Almost twelve years ago Andrea and her dad and I set out from Seattle, headed for Durham NC in a 24 foot truck Budget rental truck as we began our journey and move to the East Coast. Full blog post here. Readers of this blog will know that much has happened in the time since...many miles travelled.
And so now I return back to Seattle - by myself - again driving a Budget truck (thankfully a little smaller) and not towing a car this time. Grateful to have my friend Mark along to help with the driving as well as providing some much welcomed navigational and emotional support. A smaller truck meant we could actually exceed the speed limit if we wished and due to a tight turn around time for Mark at the end, we managed to do the drive in four and a half days instead of six.
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| Not as much stuff as first trip...or as many plants. |
We stayed at four Hilton properties and it was interesting to see what Covid restrictions (or lack of) were in place as we moved across the country from state to state with stops in Indiana, Iowa, South Dakota and Montana. Full hotel reviews as usual can be found here - though you'll have to scroll back through the list. Like anyone who was taking this new reality somewhat seriously we had plenty of hand sanitizer, masks and whatever else we needed to navigate through new terrain. And as you can imagine as we moved away from the coast, fewer masks were seen - at some petrol/gas stations we were the only one's wearing masks. At a stop in South Dakota close to Sturgis where the large motorcycle rally would be held in a few weeks, I overheard an unmasked local dismissing covid but also not wanting all the strangers to bring it in when they attended the rally. There's a conundrum!
Anyway, we made it safely to my parents in Seattle where we were welcomed warmly. Mark was a good companion and driver. We encountered kindness from strangers at different points and the truck got us across the miles in good shape. And I was grateful to again be able to see miles and miles of landscape and big sky roll by which was good for my soul. As I discovered twelve years ago, if you have never driven across the country from one coast to the other, it is a gratifying thing to know that you can do it.
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| First road trip photo as we crossed our first state line... |
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| Temporary pull off due to a massive storm, hail and tornado watch |
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| Waiting for the storm to pass |
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