Went for a little drive - 5168 miles

[KA8WTK]

That's right....5168 miles!

Our oldest son and his family live in Portland, Oregon so we loaded up the Vibe with the last of the boxes in the basement with his name on them and made a delivery. We spend about a week with them (over the 4th) and started home.
On the way back we went up to Glacier National Park. Then we crossed Montana from Great Falls to North Dakota on two lane roads. From there across North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin then back to Ohio. We were in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Montana, North Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Now, the point of this is not the fact that I like to drive. (Which I do) We have made the Portland and back drive before. We just wanted to see some of the country "up north" that we had not seen before. (been through California and the southwest) I just find it very comforting that we haven't paved, built upon or otherwise ruined this big country yet. There is a lot of beautiful country out there yet to see!

Bill

[VE3GZB]

Just after the dot-com crash, the company I was with decided to outsource the whole service dept.

I was the chief engineer of the service dept. so it was a VERY bad day when I was told. I worked damned hard to make that service dept. into something the corporate head office could be proud of.

So with a bit of severance under my belt, I drove from my then home (Bramptom Ontario,  Canada) through northern Ontario and up to Thompson Manitoba. 3300 km one way!

What a fantastic drive!!

[W1RKW]

Although this doesn't compare to the mileage driven by you guys but Liz and I went upto the Bershires for the weekend on the 4th.  Rather than take the interstate to get there, instead we took back roads.  Ya know what?  The overall drive time was about 15 minutes longer than if taken via the highway. Via the interstate it would have taken about 2 1/2 hours, instead it was 2 3/4 hrs. Not too bad.  The drive was so much more relaxing and interesting and fun too.

[KA8WTK]

Rather than take the interstate to get there, instead we took back roads.

Quite right. The "super highway" route from Great Falls to North Dakota would actually have taken longer than the two lane. The small towns we went into and the places we saw you can't see from the four lane. Actually, Glacier can't be reach directly from the highway. You have to take two lane roads to get there for quite a ways. This is probably why it is not all built up all around the park borders.

I found this to be another area of the country I need to go spend more time in at a later date. We did this sort of a swing though the southwest one year and went back for longer periods of time later on to really try and see it. A quick run like we made gives you an idea if you want to go back. I want to go back!

[WU2D]

Back in 1973 a few months before the Gas Crisis, my uncle decided to take a drive in his Winniebago. He grabbed myself (16)and my cousin Chris (14), bought us 10 dollar Zebco rods and Daredevils and we escaped from our parents for 6 weeks of adventure. We started in the Adirondacks of NY and drove all the way to Fairbanks Alaska taking the Trans Canada. The ALCAN was hopping with the Alaska Pipeline then and the trucks were flying. It was 100% dirt so the trucks had to keep it below 70 MPH. That was the best dirt superhighway in North America. Art was a handy guy and he armored the Winnie with removable black painted welded aluminum screens all around and we put them on at Mile Zero. We even had a screen over the windshield with slits for the driver. Even so with the trucks blasting past we still managed a cracked windshield! The highest we paid for Gas was 85 c gallon just over the Yukon line in AK and the cheapest was 36c a gallon in Michigan on the way home.

Learned to fish - caught everything from Dolly Varden to Arctic Greyling to Salmon on the Kenai - never had a fishing license and was talked to by game wardens, In Canada, on indian reservations in BC and in Alaska who all told us where to fish and to have fun boys. We had enough firearms onboard too but we only had one issue where they put a trigger tag wire on them in one of the Canadian Parks.

We got the Winnie onto a steamer ferry at Haines and went down the Glaicier run inland icefields (where the big cruise ships prowl now) for 55 bucks one way. We landed at Prince Rupert BC and headed to Banf and Jasper down into Glacier in Montana and came home through the Badlands of Wyoming and across 90 back to NY.

That was a little drive.

[KA8WTK]

....and drove all the way to Fairbanks Alaska taking the Trans Canada.

Yeah, and one of my dream drives. I am afraid I could not afford the gas for my Winnebago today for that trip.