Drive Along US 90: Seattle to Philipsburg

by Jamie Rhein on

The drive from Seattle, Washington to Philipsburg, Montana is one that takes you through the Cascade Mountains and past expansive fields of crops being watered by elaborate watering systems that keep the landscape green where, around the green, the dryness is startling.

As we traveled the ten hours it took last Friday to get from Point A (our friends’ house outside Seattle) to Point B (our friends’ house in Philipsburg) I noted some the points of interest we passed in case any of these might interest you if you are ever traveling along here in a car one day. There are several places that entice a person to turn off and take a detour. The thing about those brown signs that show places of interest, they don’t tell you how far anything is. If you turn off I-90 to head to any of them, you might be driving for miles. Don’t head off until you check first. Here’s the list of what caught my eye.

Ginkgo Petrified Forest
Wild Horse Monument
Cave B Estate Winery (This had a blue tourist attraction sign)
Grand Coulee Dam
Mullan Tree Historical Site
Silver Mountain-World’s Longest Gondola
Big Creek Historical Site

Along the way I learned that Grant County Washington is the “National Leading Potato Producing County” and that there is a stretch of highway where for 14 miles there are signs that say what crops are growing in the fields you are passing. Peas, sweet corn, wheat, potatoes and alfalfa sure look lush when you whiz by them at 70 miles an hour. If you click on the Flickr photo by squeezymoose, you’ll see that the blue sign in the photo says “Wheat.”

Quick Road Trip: Washington, D.C. Part One

by Jamie Rhein on

As I struck out for Washington, D.C. two Thursdays ago today with my 14 year-old daughter and her best friend settled into the back seat of our car with their array of pillows, snack foods, MP3 player, head phones, Map Quest directions and who knows what else –there was so much back there, I felt that sense of freedom and adventure that gives me an energy boost.

I knew we were heading to Washington, D.C., but as we followed the Map Quest route, I turned the car in a direction I hadn’t gone before. The last time I went to Washington, D.C. I also drove. That was nine years ago. Back then, I followed I-70 East until we hit I-270 South. It was a fairly boring, tedious drive. This time Map Quest sent us down to Morgantown, West Virginia and on through Cumberland, Maryland on I-68. [I-68 is in the background of this Flickr photo by On Withering Hills. This is a section we passed through.) At first, I doubted what we were doing since I knew we were to hook up with I-70 further east. But, since I was driving, I called out a quick lesson to my daughter on how to read the mileage markers of the Rand McNally Road Atlas and to find the highways based on where we were. I wanted to make sure we weren’t going so far out of our way it would be the middle of the night before I reached my friend’s apartment in the Georgetown section of D.C. Since my printer was broken, I had scrawled the Map Quest directions on a piece of paper and, now that we were on the road, doubted my own writing.

This trip was to be a quick one–just two nights and one day–long enough to catch up with one of my cousins and meet his wife, reconnect with one of my friends who I taught with in India, and see some friends of ours from Vietnam who are visiting the United States. This was a lot of people to see in a short time, so I didn’t want to be wandering all over West Virginia by mistake. Plus, my husband and my mother thought I was nuts for making the drive, but being that I just read a series of essays about sudden journeys in National Geographic Traveler, and Neil’s post about his spontaneous trip to San Francisco, I figured I was in good company with my thinking. At least some people in the world would understand.

Sure enough, we were heading the right way. Instead of the tedious drive I remembered from the past, we traveled through gorgous mountains. Along the way I made some observations.

#1. If you only stop once at a gas station to: fill the tank, so everyone can pee, and so the driver can get a cup of coffee, you can make it door to door in 6 1/2 hours. (Most of the time we stayed within the 65-to 70 mph range. Hey, people were passing me.)

#2. There are some places in West Virginia where the speed limit says 70, but then it switches to 65 soon after.

#3. Cumberland, Maryland is a lovely historic town of red brick buildings and church steeples set into the mountains. You can only go 40 mph for a good part of the trip through it since the highway passes smack dab through the middle of downtown.

#4. At every county border across Maryland, the county has a sign that welcomes you. This makes Maryland seem like a very friendly place.

#5. Maryland loves to put elevation signs on each mountain peak. This was a very hilly drive so there were a lot of highway markers with the names of a particular mountian and it’s elevation.

#6. There are many signs in Maryland that say: Watch for Maryland’s Wildlife (or something like that).

#7. It’s a good thing there are the signs since a BLACK BEAR RAN ACROSS THE HIGHWAY in front of us!!!

#8. Once you get to Georgetown, just blocks from the endpoint, it will take you a long time to make it down M Street. There are a lot of traffic lights, people and cars. My daughter and her friend said it looks like Easton Town Center, a shopping mall in Columbus. I said, “Yeah, but this is a real town. Easton Town Center is fake.

#9. It’s great to sit down in a lovely apartment with friends and a glass of wine for some long overdue catching up time while the teenagers unload the car without even being asked.

Stayed tuned for Part Two this afternoon for the what we did portion.

A Sunday Drive: Flowers, Highways and Lady Bird Johnson

by Jamie Rhein on

“We are obligated to leave the country as good if not better than we found it.”

— Lady Bird Johnson

When I drive along a highway and see bursts of wildflowers along berms and meridians, I think of Lady Bird Johnson. That’s the actual truth. I figured that Lady Bird Johnson, wife of former U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, who died last week at the age of 94 needed a Gadling post in her honor because one of the reasons why traveling along U.S. interstates can be visually pleasing is that she thought nurturing native plants was important. To her, one place to start beautifying America was payiing attention to the land on either side of the highways. Imagine the advertising and weeds we’d be seeing if not for her vision. The Highway Beautification Act passed in 1965 due to Lady Bird Johnson’s determination.

