The idea was born at some point in 2006. Tim acquired his driver's license in November 2006 and needed some driving practice. The lease on our Ford Pickup was running out, and the dealer assured me that we could "turn the car in at any dealership in the states".
At any dealership... hmm... is there an opportunity for synergy? How about if we drove the car all the way to Seattle, dropped it off at a Ford dealership there, and flew back home?
We rolled out the largest US map we had, pinned it to the wall of our office and began plotting the course. This would lead us straight along Interstate 90, the longest of the Interstate highways, which connects Boston to Seattle.
Google maps confirmed that the shortest route from Connecticut to Seattle would be 2800 miles - about as long as the journey from Lisbon to Moscow - and we had no intention of taking the shortest route.
- Tim in front of Niagara Falls
We take off from Old Greenwich on Saturday April 14 after a good breakfast. The first day would take us through familiar terrain: from the busy tri-state area north into upstate New York and then from its captital Albany westward along Lake Erie to Niagara falls, which we reach in the late afternoon.
While we had traveled through New York State under partly sunny skies we awake to cold and rainy weather in Niagara the next morning. The nice thing about traveling westward: the weather is coming towards you and so it changes quickly. As we drive through Canada on the north side of Lake Ontario we quickly reach sunny weather again. At the same time the worst Noreaster in decades unleashes heavy rains back home in Greenwich.
- Tim, Pit, and the Chicago Skyline are reflected by "The Bubble", a sculpture in Chicago's Millenium Park
The area between Lake Erie and Lake Ontario is Canada's rustbelt and not very pretty. Driving west we soon reach rural farmland, which stretches for hundreds of miles.
By mid-day we re-enter the United States in Detroit by crossing the Detroit River on the Ambassador Bridge. The traffic through Motor City is surprisingly smooth and the highways the best of the entire trip. Soon after lunch at Harps in Ypsilanti we reach Michigan's farm country.
Within a few hours we have crossed the state and reach the shores of Lake Michigan. At Warren Dunes State Park we enjoy an awesome view of this sweet water ocean reflecting the late afternoon sun.
- Flags fly over the Chicago River
- Interstate 90 West in South Dakota
Two hours later - with the sun setting - we arrive among the highrise buildings of Chicago and check into our hotel on Michigan Avenue.
We then spend first half of the next day exploring Chicago. It is a sunny morning, but still a bit chilly in the shadows, and gusts are blowing through the windy city.
From our hotel we head north on Michigan Avenue, first to the Millenium Park and the mirroring "bubble", then on to the John Hancock building, where we enjoy the view on Chicago from the oberservation deck.
Early in the afternoon we drive out to Des Plaines and the Mager's, where we spend the afternoon. Sofie serves us Rouladen for dinner, and Kurt explains us the illustrations in his studio.
In the evening we head towards Wisconsin and stay overnight at the Wisconsin Dells.
Tuesday April 17 is Kerstin and my 20th wedding anniversary, which we spend at quickly increasing distance. While Kerstin is at home still enduring the strongest Noreaster in years, Tim and I are on our longest day trip of the Journey: from Wisconsin all the way through Minnesota and deep into South Dakota.
The landscape changes gradually but thoroughly during the course of the day. Wisconsin reminds us of our homeland in southern Germany, yet once we cross the Mississippi the Great Plains await us in Minnesota. Farmland as far as we can see. It is still early in the year and the corn has not grown, but those are cornfields upon cornfields for miles on end.
We stop for lunch in Albert Lea, a small town in the Minnesota Plains. Our pledge for the trip is to dine off the beaten path and avoid any restaurant chains. In Albert Lea we find a very nice place called the Likeside Cafe.
- The Buffalo Gap National Graslands - with no end in sight.
Sioux Falls on the border to South Dakota is our next stop several hours later. After visiting the falls (of the Great Sioux River) in the center of town we continue heading westward.
We have a pair of buffalo steaks at "The Depot" in Mitchell, SD for dinner and decide to keep rolling for another hour or two into the setting sun before checking into the Best Western at Murdo, South Dakota
The next day has some dramatic views in store. First we reach the National Grasslands of Buffalo Gap. There is not much left of the prairie, but what is left is still huge from horizon to horizon. The endless sea of grass is breathtaking.
