Decker Truck on the way to Iowa. |
Eastern Washington is the most desolate looking place on Earth. Nothing but dry, brown scrub as far the eye can see. Once we got to Idaho things turned green. It was nice. Not much to see but grass and cows, but at least the grass was green. Much more pleasant than Eastern Washington.
Harleys parked in front of the Holiday Inn in Sioux City |
Sioux City, the morning after |
Rockwell City is still hanging on. Grandpa was selling his cars to the local dealer, so we paid him a visit to take care of business. I was surprised to see that he had a lot full of new cars for sale. There must have been a hundred, this in a town of maybe 1500 souls. He seems to be doing okay. Matter of fact, the whole area seems to be doing okay. I suspect things have consolidated some and now there is enough business to support the reduced population.
We covered 3600 miles, burned 140 gallons of gas, which works out to about 25 miles per gallon, which is pretty durn good considering we were cruising at 80 MPH for most of the way. South Dakota had the highest speed limit at 80 MPH. Normally I set the cruise control to 10 MPH over the limit, but 90 was a little unsettling. The car handled it fine, but there was something in the back of my brain telling me we were in dangerous territory. There wasn't much traffic, but there were still occasional incidents of people not paying strict attention. Besides, the little computer display claimed our mileage had dropped to 15 MPG, the lowest I had ever seen it.
The trip cost a little over two grand, hotels were almost half of that. We ate in 'nice' restaurants mostly, so our food (and beverage) bill was a little more than the gasoline. Premium gas (required by our high performance utility vehicle) averaged $3.29 a gallon, but we saw places where it was only $2.65. We only ran into one place that did not have premium, but there was another station a mile up the freeway that did, so it wasn't a problem.
We saw a lot of Minervas. We ate at the one in Rapid City twice, and also at the one in Sioux Falls.
I'm planning to ride my bike over to the Ukraine later this year, so I just went to the doc to get the needed vaccinations.
ReplyDeleteFor which I had to pay more than I expect to pay for petrol for the 3000+ mile trip :-(
Hello from Spirit Lake IA. Cool & green, refreshing compared with Martian scape of Tucson AZ. It's good to be alive.
ReplyDeleteI came within milliseconds of eternity at a Kansas 2 Lane intersection, 800 mile fatigue, reality differed from my minds eye, focused on traffic to right I pulled in front of a 80mph car from the left, "WTF?" the almost-last thought for both drivers.
I've never had that happen b4, tired, GPS map cell phone distraction, I always look both ways twice. Now I know how accident happen on wide open highways. The poor soul in the other vehicle would have never had a chance.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDelete