Road Trippin’ (10/8/24-10/12/24)

We’re back. . .on the blog and in the USA. We left Chemainus, British Columbia, on Tuesday and have driven approximately 1,900 miles over the past 4 days (not counting Tuesday as we didn’t do much driving) to arrive in Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin (commonly referred to as The Dells).

We have spent much of our drive on I-94 across the states of Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, and Minnesota before reaching Wisconsin. If you have to drive a great distance across the north US, we highly recommend this section of I-94 for its beautiful scenery and relatively low traffic. We have seen the beautiful green forests of Washington and Idaho, the different mountain ranges across Washington, Idaho, and Montana, the buttes and mesas of Montana and North Dakota, and then the prairies, rolling hills, and farmlands of North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin and lots of trees with their fall coats on.

In addition to admiring the scenery, there have been plenty of billboards and road signs to read, and we also have taken the opportunity to learn or re-educate ourselves on various matters through Googling the answers to various questions that arise, usually based on our surroundings. For example, I found myself wondering about whether I should be describing the changing scenery as changes in geological or geographical features. I initially resolved this by just saying topographical, but finally looked up the definitions of geology and geography to realize that usually I am referring to geographical changes.

We also learned, much to our surprise, that the US has more than one continental divide. Bob and I had both been taught (or at least both remembered) that The Continental Divide in the US was in the Rocky Mountains, and we had crossed it both by bike on our cross country ride as well as by car in prior travels. So we were very surprised to see a road sign in North Dakota that said “Continental Divide, elevation 1,452.” Say what? That immediately spurred a Google search to see if the normally staid North Dakotans were having some fun with the tourists. No indeedy, and we learned just how much we didn’t know about continental divides through an article at http://www.dmr.nd.gov, North Dakota’s Department of Mineral Resources.

We also had a couple of “cultural” memories on the road. Driving past a sign for Three Forks, Montana, reminded us of a Two Ronnie’s Four Candles skit that we have seen in the UK, and that we find highly amusing. Also, at the end of one long drive, Bob began reciting something about two dead boys getting up to fight. Turns out, it was a poem he learned as a kid, and after having read it, it seems like the one poem that he would remember. You’ll need to Google it, it’s “Two Dead Boys,” by Tyler Rager.

And that is a lot of nothing, but shows you the stat of our minds after this many days on the road. Tomorrow, we head to Janesville for a couple of days with my mom.