Day 48 - Jackson, Minnesota

Short post here, because I'm tired from the road.

Yesterday, we hit the road. We had a very nice visit with most of the Indiana Ransoms in a McDonald's in Fort Wayne, and Seren and Porter got to meet (and torment) some of their cousins. Everyone was sad about having to head out, but we had miles to go...

Before getting to Chicago, South Bend was kind enough to gift us with more rain in fifty miles than we'd seen in a month and a half. Our car, needless to say, was a lot cleaner.

In Chicago, we stayed up way too late visiting with my Aunt Marcine and Uncle Arty. I'm sure there are people somewhere who don't like these guys, but we absolutely adore them. They put us up for the night and we managed to only have one crying dog, one dead car battery, and one peed bed. After breakfast and promises that our next visit will be a real visit and not just an overnight stop, we got back on the road.

Wisconsin is shorter and less Scott Walkery when you drive through on I-90 instead of I-94 (although they are concurrent for a ways). We crossed the Mississippi and got some nice views and Seren took many pictures, which I'm sure will be posted in the coming days.

After a total of 930 miles in two days, we're now in Jackson, MN. Tomorrow, we head to Wyoming so that we'll be staged well for visiting a former student in Yellowstone!

Cleveland (Day 6)

OK, this will be a quick one. As mentioned previously, we changed our route for reasons of clock and wallet. We made good time yesterday, traveling all the way from Eau Claire to Cleveland in about 14 hours, about 12 of which were spent actually driving. There were no major complications, but Chicago traffic is absolutely miserable and I found myself desperately missing Sitka's "bad traffic" - a 20-car lineup at the traffic circle that might take three minutes to clear. Also, Indiana really needs to figure out a better way to label the I94/I80/I90 interchange, because I managed to miss my correct route for the second time in a decade.

Some quick housekeeping items:

1. Yup, this is a morning post. We got in late last night and didn't want to write. Sue us.
2. We're not traveling with a full car any more, but we are still hitting the road again today. We're off to Niagara Falls with my parents and sister and one of her dogs (the blind one).
3. Since we're headed to Niagara Falls, don't expect much in the way of travel stories (it's only 3 1/2 hours away), but there should be a lot of pictures. Also, Seren will probably post some time in the next few days to share some of the pictures she's taken and to tell the world her impressions of the drive.
4. We'll be back in Canada for the next three days. Previously-stated rules for communication are back in effect.

a photographic pause

First, I want to give a special warm THANK YOU to Arty & Marcine Weiner (Stephen's great aunt and uncle) for putting us up for a night in their lovely home outside of Chicago the night before last. I had wanted to dedicate a post entirely to them and their amazing hospitality, but it seems we are putting the miles on faster than we can keep up with the blogging right now. Needless to say, we enjoyed the time we spent with them, but we were practically overwhelmed by the amount of food and familial welcoming we received. Thanks again, Marcine & Arty, for everything!

And now, PICTURES!

Porter enjoying a burger during the packing process.

All packed up and then some.

A quick stop in Holbrook on our way to Cleveland.

Passed out at a Super 8.

A visit to see Stephen's grandmother.

Passed out at Papa Nate's house.

Happy early birthday Sean Waxman & Porter Courtright (July 9th).

Culver's on the road.

Mac & AJ Courtright.

(Uncle) Kyle Koehs & Porter at Cascarelli's in Albion, MI.

Day Two/Six on the road

We just finished our second day of the second leg of our trip to Alaska, logging a combined 900ish miles in the past two days and winding up in St. Cloud, MN. I'm pretty sure that some joker kept pulling that Wile E. Coyote trick of grabbing the chunk of road we'd just driven and shoving it in front of us because Wisconsin felt approximately 6000 miles long. On the up-side, we did have a run from Chicago to Cheesyresortville, WI where the Pathfinder got 27 mpg, which is 4 mpg better than it's ever averaged before.

We're wrapping up our day at 8ish local time (got in to the hotel at 7ish and just finished unpacking and setting up). It feels good to be off the road early with a lot of travel done, and we're looking forward to getting into Canada tomorrow. Hopefully, the border crossing will be uneventful and we'll get to enjoy a clean country full of exceptionally polite people.

about Chicago

We left Cleveland yesterday and made our stop in Michigan. It was great to see Kyle and it was a pleasure to finally meet Dr. Ball (Jim) after having heard so much from Stephen. The detour through Michigan only kept us from the road for a couple of hours, though, and we made it to Chicago in the early evening hours.