Native flowers got another boost in 1982 when she also co-founded the National Wildlife Research Center in Austin, Texas. The center, now the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, has 16 native plant gardens and nature trails that teach people how to landscape their own yards. Each garden has distinctive features. [The photo is of the panel garden.]

Whenever you’re traveling along a highway, keep your eye out for buttercups, cornflowers, bluebells, sunflowers and whatever else grows native in the state where you live or where you are passing through–or sitting in. Perhaps Lady Bird has something to do with them. Here is a virtual Sunday drive for you to enjoy some of the flowers you can see while traveling along the United States highways. I’ve included the information the posters provided. Thanks, Lady Bird.

This photo of Nathan meditating in Texas was posted by krissie p. Emfori passes this field of wildflowers along a highway on her way to work. Which highway and which state, I have no idea. Tim Stirling posted the photo of the flowers along Utah’s Highway 12 on the right.

Tanders1 took this photo on along Calfornia’s coast on Highway 101.

The Alaskan fireweed was posted by Wallflower83. I assume this is in Alaska.

Bien Stephenson took the picture of the sunflower along Highway 52, but I don’t know which state it is in.

This lovely purple flower (a relative of the Morning Glory?) was taken by working class hero on the Hana Highway in Hawaii.

The photo on the right is by Kairos. The flowers are along a highway near her apartment. Which highway, I don’t know, but it is in Texas. Click on the photo on the right to go to the description. Blue Eyes 5 has included details about the flowers in this field along the train tracks. Okay, it’s not a highway, but I wanted to include it since the field is in Texas and Blue Eyes knows her flowers.

I’m sure I have seen similiar to this shot in person. It’s gorgeous in a photo, but spectacular in person. The photo of these flowers along U.S. Intertate 40 was posted by jophoto in April of this year.

GADLING’S TAKE FIVE: Week of July 15

by Adrienne Wilson on

Here we are again at another weeks end. As quirky as we are at times it seems there are still many good practical pickings out there to explore. If you need tips to arrive alive or help in a travel insurance purchase check out some of these. Oh, and if you need someone to do the sight-seeing for you we’ve found a little something in that department too.

5. Americano To Go (Away from Forbidden City):
If you plan your vacations based on the number of Starbucks locations per city, you may very well be out of luck with this particular destination.

4. Think You’re Covered? Top 10 Things Travel Insurance Might Not Foot the Bill For:
This is an excellent post everyone should read! While purchasing travel insurance for your trip to Kilimanjaro can offer some peace of mind make sure you’ve read the fine print. Surprisingly, it does not cover everything you may have previously thought.

3. Vacation Surrogate Will Vacation for You:
Um, I have to agree with many of the comments on the plug above. I don’t get it. I wouldn’t do it, but I’m sure it works for someone out and there and kudos to Sara Thacher – San Fran’s Vacation Surrogate for being clever enough to develop a way for those who can’t travel to the city. I’d rather go on my own though.

2. Airline Hackers: Inside the World of Mileage Running:
I love finding ways to increase my mileage on various airlines, however mileage running hasn’t been one of my methods. This option works well if you’ve got a flexible schedule and a burning desire to collect as many sky points as possible, but there are other easier ways. Read further to find out some tips to mileage running if you’re all packed and ready to go!

1. Six Tips to Stay Awake on Road Trips:
Driving late at night or at dusk and yes, even in the day can be tiring when on a long road trip. If having the windows rolled down with blasts of cool air hitting at your face while the Iron Maiden pumps out from the stereo doesn’t work in keeping you awake, look into some of these other helpful tips.

Plugged In or Tuned Out in Amish Country

by Jamie Rhein on

Once, when I was about ten years old, my grandparents came to visit my family in State College, Pennsylvania where we lived. Afterwards, they brought my brother and me back to their house in Dayton, Kentucky right across the river from Cincinnati. They were excited to take us on a side trip through Amish country on the way.

Since the oldest settlement of Amish in the United States is in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, a drive through there guarantees coming across horse drawn buggies, white farmhouses with laundry flapping on clotheslines, and fruit and vegetable stands that also sell homemade pies and jams. I was happy to drive through Amish country, but after awhile was more interested in reading my book than keeping my eye for another buggy much to my grandmother’s displeasure.

Now that I’m traveling with my own 14 year-old, I can somewhat relate to how my grandmother felt.

This My Turn Essay by Lisa Segleman in this week’s Newsweek magazine addresses the road trip with kids issue, something that I’ve also written about in earlier posts. In Segelman’s account, everyone in her family was plugged into their own electronic devices, thus did very little to interact with each other while they traveled from New Jersey to Florida. I understood her feelings about not having anyone to interact with since everyone was busy interacting with their gadgets, but also wondered why no one said, “Unplug.”

On the other hand, perhaps part of the pleasure of a road trip is the coziness of being in a vehicle with family members without arguements. Still, whenever we go on trips with my daughter, we do tell her to take off the earphones from time to time to visit with us. And sometimes, she hands me her headphones so I can listen to her favorite songs. The only time I do this is on a road trip and I always feel great when I’m plugged in.

Colin Thomas snapped this picture of Bethany and posted it on Flickr. His comment said, she said, “You’re so annoying.” Yep, sounds about right. I don’t think Bethany is an adolescent though, but the sentiments are the same.