on during my particular traffic jam.

I exit using the Old Faithful off ramp and quickly realize that I’m at the money making epicenter of Yellowstone. Seriously, this geyser is the Disneyland of the national park system. Two theme park-sized parking lots, a shopping center, two gas stations, and a mammoth hotel. Wow, this water spout must be something else.

Seems I’m right on time. Over a thousand people line three rows of viewing benches that seem to stretch for a couple hundred yards. I take a seat on a log away from the crowd and figure hey, I could always take a picture of a geyser…I might as well take a picture of a thousand people taking a picture of a geyser.

My timing is just right as a few minutes after I sit down Old Faithful blows her top. She definitely doesn’t disappoint and after a few photos I put the camera down to marvel at this natural water cannon. It’s then that I get a real reminder of human nature. The geyser is still shooting water into the air and hundreds upon hundreds of people have turned to head back to their cars and on to the next sight. The family next to me discusses how the event lived up to their expectations. “I expected a big rumble,” “It didn’t seem all that high,” and “I thought there’d be a light show,” are among the comments. Reminds me of how people in a long line at an amusement park tend to talk about rides at other amusement parks. I get a good chuckle then turn my attention back to Old Faithful and watch her take her final bow (as she does approximately every 90 minutes).

That’s enough excitement for me today. I think I’ll drive back to camp and have a nice, room temperature meal of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a carrot. Why a carrot? Because I forgot to bring a knife and I’ve got to get the peanut butter on the bread somehow.

On the drive back to camp I have to stop to let a herd of tourists cross the road and take pictures of a group of buffalo who happen to be walking across the meadow minding their own business.

Tomorrow…head to Idaho and meet up with Stephen. Should be another fun day.

Read about Day 5 >

< Read about Days 2 & 3

< Read about Day 1

I fall asleep on Wednesday night about 10pm figuring I’ll wake up with the sun and get an early start on the day. Well, I wake up a bunch of times during the night due to critters crawling around the car, the cold night air, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I sleep fairly well in the back of the Element but the first night takes some adjustment. I awake to another sunny day at Lake Itasca ready to get going since it’s got to be about 6:30 a.m. I grab the mobile phone and hit the button to see 8:20 a.m. — what??? Wow, guess once I got used to it the car was more comfortable than I thought.

Before I fell asleep I looked at the road atlas and decide I should aim for Theodore Rosevelt National Park (the north unit – it’s split into two separate parks) in western North Dakota. I get the car rolling by 9 and by 10:30 a.m. I’m out of the forest and onto the plains…where I stay for the next 7 hours or so.

Rolling and flowing, North Dakota’s landscape is an ever-repeating sea of “amber waves of grain” (which it turns out is also the case for northern Montana, but more on that later). After a long time on an extremely repetitious Highway 2, I turn off and head toward Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The drive is highlighted by a rather impressive bridge heading over one section of Lake Sakakawea on Highway 23 in New Town. Another curious sighting is about 30 miles of oil pipeline along the road. Apparently, North Dakota is the new oil capital of the U.S. – Oil drilling sites are going up everywhere.

I arrive at the park about 5 minutes before the visitor center closes. Luke at the office helps me out after every single person who works at the park (except for the field ranger) says “see you tomorrow Luke” on their way out the door. So, 2 minutes before closing Luke gives me directions to the campground and I say “see you tomorrow Luke” and head deeper into the park…where I meet that field ranger. He’s really nice when he pulls me over for speeding in a national park. Not much to do on a Thursday evening except let the only guy left exploring the park know he’s doing 35 in a 25 I suppose. After he lets me off with a warning I get back to exploring the awesome rock formations and the buffaloes chilling out right next to the road.

I find a good campsite and turn in early. This time I set my alarm to make sure I wake up and get going with the sunrise. The sun is just peeking out behind the hills as I get back on the road. I’ve decided the next stop is Glacier National Park and figure it’s about 8 or 9 hours of driving to get there. “I could tell you exactly how long it will take you,” says the GPS from the glove box. “I thought I told you to keep quiet,” I reply, which is followed by a muffled, robotic-sounding, “I’m just saying…”

Rolling amber waves of grain – take 2. Seriously, the drive is rather monotonous on highway 2 across northern Montana. My highlight reel consists of a wide piece of farm machinery that takes up almost two lanes of the highway and a curiously large number of U.S. Border Patrol trucks patrolling the Canadian borderlands.

As I near my tenth hour of driving I tell my GPS I don’t want to hear it and decide I’m too tired to hit Glacier National Park today (there’s much behind this deviation, but that’s a story better told in person). In fact, let’s hang a left and see if the landscape changes any. Not really. As I grow more tired and neared my 12th hour of driving I decide that a motel in Great Falls, Montana looks like the spot to stop. So, here I am in a motel room on their complimentary wifi doubling the budget of the first two camping nights and not feeling bad about that at all. Tomorrow is a new day and I’m going to aim for Yellowstone and/or Grand Teton National Parks. I may even cheat and map out a route on Google Maps…just don’t tell my GPS.

