Roadtrip Day 1
Day 1 (Monday, December 01, 2003)
We hit the road at 7:30 am and began our route toward Salt Lake City, Utah for the evening. The conditions are rainy and completely overcast, typical for Seattle. Although this rain may possibly change to snow in the Snoqualmie I-90 Mountain pass. Near Ellensburg, Washington we encountered some snow, which continued with us along I-82.
Nearing Umatilla, the three quarters of a tank of gas that we started with is almost exhausted. It is 11:00am and we are jamming to TLC’s “Waterfalls” on the radio, a song which we haven’t heard in ages. Then the Atari’s and “Boys of Summer” comes on. We’re more than a quarter of the way there, passing over the Columbia River into Oregon. Maybe we should have gotten gas before we entered this socialist state, but hey, Marc Anthony’s “I Need To Know” is on and it’s another wonderful experience.
Fuel stop #1 11:03am $17.74 — 10.442 gallons — 227.3 miles
11:57 am — Thick fog encountered on I-84 past Umatilla while climbing around mile post 224. By noon, we haven–t seen anyone in front of us or behind us in several minutes.
Stopped for lunch around 1:00 pm, switched drivers (Scott to Ryan).
Slipped by Idaho boarder undetected even by ourselves, 1:15 pm. We must have been distracted by the great acoustics of the Mars Volta.
3:07 pm: We stopped in Boise, ID. At the AAA we obtained tons worth of maps and information. We also stopped at a photography store to get Readyload 4×5 film for Scott’s view camera so he can take pretty pictures on the trip.
4:09 pm: Departed Boise, ID, worried the boys make an onward struggle toward the great town of Salt Lake; Ryan vows to let none get in his way.
4:50 pm: We stopped to fuel up in Mountain Home, ID and were pleasantly surprised and amazed to find that our fuel economy was a whopping 37.5 mpg. On road again and it is dark. -548 miles
At some point here we changed time zones; we don–t know when exactly, but we decided to set the clocks forward an hour here.
7:00 pm — ~630 miles: Stopped to stretch and switch drivers back to Scott just after passing Twin Falls. Got out the granola with raisins and Ryan–s computer bag to hold us over.
8:15 pm — 726 miles: encountered fog at mile 8, having just entered Utah. Scott keeps seeing signs for “ogeden” (as he pronounes it), which I, Ryan, keep explaining is pronounced “Ogden”, like it is spelled. Fog is thin and hardly dampens visibility before it is gone.
8:43 pm — 761 miles: Scott sees the outlines of the Wasatch Mountains and is duly impressed: “I’ve never seen real mountains before.” “Welcome to the Rockies,” I reply, “We get to cross those tomorrow.” We are three quarters of an hour out of Salt Lake City now. Clifton won’t be getting out of class until ten so we get to burn some time in SLC until then, it looks like.
9:45 pm: Clifton is home, but we decided to stop at Temple Square to see the lights. We got kicked out around 10:00, but got some pictures before. Around 10:20, we met up with Clifton and had a nice long deep discussion, then got around to doing this blog stuff.
And now for everyone who spent so much time reading this, the reward has come! The pictures!
Ryan Driving
Scott Takes The Wheel
Sticking to Sixty
Encountering a little bit of snow near Ellensburg
Is This a Good or Bad Omen?
Passing Cement, Oregon
Scott On The Phone In Boise, ID
Temple Sqaure 1
Temple Square 2
Temple Square 3
Ryan At Cliftons
December 2nd, 2003 at 11:28:13 pm
Well, I suppose it sucks that Florida is out. But I’m sure it’ll be great anyway.
December 12th, 2003 at 12:30:24 pm
Ryan and Scott crashed at my house, but not so much into it. On the whole, their car sat neatly in the driveway through the night and left it before any native cars needed to exit the garage. While their car sat outside throughout the night, Ryan and Scott sat through the bulk of it in my room. Political discussion was inevitable, and as is proper, no party escaped substantial ridicule. Mathematics, Economics, and gay rats were the inevitable secondary subjects after a brief incident with a gun forced a subject change. One must wonder if and when Ryan will make use of his concealed weapons permit. Between group speculations on genetic components of homosexuality, and college experience comparisons, Scott read combinatorics and international economics books and later shared insights on cameras and telescopes; all of this from the couch that he would later sleep on. He hinted at the constructive effects that arise in relating to females that are afforded through knowledge of astronomy. Subsequent hints about the women that have posed nude in my photography were met with the same awkward silence as my semi habitual expletives.
Ryan fell out of conversations about socialism, and into a game of counterstrike; Cuban and Russian examples among North American speculations were comically juxtaposed against calls for backup and reports that the enemy was near the water, or sometimes the bridge.
Ryan curled up in my bed and invited me to join him. Once his boob was grabbed, he gave up and went to the guest bedroom, and made it clear that my tolerance for such behavior is much stronger than his.
Scott woke from strange dreams; a side effect of the Icelandic music that builds slowly in volume and orchestration. The idea behind this alarm clock is that it wakes one from sleep gently, and pleasantly and in turn, more effectively. Its effects on the unsuspecting were met with delight by its inventor who had dashed off to class shortly before Ryan and Scott had dashed back onto the road. They may have been particularly motivated after that incident with the gun.