Travel Observations

Just a few random observations.

• It's 2,035 miles from Pella, Iowa to Florence, Oregon. According to the van computer, we used 97.8 gallons of gas, averaged 20.3 miles per gallon and averaged 55.7 miles per hour.


• How many times can you meet a stranger on a trip? We ate breakfast at a Burger King in Wyoming. In the restaurant, there was a Hispanic family, a real cowboy (He had a cell phone along with his leather gloves. He had a sweat ring on his hat with two stains on the crown. Mary said they came when he gallantly doffed his hat to women) and a German couple with three little girls. I met the German couple again six hours later at a gas station on a different interstate. A couple hours later they passed me.


• I've seen at least a dozen bicyclists so far. A few have road bikes like me. Most have touring bikes or mountain bikes and are loaded with gear or pulling a trailer. Many of the self contained bicyclists are couples. They seem to come in two ages young and pre-family or older like Mary and me. Several bicyclists have clearly been indigents. In Idaho, it's legal to bike on the interstate. One disheveled man was peddling a tadpole recumbent (that's the one with two wheels in the front) and was pulling what looked like a six foot trailer covered with tarp. He has stopped at the road side and was examining something from the ditch. I wonder what his life adventure has been.


• Finally, don't wear rubber sandals for 36 hours straight and take them off before going to sleep in the van with the windows closed. Your wife might object.