Traveling West

The cats were boarded.  Mail delivery was halted. Newspaper was stopped.  Bags were packed and in the car.  It was 9:10. Time to start our trip to California.  My goal was to cover 400 to 500 miles each day.  Stop when we were tired. Do no night driving.  Stop wherever we wanted to see something.

Well, for the most part we followed this plan.  We did cover on average 500 miles a day. Only drove once at night – more about that later.  We did see some sights along the way, but not as many as I had hoped.  I think we were so concerned about getting to California by Wednesday that we didn’t take the time for many side trips.  There were several highlights during this trip.

On our first day of travel we got as far as Sandusky, Ohio.  We stopped here because looking at the map we saw it was just about 10 miles off I 80, but the drawing point was that it was on Lake Erie.  I had never seen any of the Great Lakes so this was our chance.

We stayed at a Holiday Inn at Cedar Point.

Here is a great view across the street from the hotel.

Of course we had to have dinner so we were attracted to the Thirsty Pony.

If you wanted to, we didn’t, you could get a 48 oz. drink served in one of these.

Yes, I know saxophone is misspelled, but maybe after a couple of this size drink spelling isn’t important.  Food was delicious.

The next morning before we restarted our trip we took a ride into Sandusky and out the Jackson Street Pier.

Lake Erie.

Can you see the amusement park rides across the lake?

Here is another picture.  Can you see Marblehead Lighthouse in the far distance?

I thought this plaque at the pier was interesting.

We then got back into the car and headed back to I 80 to continue our trip west.

One of the most exciting parts of our trip west was a stop at what is billed as the world’s largest truckstop, Iowa 80.  What made this exciting was not the fact of its size, but the fact that we were going to meet up with a fellow slicer.  We have been reading and commenting on each other’s Tuesday Slices as well as March Challenges for quite a while.  However, we had never met.  Here we did.  What a great visit we had.  90 minutes passed in no time at all.

Our next interesting stop was in Lincoln, Nebraska.  It was late afternoon.  The car was thirsty and we were hungry.  Looking for a place to eat we came across this.  I ask you, how could we not stop?

After all, the king was visible from the highway.

Kathy even made a friend.

Inside decor was just as interesting as what was outside.

The burgers lived up to their name.  One burger filled the plate.

Refreshed after a rest and some food and the fact that it was still light we decided to continue driving.  We made it as far as Kearney, Nebraska where we decided to spend the night.  Since this was Saturday night one reason we wanted to stay here was because we knew there was a Catholic church and we wanted to go to Mass on Sunday before we continued our journey.

We found St. James Catholic Church.  Talk about a small world.  As we entered the church men were handing out information about a men’s group that was forming.  One gentleman wanted to give me one but I told him we were just passing through.  On hearing we were from PA he told us his brother lived in Lebanon, Pa which is less than an hour from where we live.  He has been there several times to visit.  What are the  chances?

Continuing our journey the next place of interest we stopped was Salt Lake City. Since it was just off the interstate we thought why not go see the Mormon temple and grounds.  So we did.  It is really a beautiful area.  Interesting sculptures  in in garden.

The temple was something to see.

We did see the Great Salt Lake, but I wasn’t paying attention, imagine that, so I missed the exit to get off to take pictures.  We also drove by the salt flats.  amazing.

Tuesday afternoon found us in California a day ahead of schedule.  Did we want to stop for the night or drive through to our destination in Santa Rosa.  After calling the hotel to see if there was a room available, the one we booked actually was, we decided to drive straight through.  Here is the only place we had a problem.

We hit Sacramento at rush hour.  The roadways were not well marked, at least I didn’t thing so.  Somehow we got on the wrong road and got lost.  After asking at a gas station how to get back on track we found the right road.  At another gas station I decided to turn on the GPS.  We had been using Triple A’s maps up to this point.  It was getting dark.  We still had an hour to go.

With the help of the GPS we got to Santa Rosa around 10:30 Tuesday night, a day early.  We made it.

Next week, some sightseeing.