The Trip

Notes from my first 24 hours in Canada:

Although all the signs here show things like "$10", they really mean "ten Canadian dollars". In short, some people look at you very unhappily when you start giving them U.S. currency, so I just use my credit card now. (Then there are a few others who gladly take your American money and give you Canadian change without saying anything. Only later do you realize you've been short-changed ~10%.)

Coming to you live from a bar in Quesnel, BC (Canada), the first town that has really scared me on this whole trip. I actually turned around and came back a little to the south after seeing the downtown area -- yikes!

Here's a picture where I'm approaching the border into Canada.

(Excerpt from an email with a friend)

Hah, I don't know what the heck the Continental Divide is. I know I drove past it, just don't know what it's supposed to be. (Okay, I just looked it up on Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continental_divide). That's cool, but I can tell you firsthand that a guy can drive right past it without knowing it.)

Here's a funny stat: I've driven about 2,500 miles so far, and taken an average of one picture every five miles.

Here's a little video footage from inside The Brick, a saloon in Roslyn, Washington, made famous by the television show Northern Exposure. The video isn't great, but if you're a fan of the show, you might appreciate seeing the differences between the real Brick and the one in the show:

Video from inside The Brick

Wow, for a Northern Exposure fan like myself, Roslyn, Washington is pretty awesome, just like walking into the middle of the tv show. I had lunch at The Brick, then walked over to Dr. Fleischman's office.

Traveling in Washington now, I just finished looking at a map, and it looks like I'll be having lunch or dinner at "The Brick" (the bar/pub from Northern Exposure) in Roslyn, Washington tomorrow. After that I'll stop at the Salish Lodge (aka, the "Great Northern Hotel" from Twin Peaks).

Everything has been incredibly beautiful so far, including a long day in Yellowstone yesterday. Amazingly (to me) there's still snow on some parts of the ground in Yellowstone.

I took some crazy route to get to Yellowstone Park; not sure I would recommend it. From I-90, traveling west, I got off at the first exit to Yellowstone in Laurel. I took that road south, going through Cody (where I got my oil changed), and eventually getting to a road that is alternately labeled 16, 20, and 14 as you head into the east entrance of Yellowstone Park.

There's a lot to be said about Yellowstone Park, and I hope to get it all in here over time. One thing to be careful about is the construction at the east entrance. There's a lot of dirt and unpaved road out there, and you're car is going to get dirty and beat up. But then again, if you're going in from that direction, there isn't much choice, is there?

Continuing west on I-90 I made it to the Devil's Tower by early afternoon, and took a ton of pictures, and made a few audio recordings.

Whoever makes the roads set this one up well, because first you see the tower and go "cool", and next thing you know there's a nice pull-off spot where you can take some initial pictures.

On my journey to Alaska I've stopped at The Badlands to see if they're really bad. Turns out, they are. Bad as in "way cool".