Read about Day 4 >

< Read about Day 1

Take, for instance, day one of the trip — Wednesday, September 29, 2010. I wake up around 8:00 a.m., eat some breakfast, watch some television, and around 9:30 decide I should hit the road. After saying goodbye to my grandfather and shedding more than a few tears on that first stretch of highway I head straight across northern Wisconsin and about two-thirds of Minnesota to Lake Itasca State Park. That’s just south of Bemidji if you’re looking for it on a map.

Why Lake Itasca? Well, last week I was running my finger along my trusty road atlas (I’m doing my best to make this a GPS-free adventure) and saw “Mississippi Headwaters” listed not far off US 2. I thought, “The start of the Mississippi River? I’m there.” I told my dad I was planning to see the headwaters of the Mississippi and while we were on the phone he said that Google told him the river started at Lake Itasca. With that tidbit I pointed my car in a westerly direction on highway 2.

As I near the city of Bemidji I realize that I don’t know where Lake Itasca is except for the fact that it’s “near Bemidji”. I hear the muffled, semi-robotic voice of the GPS from deep inside the glove box say, “you know, I can help you with that.” Shut up GPS. You’re staying in your cozy little box so you might as well get comfortable. Just then I see a sign – Lake Itasca State Park next exit. Well lookie there GPS, I didn’t even know it was a state park. That probably means they have some campsites. Maybe I can get a good spot by the lake…after all it is late September and all the family campers should be back to the grind.

About 30 miles south of Bemidji I turn into the Lake Itasca State Park south entrance. It’s another 5 miles in to the campsite registration office and the fall season has washed the forest over with a sea of golds, reds, and oranges – simply stunning. I pull up to the registration office and I’m in line behind an old fellow driving a big shiny house on wheels pulling the American equivalent of my Honda Element. I guess when I’m his age maybe I’ll have a motorhome and tow my Element behind it but for now this little buggy will have to serve as both.

The first thing the registration lady says to me is “wow, you’re the youngest person we’ve had here in weeks.” Apprently all the parents and kids have indeed gone back to work & school so my neighbors will all be of the senior citizen variety. I immediately jump to conclusion that the campground will be nice and quiet.

The registrar tells me the majority of the campsites have electrical hookups so I opt to go with one of those for an extra 4 bucks. She says, “Site 59 is the best spot in the whole park and it’s available. Would you like that one?” “You bet!” I reply and hand over my credit card. Wait, I can use a credit card? I wonder if they have wifi. Ah nevermind, I can just tether my phone to the laptop if I can get a signal. Wow, my idea of “roughing it” has changed since I was a kid.

Sure enough, I pull up to the most beautiful campsite I’ve ever seen. Nothing but some trees and Lake Itasca behind me and the site is made for those monstrous houses on wheels so my Element tucks way back next to the lake leaving a good 100 yards between me and the nearest neighbor. Fantastic.

Of course, being the geek that I am I have to see if I can get a decent web signal on the phone so I jump on Google video chat with my dad. After giving him a brief tour of the campsite the signal craps out so I try to get the thing working again for another 10 minutes. Suddenly I realize I’m in a beautiful, natural setting that requires no electricity or internet access to enjoy and I jump in the car to go see the Mississippi headwaters.

The interpretive center is quite impressive. They have a gift shop and a restaurant which were both closed but looked nice. What I really like though is the 25 foot long scale model of the terrain from Lake Itasca to the Gulf of Mexico that gives an excellent perspective of the length of the Mississippi River’s flow. Good, now I’ve that I’ve got perspective let’s go see what’s at the start of this 2,500+ mile stretch of water.

I’ve been over the Mississippi River in Minnesota, Wisconsin and down in Louisiana. The river is absolutely huge and until today I never gave a second though to the fact that it had to start somewhere. Well start it does — all 15 or 20 feet of its width spills out of Lake Itasca at a steady pace. I walk over it on a flattened out fallen log (read: tourist gimmick) and contemplate trying to jump over it on a narrower, secluded section a bit further down its flow.

What you see here at the Mississippi headwaters isn’t much in relation to the whole of its mass. It’s definitely worth the trip though and not just for a “yeah, I’ve been there” moment. Seeing the natural beginning of something so massive that helped shape so much of the history of the United States is both humbling and thought provoking. Definitely a good way for me to start this trip.

Read about Day 2 & 3 >

My route to California will be centered around national parks. My main goal is Glacier National Park, I mean how can I not go to a place with scenes like this. After Glacier NP, the plan is to head on down through Yellowstone, Grand Teton, maybe Bryce Canyon, then Zion. Since I don’t have a specific time schedule for arriving back in California, I’ll let the weather and my the limits of my outdoorsy spirit be my guide. Should be quite an adventure.

Two side trips will likely be taken. One will be to finally meet my colleague, photographer Stephen Clark in person down in southeastern Idaho. The second will be to meet up with my long-time buddy Lee in Las Vegas for the last stop before my final destination of Burbank, CA.

Read about Day 1 >