Mile 2287

End of Day 7.

All of yesterday, it was there mocking me. Sitting in my motel room was a little flier from a local restaurant. "Warning", it said, "If you travel, but always eat the same food, are you really traveling? Don't waste another day, eat local. Present this coupon for a free appetizer, NO STRINGS ATTACHED!"

Of course it's right, that was the whole point of rule #2, I completely agree. PLUS, free appetizer! The problem? The restaurant in question was over 6 miles away, across pedestrian un-safe roads and bridges. So I sat there yesterday, eating my Perkins and Casino food, regretting that the one restaurant that I MUST eat at was just out of reach. So today, after I took a taxi to the mechanic's, and stuffed my stuff in the Beetle (The new oil pan hadn't arrived yet), I matched to the center of town to eat at that beckoning restaurant. The food was really just standard stuff, burgers, sandwiches, steaks, chili, but it was good. And when they mean free appetizer, they mean a real appetizer. I ended up with three meals because I accidentally ordered a sandwich, which came with a BOWL of chili, and then asked for the Mega Nachos, and got enough mega Nachos to feed two people.

Afterwards, I wondered around downtown for a bit, two used book stores, A comic book store, a music store still selling vinyl...

Then it got the call, the Beetle was fixed, no problem. No engine damage. So I hoofed it back, and proceeded to drive the last 100 miles or so to my final destination. And now I'm here.

Trip Completed.

Mile ??? + Epsilon

End of day 6.

Not much to report here, spend the day in the motel. The good news is that a new oil pan should be in tomorrow, and there are no traces of metal shavings in the old oil pan, which would be an obvious indicator of engine damage.

I tried hiking around the motel, but civilization is still 2 miles away, and most annoyingly the only road to town has a long overpass/causeway with no shoulder or sidewalk and allot of semi-traffic. Also, for some reason any time I tried to venture out into the world, it started to rain.

Food wise, I'm limited to to a Subway, Perkins, Dairy Queen, and a "Casino". I broke the rules again, and went to Perkins for lunch. Dinner I hit up the "Casino" for pub-fare, and got a very passable burger. Unfortunately, it seems that no-one on this side of the nation knows what Hard Cider is. All throughout dinner I kept asking myself how a bartender can be oblivions to the existence of cider, so when I settled the tab, and brough the subject up again, and asked her if she knew what a Snakebite was (1 part beer, 1 part cider), and she started talking about some drink with whiskey and lemon juice...


What is the world comming to when a man can't even get a cider...

Mile ???

End of Day 5

I'm back in civilization. It took a little longer than 3 hours for the towtruck to get out to me, and probably another 2 hours to get back out again. All the driver could say was “How did you get a beetle in that far? I've had trouble getting snowmobiles out that far...”.

I've left the beetle at a local auto shop, and we will see tomorrow how bad the damage is, and how long it will take to repair.

I also regret that I broke two of the rules tonight.

I got to the motel at 11:00 pm, and the only restaurant within walking distance that was still open was a subway, and seeing as all I had eaten all day was some toast and a muffin for breakfast, I was pretty hungry.

The second rule I broke was an unlisted bonus rule: No Soda. So far I've kept strictly to iced tea and various juices. Unfortunately all subway had was that really bad fake tea that comes out of the soda dispenser, so I gave up and had a Mr Pib.

Mile 2139.8

The guy at the wind farm visitors center told me there was a back way out, that took you across the rest of the farm (still keeping you away from the actual turbines though), and then through some wilderness and gravel roads back to the highway. It sounded like fun, so I gave it a try.

It was a little more wild than I expected.

Allot more wild.

This was a road made for my old jeep, NOT a beetle. I guess I pressed on just a little too far, I kept thinking “This is the one bad spot, the rest of the road will be better,” until one loud clunk, and the oil light let me know that things were not getting better.

I've seen this before, I probably just dinged the oil pan. If I stop now the repair should be quick and easy. The problem is getting out of here. So I backtracked 100 feet to a sign I had just passed, and started making calls to try and get a towtruck out here. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard to get a towtruck when you don't know where you are, and you are in the middle of nowhere. Thanks to some luck a passing jeep was able to give me directions to pass on, and I've called in a tow truck. ETA: 3 Hours.

Thats right folks, three hours in the middle of nowhere. And with no company but the cows (there are ALLWAYS cows).

Mile 2129.6

More wind turbines!

Don't look at me like that. The first wind turbine was awesome, so when I turned around the way and saw and entire ridge full of wind turbines, I just had to take a look. This was initially difficult, as the wind farm was on the opposite side of a very large lake, but obstacles are simply there to overcome. Turns out, not only did I find the wind farm, but they WANTED me to find it. Di spite there being no signage, there was a brand new staffed visitor center full of all sorts of green energy propaganda. Unfortunately this also means that they limited how close you could actually get to the turbines.

The visitors center itself was quite peculiar. Full of exhibits that ranged from the very simplistic (Touch screen game where you had to drag the parts of the a wind turbine into place), to unnecessarily complex (a display of the generation of all turbines, including reactive power). There was also a full conference room, rest rooms, the works. All in the middle of nowhere with no signage.

Mile 1943.4

End of Day 4.

That's right, over 550 miles today. I started early, and not long after my short side trip to see the tower I really got into the “groove” and just pushed onwards. Now I'm almost a full day ahead of my original schedule. Also, I'm pretty exhausted. So I'm just going to go pass out now.

Mile 1642.8

I'm driving along through some foothills, I come into a small valley and see one of the most Tolkienesque sights imaginable. Like Minas Morgul, there stands a black tower, almost as tall as the mountains behind it, overlooking the valley. As the highway brought me closer I quickly realized what it's true purpose was, but it was still fascinating, so I hopped off at the next exit and tried to scout it out.

Turns out the small town adjacent is quite attached to their tower, and have preserved it against destruction by declaring it a state park. Unfortunately; it's surrounded on all sides by private land, so there is no way to actually REACH it legally, and I wasn't quite in the spirit for trespassing today, so I stopped at the signs. There is a small viewing area, which offers a number of placards, a full sized replica of the foundation of the tower, and a very BAD view of the tower itself. I pushed a little further till I reached the big keep out signs, and found a much better viewing angle.

I feel bad for not having the guts to climb up to the tower itself... Perhaps some day later, when I have an accomplice and someone to bail us out of jail later...