ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Hey guys/gals. I have 2 purposes for this thread. The first is to let you all know my wife and I have arrived in the Tacoma WA area safely. If anyone local wants to meet up, PM me and we can arrange something as I am on leave till the 10th. The second is just to post up some pix of the journey, and the (I must admit) BADASS cross-country drive. I am SO glad we decided to trade in the Civic for the Ram. It just made traveling much more comfortable. I also managed to spend only about $500 in fuel if I count only the receipts from the main route (not the detours for sightseeing). My wife has never really left the state of NY, aside from my trips from there to DFW, TX. Which frankly got boring we made the trip so many times. So she hasnt seen alot of what America has to offer. This trip, I think I remedied that situation. This thread is going to be VERY picture heavy, because we took alot of pix. But I think you all can appreciate them. So here we go...Enjoy! Fort Drum NY, on 10 January...truck loaded and ready to go^. If you are wondering why the squat in the truck, here is why \/ ... ^what that says is the truck weighed 5,520lbs EMTPY (running on fumes and without me in it), and now with the gear we hauled here (we get compensated by weight for moving some of our own stuff...), the truck weighs 7,360 lbs (I cheated a little, the 26 gal fuel tank was full on the second ticket LOL. The lady at reimbursements told me to do it that way, so I did :D ). Basically, the difference of the 2 tickets is what we will get paid for. So it is 1,840 lbs of Household goods= a nice chunk of reimbursement cash. Anywhoo, off we went. We drove South from Watertown NY, to Syracuse on I-81. Then we hopped on I-90, the highway that would bring us to our new home. We drove past Rochester NY, through Buffalo, Erie, PA, Columbus OH and then we arrived at our first stop… Indianapolis IN, to visit with my grandparents. It was quite the drive, about 13 hours. Went straight through and really was not tired on the drive at all. The truck was amazing to drive, didnt make me tired, or sore or anything. My bum hip didnt hurt at all after that drive. Something that could not be said for the Civic. Indianapolis: ^Hey! I said "no salt!":egads: Next stop was a carwash. Then it was off to downtown: ^the monument in the Center of Indianapolis. You can climb up it, its about 150 steps, but it was about 5 degrees outside, and its not heated, so I passed :P. ^post office downtown. Its huge. To be continued....
ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 We made it a point to go to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but I am going to make another thread with all of those pix. Its ridiculous the amount of cars in there. We spent 5 days in Indiana, on the 5th day we set off on the longest stretch of our journey. The 14 hour drive to Sioux Falls, SD. Let me tell you the only interesting part of this trip…was Chicago. We drove through downtown on I-90. We did not stop because it was 3:45 in the afternoon…and well…Duh. We wanted to miss rush hour. Also we had a hotel reservation in Sioux falls, so we could not. So I am sorry NC211, I just couldn't make it happen this trip. :( I wanted to, but in addition to the above mentioned reasons, the wifey was also cranky. ^Check out that car on the right, I was doing 80mph, he passed me like I was stopped. Gotta wonder about people sometimes…LOL.
ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 Once we cleared Chicago, it was Wisconsin and Minnesota…the land of almost nothing. And of course, the obligatory “me” shot :D We arrived in Sioux Falls and turned in for the night. Hotel was nice enough, it was a long drive so we didn’t really care at that point. The next morning, we took a short drive, across the state of South Dakota from Sioux Falls, to beautiful Rapid City. On the way though, we stopped at the Corn Palace (which was more of a tourist trap than anything else), and the Badlands National Park and encountered some REALLY nasty weather. Corn Palace (the siding is all corn):
ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 The Badlands National Park: And the wifey: And once we reached Rapid City, we went to see Mt. Rushmore. Not much to it, so I guess someone was just trying to save face :P :
ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 From there, The Ram ran flawlessly across the rolling hills of Wyoming, and the mountains of Montana and Idaho. We crested the continental divide at like 10pm, so there were no pictures to take, LOL. We stopped again for an overnight stop in Missoula, MT. We woke up early the next morning and drove into Spokane WA, where we spent a few days with a friend of mine and his family. But let me tell you, after a week and a half on the road…nothing looked more amazing than crossing the Columbia River, driving up a giant hill, through some fog and then having my truck burst out of the clouds and BAM, Mt. Rainier and the Cascade Mountain Range came into view. It was breathtaking. It reminded me a lot of Alaska. . So here I sit, in my Studio-tel at Crossland Economy Studio’s, wondering when I will receive a call telling me my home is ready for move-in. Meantime, I have a lot of time to explore the Cities of Seattle, Tacoma, Olympia, Everett, Vancouver and Joint-Base Lewis McChord. I can actually sit and reflect on how privileged I am to be in the United States Army, because without this Job, we would likely not have gotten the chance to make the journey we just did. I am extremely glad I chose to drive instead of flying and shipping the truck. Good times.
SW03ES Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Quite an experience. Something I have always wanted to do is get an RV and drive all over the country. We came close to renting one and doing some traveling this summer, but doing so in a rental is a pricey proposition...let me tell you. Glad you had fun!
