Wednesday, March 11, 2009

9 More States Down 11 More to Go to All 50

T



This trip caught me unaware as I had not planned to go along this week. I honetly had decided that my last trip out was to be my last since I am planning to go to work and all. I guess that just goes to show DON'T PLAN just flow through life LOL. Anyway Bub really wanted me to go with him and Brandie had a hold on hiring for the time being so I thought what the heck sure I could go again.

I did not know when we left Wed Feb 18th that I would obtain 9 of my states that I still like having all 50. The states that I would add to my list of visted would include:
* Iowa
* Nebraska
* Wyoming
* Idaho
* Oregon
* Washington
* Utah
* Colorado
* Kansas

The trip was not that great really until we got to Michigan and got the dispatch for Oregon. That was when I knew that I was going to see a lot I had not seen yet and that more than likely I was going to be a nervous wreck doing so because of the blizzards these areas were getting. Believe it or not we lucked up the whole time we were out that way and most of the snowfall didn't occur to where we had to be traveling in it and in fact was very little for what I expected. The roads were mostly clear with only a bit of ice and snow in some spots.

Iowa: This state is pretty with huge fields and fairly flat land. The attraction of this area for me was the popular Iowa 80 truck stop. Even if you are not a trucker if you know anything about trucking you have probably heard of this huge old fashioned common courtesouy truck stop. I could not talk him into stopping because of time but I did get to see it and take a few pictures from the road. Iowa 80 is not just a truck stop but a museum of trucking, good food, and great hospitality. I hope one day to get a closer look at the establishment than I have from the windshild of a Freightliner as we drove on past!

Nebraska: What can I say about Nebraska? Beautiful land and some of the bluest waters I have ever seen in my life could be a good place to start. The numerous ponds makes for a great environment for thousands of birds. The fields reach as far as I could see. There was some long trains and an awesome bridge right outside of North Platte.

Wyoming: I really liked this state. Don't think I could live there because of the cold but other than that it was wonderful. Beautiful rivers, lakes, huge mountains, rolling hills, and flat land are all here. LOL they even have their share of dirt roads which our directions navigated us to use. It is always little things like this though that makes the trip memorable. While here we ran into areas that had received serious snowfall. I bet my 5 foot self could have completely dissappeared in some of those snow banks!

Idaho: Wow is about all I can say about this place. We had the opportunity to come through the Teton Ranges and really close by Yellow Stone National Park. This area was beautiful. If you have seen postcards of snow covered mountains it would compare to the beauty of this area. Seriously I could not imagine a more beautiful place with snow covered mountains, flowing rivers, and tall ever greens.

Oregon: The state of many weight stations and the ugly state line sign. An area of such beauty should have a creative state line not just a picture of the state painted brown with the words welcome to Oregon on it! Come on I could do better than that! This place is full of beauty and many rainbows. Oregon also had snowfall that I could have become burried in LOL. This was also where we ran into the nastiest of the roads that we would see. On the other side of the nasty weather was the most beautiful rolling hills and green pastures that I have ever seen. The mixture of that green grass with mountains and blue sky in the background was worth the weather to see! Bright and I do mean bright rainbows were everywhere here. They made for some wonderful pictures! We came through Portland near sunset so my pictures did not turn out well of this area but it was an awesome sight to see anyway.

Washington: OK here is the deal with Washington I barely made it here! I can't tell you much about the state because I just got into the borders of it enough to say I have been to the state. We went to Vancouver which is just across the Oregon line. There are no pictures because it was dark when we arrived and dark when we left. I hope to get back to Washington some day to see more of it but glad I got to see what I did of it.

Utah: This state but did not keep my interest as well as some of the others. The red rock canyons is the thing that I really took note of here. They did have a cool state line sign but my picture was blurry! Honestly I slept through most of this state and awoke only to see the canyons I had been told were cool.

Colorado: I got to see Colorado and say I have been there but I did not get to see the Colorado that I was expecting. We did not come through the huge mountains like I expected to see but more over an area that was almost flat with a few hills and mountains. The wind was terrible! The state line sign reminded me greatly of Oregon's. The neatest part of Colorado for me would have had to have been the actual city of Denver.

Kansas: Who ever told you Kansas was completely flat lied to you! It is flat but nothing like I was thinking I would see. They have hills just not large ones. The land is just kinda blah there but Kansas City made up for the lack of interest I had been having. Huge train yards, a big city, and bridges: I love bridges for those of you who don't know me.

These are just the 9 states that I had never been in! I was also in:
* Tennessee of course
* Indiana
* Ohio
* Michigan
* Georgia
* Alabama
I think that is for a grand total of 15 states in two weeks! This entry is already huge so I won't go into detail on those states but I will say St. Louis was wonderful and the arch is very pretty at nightfall.

All in all for a trip not planned this went very well. I was not prepared for the two weeks on the road and was mildly grumpy to begin with but once I knew I was headed to places unknown it lifted a bit. The weekend layover in Salina Kansas was a pain but at least we was where we had bathrooms, showers, food, drinks, and Internet. 2 more weeks on the road, 9 new states for a total of 15 in those 2 weeks, within 20-30 minutes of California and I still did not make it! Instead of drive south we drove north for hours to reach Vancouver. The good side of that I got more states than I would have had we went to California. The bad news I still have not seen California and I did not get to go back to Texas in which I have decided I could see myself living. My home is in Tennessee but I think Texas stole my heart.

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