If you have been following my blog since February and know a few of my dorky blogging habits, the following announcement shouldn’t surprise you. Because I have now moved to Seattle, my dateline policy has been updated. From this post on out, all entries without a dateline are written in Seattle.
OK, onto the fun stuff.
Due to my boredom and lack of any reason to stay in Spokane, I have moved back to Seattle to live with my parents for a while. It’s a step back in the ol’ walk of life, I know, but it’s a lot cheaper than the alternatives. Because my parents are divorced — and have been since I was 3 — I’ve decided to switch between houses every week. There are a few reasons for this: 1) so I get to see everyone, including my brother; 2) so I don’t get bored out of my mind; 3) well, that’s pretty much the gist of it.
Now that Brad and I have completed a terrifying drive over the mountains — terrifying, thanks to an overloaded U-Haul trailer — and now that I have moved most of my stuff into a storage locker, I can start to settle back into my hometown. (By the way, monthly rent for a 5-by-12 storage locker is a little outrageous.)
I have no real projects or anything. I’m continuing my both exciting and frustrating search for work in the journalism world — applying to at least three a week to I can stay eligible for Washington unemployment. (The checks have not started coming yet. Argh.) I also bought a membership to 24 Hour Fitness, both for the obvious purpose of exercising and the purpose of getting out of the house at least once a day.
Somewhat unrelated — my recent fascination is NPR. Man, that would be fun to do.
EDIT: Oh, I spent a little time today adding a “writing” section to my website. It has links to and excerpts from a few writing examples.
Filed under: Travel
There’s nothing like a long road trip to make you appreciate air travel. I’ve been known to hate flying on the airlines, but my trip back to Spokane from Minneapolis was pretty much hassle-free — and decidedly quicker than the trip east.
The trip was bookended by very American experiences. On our two-day drive from Spokane to Minneapolis, Lisa mentioned that traveling across our massive country reminded her of the pioneers. Of course, they took months to cross the West in ox-drawn “praire schooners.” We were in a Chevy Cavalier powered by internal combustion.
The other American experience was when Lisa and I visited the Mall of America on the way to the airport Saturday. It actually didn’t seem all that huge from the outside, just like a typical mall. Then you go inside, and you realize there’s three floors jam-packed with stores — and an amusement park in the center. Naturally, the only money we spent there was at Starbucks.
My trip back to Spokane was less remarkable of an experience, which I suppose is a good thing when it comes to air travel. The flight from Minneapolis to Seattle was delayed about 20 minutes — not sure why, probably just airport congestion. Luckily my connection to Spokane was also delayed 20 minutes — because the scheduled copilot (or, as they like to be called these days, First Officer) got sick and Horizon had to find another one.
Fun facts: Alaska Airlines now offers personal DVD players for rent during flights; they also no longer accept cash for food or alcohol, just credit cards; and Horizon Air offers beer and wine for free.
MAPLE GROVE, Minn. — Our journey across the West is complete. We got to Lisa’s home, in this suburb of Minneapolis-St. Paul, about 7:30 p.m. Central Time. It took us just about 10 hours today to go 680 miles. Together with Sunday’s 685 miles from Spokane to Miles City, Mont., our trip was 1,365 miles in about 20 hours.
Looking back at how relatively little time it took to travel 1,365 miles by car, it’s hard to tell whether it makes the world seem bigger or smaller. Sure, the United States is huge and it takes a long time to cross — but not that long. The fact we were able to drive this entire distance in less than 24 hours actually, to me, makes the world seem a little smaller.
Anyway, it was cool to see parts of the country I’d never seen before. I can now add North Dakota and Minnesota to my “Where I’ve Been” map on Facebook. And I’m looking forward to the coming days, when Lisa and I will be exploring the Twin Cities. (By the way, a little Wikiwandering told me an interesting factoid. The greater Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area is the 16th-largest in the nation at 3.2 million. Seattle-Bellevue-Tacoma is the 15th-largest at 3.3 million. And Spokane is the 107th at 456,000 people.)
A dozen photos from Monday’s trip are in the below slideshow.
MILES CITY, Mont. — Yesterday I alluded to a post about my plan for the near future. And as Lisa has said on her blog, that plan entails both of us moving out of our apartment in Spokane. It’s Lisa’s turn first, and we’re in the middle of a two-day road trip from Spokane to Minneapolis to move all her stuff back home.
Today was 10 hours of driving on I-90 and I-94, mostly through Montana — which is humongous. Unfortunately, it steadily rained for about eight of those hours. Fortunately, we’d recently seen a lot of that part of Montana — on our last road trip, three days ago. On Monday, we have another 12 hours of driving, largely through North Dakota and into Minnesota.
Above is our Sunday route — 685 miles — and below is a short slideshow of the view from the passenger seat (we each got a few turns). Monday will be 680 more miles.
Flush with free time due to unemployment, Lisa and I decided to take advantage of our freedom and visit our friend Jenna in Western Montana. Four hours of beautiful driving from Spokane is the town of Polson, on the southern tip of Flathead Lake. And, wonderfully, an hour and a half north of there is Glacier National Park.