LEXIRX330 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Army- good stuff. Glad you and the wifey had a safe trip. Thanks for sharing the photos! Quite an experience. Something I have always wanted to do is get an RV and drive all over the country. We came close to renting one and doing some traveling this summer, but doing so in a rental is a pricey proposition...let me tell you. Glad you had fun! SW... I have a client that has some business with that called me and wanted to buy a RV 75k to rent to people. The insurance was not only almost impossible to find but was crazy expensive. But who could blame them...I wouldn't insure that risk myself. But there actually was some type of association that has a good price on it or I should say better price.
dcfish Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Very Cool Army B) I really appreciate you sharing this, It's great to wake up and go across the country with 1 cup of coffee.
lenore Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Awlsome, Those pictures reminded me of when I lived in North and South Dakota...Boy it was cold...Used to hunt and fish, that is all there was to do...And read...Great for my parents while I was in junior high and high school. Washington is really pretty..enjoy and glad you made it safetly...No pictures of Cheyenne or Idaho?
ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 Awlsome, Those pictures reminded me of when I lived in North and South Dakota...Boy it was cold...Used to hunt and fish, that is all there was to do...And read...Great for my parents while I was in junior high and high school. Washington is really pretty..enjoy and glad you made it safetly...No pictures of Cheyenne or Idaho? Cheyenne is off of I-84, not I-90, so no pix of Cheyenne, or Idaho cause there really wasnt anything to see going through couer d' alene. LOL, same with Montana.
nc211 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Great pictures Josh! I-Spy a Tarheel girl!!! You've got good taste amigo So, you got to experience the Chicago speedway from hell, eh! I quickly realized that Chicago does NOT have speed limits, but rather speed suggestions, which nobody pays attention to! Now you see why I had to get rid of our 07' Mazda 3GT..165HP in this town, will get your butt run over when trying to merge into traffic. They don't believe in on-ramps either, they just toss you right out into 90mph traffic. If you can't hit 60mph inside of 7 seconds, you're rolling dice around here! How about those roads! You like how the Illinois DOT smoothes out the pot holes with speed bumps? Lovely, ain't it, and you were on one of the better stretches of pavement too! You ought to ride with me in my GTI with it's 18' low profile wheels. I've only put 3k miles on the car since August, and already have two bent rims! What, no world's biggest rabbit, or largest cup of coffee (1M gallons) at Wall Drug? I know you had to have seen the signs out there in the Bad Lands! I still have a sticker on my locker from my early teenage years of summer camp out there, "You Dug Wall Drug?" Glad you guys made it safely! Hope your new digs and new surroundings are everything and more that you two hope for!! I am super jealous!!!
nc211 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 PS: No worries on not meeting up! Trust me, 20 minutes in my world these days, will have your wife signing YOU up for a vasectomy 1st thing Monday morning, if you ever want to see the ta-ta's again! It's diapers, formula, !Removed!, barf, and GALLONS of Mtn. Dew, Sun Drop, and "truckers coffee" - one cup'll get you 3 states, kind of strong!
ArmyofOne Posted January 28, 2011 Author Posted January 28, 2011 Great pictures Josh! I-Spy a Tarheel girl!!! You've got good taste amigo So, you got to experience the Chicago speedway from hell, eh! I quickly realized that Chicago does NOT have speed limits, but rather speed suggestions, which nobody pays attention to! Now you see why I had to get rid of our 07' Mazda 3GT..165HP in this town, will get your butt run over when trying to merge into traffic. They don't believe in on-ramps either, they just toss you right out into 90mph traffic. If you can't hit 60mph inside of 7 seconds, you're rolling dice around here! How about those roads! You like how the Illinois DOT smoothes out the pot holes with speed bumps? Lovely, ain't it, and you were on one of the better stretches of pavement too! You ought to ride with me in my GTI with it's 18' low profile wheels. I've only put 3k miles on the car since August, and already have two bent rims! What, no world's biggest rabbit, or largest cup of coffee (1M gallons) at Wall Drug? I know you had to have seen the signs out there in the Bad Lands! I still have a sticker on my locker from my early teenage years of summer camp out there, "You Dug Wall Drug?" Glad you guys made it safely! Hope your new digs and new surroundings are everything and more that you two hope for!! I am super jealous!!! We went to wall drug, but didnt go in. Looked like another tourist trap. Did we miss something good? If so, I am going to have to get back on the highway :D NOT! PS: No worries on not meeting up! Trust me, 20 minutes in my world these days, will have your wife signing YOU up for a vasectomy 1st thing Monday morning, if you ever want to see the ta-ta's again! It's diapers, formula, !Removed!, barf, and GALLONS of Mtn. Dew, Sun Drop, and "truckers coffee" - one cup'll get you 3 states, kind of strong! Truckers coffee FTW! Love that stuff. And we love kids too. Damned shame we cant have our own.
smooth1 Posted January 28, 2011 Posted January 28, 2011 Great stuff Army! Thanks! I come from "almost nothing" land! LOL!!
ArmyofOne Posted January 29, 2011 Author Posted January 29, 2011 Great stuff Army! Thanks! I come from "almost nothing" land! LOL!! I didnt say there was anything wrong with it! LOL. Just said there wasnt alot there.
dcfish Posted January 29, 2011 Posted January 29, 2011 Great stuff Army! Thanks! I come from "almost nothing" land! LOL!! I didnt say there was anything wrong with it! LOL. Just said there wasnt alot there. And I come from where Smooth comes from, Almost "GO PACK GO"
smooth1 Posted February 1, 2011 Posted February 1, 2011 Great stuff Army! Thanks! I come from "almost nothing" land! LOL!! I didnt say there was anything wrong with it! LOL. Just said there wasnt alot there. Nothin taken ...I thought it was funny! That's why we call Lambo Field "The Tundra".......Looks like one of your photos! LOL!
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