Many Wednesday nights at our house at Orme have been spent poking fun at a small few students who claim that Chicago is the greatest city in the world. I had never really seen Chicago until last night, so I'd like to take this oppotunity to say a few words on the things that I saw.

Chicago has a unique and beautiful skyline, but that is because it also has a ridiculous number of large buildings stacked neatly beside each other to create the most massive downtown area I have ever seen. Once we got into the downtown area and were really able to see all of these skyscrapers up close (we drove the length of Lakeshore Drive), we saw magnificent mordern architecture nestled in among the grand old stone buildings. It totally blew me away how beautiful these massive buildings were.

Chicago has amazing parks and beaches. Everywhere we went throughout the entire downtown area, there were huge green expanses of park space and lovely sandy beaches all built with easy access and designed for practical use. A person working in one of the busiest skyscrapers could easily spend a lunch hour reading a book under a tree near a pond or out on the beach overlooking Lake Michigan. The views were stunning.

People in Chicago actually do stuff. I don't just mean shopping and restaurants, either. We saw thousands of people out and about on the city streets, in the parks, at the playgrounds, walking their dogs, riding their bikes, rollerblading, jogging, running, socializing, playing volleyball, playing soccer, playing baseball & softball, swimming & boating in Lake Michigan, and all around just being active. Let me reiterate my point: there were THOUSANDS of people OUTDOORS, being active on a MONDAY NIGHT.

I have no regrets for having picked on a certain ginger-haired Orme student from Chicago for as long or as much as we did, but after having spent only half an hour driving through the Windy City, I will concede that I now have a small understanding of why Chicagoans feel as passionately as they do about their hometown.

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Cleveland wrapup - we've been busy!

In the time we've been in Cleveland (since Monday), we've been able to see a lot of my family, including all three of my grandparents. My sister, mother, and wife were able to help my grandfather sort through my grandmother's personal items and I don't think there were any badly hurt feelings as a result. I got to see both of my uncles in the same place for the first time in a while and a number of people got to see Porter for the first time. We've worked out our route, then completely reworked it (I'll possibly post that later). We've had the car repaired. We've seen one of my best friends and given him several baby items and made arrangements to see my two other best friends tonight and Monday. We've finally gotten the bill for our move and have started paying that off. We've tried to catch up on sleep and let the kids have some semblance of a normal schedule (although we've really failed at the latter - poor Seren is desperate for regular naps and time to run around like a kid her age needs to do). We've confirmed that we can keep Verizon service through Canada and that it'll cost the same as our current plan. We've even gotten new insurance cards for our car.

Looking ahead, we'll be seeing some old family friends tomorrow and doing a lot of packing. Monday, we hit the road, with a stop planned in Albion, Michigan to get lunch with one of my best friends, see a professor I've been missing a lot, get some dishes, and enjoy a barbecue chicken pizza and some Oberon! After that, we're going to head for the Chicago area for our first night back on the road. Unfortunately, we'll be missing out on the stop we hoped to make in Churubusco, Indiana to see some of JoElle's family. We had to cut time out of our trip, and the Michigan trip only made the cut because of the dishes (much as I love Oberon, 'Relli's pizza, Kyle, and JimBall). Expect more frequent updates during the next week and a half!

doing preliminary planning for our Cleveland to Alaska leg

It looks like we'll be spending 7 full days on the road. We'll swing through lower Michigan and Churubusco, Indiana in order to see a few important people there, then everything else will be straightforward and without detours.

Day One: Cleveland to Chicago, 8.5 hours of driving
Day Two: Chicago to St. Cloud MN, 8.5 hours of driving
Day Three: St. Cloud MN to Brandon, MB, CANADA, 8.75 hours of driving
Day Four: Brandon MB to Saskatoon SK, 7.5 hours of driving
Day Five: Saskatoon SK to Grande Prairie AB, 12.5 hours of driving (OUCH)
Day Six: Grande Prairie AB to Fort Nelson BC, 7.5 hours of driving
Day Seven: Fort Nelson BC to Whitehorse YT, 13 hours of driving (OUCH)
Day Eight: Whitehorse YT to Skagway AK, 2.75 hours of driving/18.5 hours of ferry to Sitka!

This route was chosen to put us in big cities for the night whenever possible so that we'd have access to resources and less expensive hotels. It's a lot harder than the route that brought us to Cleveland, so we're going to have to rest up a lot and be very prepared. It'll be a huge adventure for all of us, and I can say that I'll be very glad to be doing this headed west, picking up a few 25-hour days that way!