Lisa and I left about noon Tuesday, timed so we could hang with Jenna on her day off Wednesday. That part of the country has breathtaking landscape, though the towns themselves are a little questionable.
So, a day trip to Glacier took up our Wednesday. I won’t talk much about it, so take a look at the slideshow below. But we did go on a three-hour hike up to Avalanche Lake, at the shores of which we found thin ice because it’s been a while since the sun hit there.
We got back to Polson near the end of dusk, enjoying the sunset as we drove along Flathead Lake. That evening, the three of us drank white wine and made caramel apples (well, we melted caramel and dipped apple slices in it).
We decided to head back to Spokane on Thursday so we could start planning the rest of, well, our lives. Which brings me to another post, which I will post somewhat soon. (No promises on how soon, considering my recent blogging diligence.)
SEATTLE — As some of you may have noticed, I haven’t been updating my blog recently. Well, I really don’t have much of an excuse for that, honestly, but this week I’ll blame it on the fact I’m home in Seattle taking a little vacation. It’s very nice. Relaxing, warm, fun. The only downside is Lisa’s not here, too.
But it’s been nice seeing family and catching up with a few friends back home. My mom, Brad (stepdad) and I even decided to be tourists for a day and take an Elliott Bay cruise on an Argosy tour boat. (It was a little odd for me boarding an Argosy, because when we used to row around Lake Union we’d to yell at them about their big wakes.)
Anyway, it was a beautiful day and the boat had an open bar. What else could you ask for?
The container “dinosaur” cranes ready for their next ship.
Filed under: Travel
Thirty-three hours door to door.
Wow. That’s ridiculous.
After my unexpected “layover” at the Holiday Inn Express in Spokane, I drove home to Pullman this morning and just got in. Unfortunately, I have to work more today. I’m going to drop off the face of the planet Sunday and not answer any phone calls on my work cell.
My mother questioned my eating habits Friday as I traveled. Breakfast sandwich from Dunkin’ Donuts, bagel with cream cheese and a cookie in Chicago, a sugary Snapple there as well, take-out Chinese at Sea-Tac … you try to eat well when you’re stuck in airports all day. Even the salads are high in fat.
Now that I’m home, I’ll have to go grocery shopping. I have little food, as I have been putting off a trip to Safeway since I’ve been traveling three weeks straight. Gotta stock up on real food.
Happy Saturday, everyone.
Filed under: Travel
SPOKANE — I suppose I can’t claim the title of Worst Day in History. That might go to the Japanese on Aug. 6, 1945. Or to the Jews on Kristallnacht. Or perhaps to the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, especially those munching leaves on the Yucatan Peninsula.
But if I were to make a list of the top 10 worst days of my life, these past two traveling days (to and from Charlotte, N.C.) would make the cut.
A note: I have made a point of not swearing in my blog, so you can use your imagination.
As you can see by the above dateline, I am in Spokane tonight, not Pullman. What welcomed me back here in the Inland Northwest was just the capstone on a horrendous day of sitting in airport terminals and flying aluminum tubes. (more…)
CHICAGO — That’s right, a Chicago dateline. I’m sitting at O’Hare International waiting for a flight to Seattle.
I’m heading home because the Cougars lost Thursday night. In fact, they got whooped by North Carolina. 68-47? That was WSU’s lowest point total of the year. And I think what has everyone bummed is not that Washington State lost — we expected that — but that it played so poorly.
Nevertheless, the Spokesman-Review crew — we put together quite the report on the loss, as evidenced by the screen shot above I took Thursday night (Friday morning?) before I got to sleep. That’s a picture, however, so you’ll have to follow the following links to find my stuff.
Here’s my quick post-game article, which I had plenty of time to write during the game because it was so obvious the Cougars were tanking. And here, after some worrisome technical difficulties (my computer didn’t originally capture the WSU press conference — you know, the biggest one of the year — so I had to capture it from a beta tape a few hours later), is my post-game interview video.
That technical delay explains why I got to sleep at 2:45 a.m. I woke up three hours later so we could leave the Charlotte Marriott at 6:20 to get to the Greensboro airport. Our flight left at 9:50 a.m., and now I’m here in Chicago.
Filed under: Travel
The route from hell.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Traveling for the NCAA tournament is not as fun as it seems.
My day Tuesday started in a snowy Pullman, warm and cozy in my bed, not wanting to get up. But I had to; I was traveling that day to Charlotte, N.C., where the Cougars are playing in the Sweet 16. A good reason.
Easy enough, right? It’s 2,650 miles from Pullman and Charlotte. We’re not talking about transatlantic travel on the Titanic, here. That would be a 4 1/2-hour flight direct — you know, if Pullman-Moscow Regional Airport had a long enough runway for a big enough jet.
Naw. I left my Pullman apartment at 8:30 a.m. PDT. I got into my Charlotte hotel room at 3 a.m. EDT. That’s 17 1/2 hours. (more…)
