« It Helps if you hum "The Blue Danube" | Main | I know I've been out for a long trip but... »

Drive, He Said (Part II)

And drive he did. On this leg of the trip, we go over the continental divide three times, cross three States( Montana, Idaho and Washington), go though four mountain passes ( Monida ,Lookout Pass, 4th of July Pass and Snoqualmie

This is the second leg of the trip and now we are at 1600+ miles. Here's more "Drive-by photography" as the annual Varifrank "trip around the west" continues.

Idaho/Montana State Border. I-15 headed north into Montana. Taken at roughly 8:00 am Wednesday Morning. Say, is that snow up there on the hills and some low hanging clouds I see? Ah, yeah it is and today from Missoula to Spokane its going to be either raining, snowing or some combination thereof making the driver very glad of his purchase of the Toyota FJ Cruiser.

Western Montana Geology. Just outside of Butte. I know it looks bleak here, but most of this part of Montana is fantastically beautiful and forested, its I just have a thing for rock formations, thats all. Unlike most state mottos which tend to overemphasise some small thing, the phrase "big sky country" is an complete understatement. This is a fantastically beautiful state. So why dont you see more of it on this post then? Hey, I'm driving here! I got priorities!

The authors hands, sighted at the wheel of the FJ Cruiser, somewhere outside of Missoula Montana, Headed north on I-90. It was supposed to be a picture of yours truly, but my copilot, while master of the PSP and XBOX seems to be challenged to master the workings of the camera.

Two mountain passes remain to be cleared heading into and out of Idaho as we cross the "panhandle" on our way over to Washington State.

Later the same day( I estimate its about 5:00 PST in this shot), The Columbia River Crossing in Western Washington. By this time "Get-there-itis" has now begun to take total control of my mind. We are still three hours and one major mountain pass short of our final destination on this leg of the trip.

Arrival at our destination at 8:05 Local time. The Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe Radio Show served as our Audio complement to this leg of the trip. It's the ideal thing to listen to when driving past hours of vast magnificent emptyness.

This leg of the trip - 884 Miles: Idaho Falls, Idaho to Seattle Washington. 12 hours and 30 minutes travel time. We gain an hour going from Mountain to Pacific time.

More to follow...

Posted @ April 05, 2007 10:55 AM | Current Affairs

Posted by: Athena at April 5, 2007 12:04 PM