As we progress westward we increasingly notice areas of erosion - foreshadows of the Badlands. They grow bigger and more distinct until - late in the morning - we reach the Badlands National Park.
- Overlooking the Badlands
Here sheer endless hills and mounts of eroding sediment cut through the prairie. We enjoy two walks and the drive through the whole length of the park before heading towards the Black Hills.
Two sculptures of gigantic proportions await us there. The first are the faces of presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. They were carved into the granite of Mount Rushmore in the 1940ies.
The next sculpture is even bigger. Once completed Chief Crazy Horse of the Ogalala Sioux will be the world's largest sculpture. It will show Crazy Horse on horseback pointing in the direction of the prairie with the quote "my home is where my dead lie burried". The sculpture is being blasted out of the solid rock without governance funds. So far only the Chief's face is finished and there is easily work left for several generations of dynamite sculptors.
- Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills
- Devil's Tower
It is late afternoon when we depart from the Cracy Horse memorial heading towards the last milestone of the day - the Devil's Tower in Wyoming.
We arrive at the Devil's Tower National Park after 6pm. The park will close in an hour and it turns out that we are the only visitors left.
The road circles the tower as it climbs up to its base. We park and walk up to the boulders surrounding this core of an ancient vulcano. As we stand below it the sheer size of the structure becomes clear - an awe inspiring site.
North-west of us a storm is brewing and it appears to be raining heavily, yet the clouds move just enough to allow for the setting sun to lay an amber glow on the scene - one that I will not forget.
It's late in the day when we reach the highway and finally in Gilette, Wyoming a Best Western for the night. We have to pay a hefty price for the adventures of the day, though. Having run out of time we have no choice than to dine in a chain restaurant - Perkin's. May we never have to dine in one again.
Montana greets us with rainy weather the next day. After a beautiful series of days we can't complain - at some point we had to run into the next low pressure system.
We visit the battlefield of the Little Bighorn along the way, then continue on to Billings for lunch. As we start climbing higher into the rockies the rain turns into snow, and we are surrounded by snow covered mountains.
We reach Bozeman in time for dinner and use a break in the clouds to strole through town to the John Bozeman Bistro.
- Bozeman Valley in Montana
The next day gives us the Montana views we have been waiting for - bright snow mountains loom over Bozeman Valley. Just the right scenery for our daily breakfast in the car.
We continue climbing up the rockies over the continental divide and into Idaho.
Crossing over into Pacific Time we gain another hour of driving time, and make it all the way to Moses Lake, Washington State, where we check into another Best Western.
Saturday April 21 we awake to dreary skies. We had started our trip a week earlier in Greenwich and had since traveled 3000 miles. The last barrier before the Pacific Ocean is the mighty Columbia River and behind it the Cascade Range.
- Mount St Helen in the Clouds
The Cascade Range has some spectacularly high mountains, and many of them are volcanoes. We had planned to visit two of them - Mount Rainier and Mount St Helens - but the weather is not playing in our favor. Due to snowfall the Mount Rainier National Park is closed, and the cloud ceiling is so low that we can't even tell where the mountain is.
We are a bit more lucky with Mount St Helens, the vulcano, which famously exploded in the eigthies.
While the crater itself is in the clouds, we can see the effects of the natural disaster: dead trees all blown over to the same side, and the deposits of the avalanches in the mountain valleys.
Then, leaving the Cascade Range, we reach the Bay of Seattle and with it the Pacific Ocean, the final destination of our continent crossing journey.
- Pit in Seattle
- The end of the trail - we reach the Pacific in Seattle.
All told we have traveled 3600 miles from coast to coast, through sun, rain, and snow, the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. The journey gave us a sense for the size of the continent - but as wide as it may be - it was quite manageable thanks to Interstate 90, cruise control and that fact that we could take turns driving.
We spend two more days visiting Seattle with its Space Needle, the Fishmarket, and many coffee houses. We also return our Ford Explorer to a dealership before flying back to the East Coast.
The many impressions along the way, the sites we visisted, the change of the landscape, the size of the American continent, and the fun we had crossing it together - all of that will stay in our memory as an adventure, that only Tim and I share.
Pit Burkhardt, October 2007
