My journey has begun. Since several expressed some interest in it, I thought I'd post a daily report of my progress.
I finally finished rebuilding and rewiring my headlights and drove to where I could aim them at 1:30 A.M. this morning. Slept from 2 - 7 then got up, feeling drugged, and finished up all other last minute preparations and started off today at 10:45 A.M. We made it to Butte, Montana just after sundown, 450 miles. I let Siri take me to the nearest camp ground. He took me to the KOA. I asked for a tent site without power. They were going to charge me $36.00 for one. I was obviously displeased and ready to leave and head for the Motel 6. They then upgraded me to a cabin for the same price so I'm happy.
Here's the map of our planned route showing Butte that we made it to so far.
Interactive map you can zoom in on here:
https://goo.gl/maps/YPZTKvV7YW72
No problems at all with the car today. The only mechanical problems were the batteries powering the headphone amp that boosts the signal from my mp3 player to the radio speaker went dead. So, I was stuck listening to the soft rumble of the engine, the soothing whir of the tires, and the pleasing swoosh of the air passing by the open window for 9 hours. Actually, not bad at all. I quite enjoyed it.
The other problem was that the software on my laptop that was supposed to record the entire trip and all statistics about it so that I could play it back at the end of each day to review turned out to be unreliable. In shorter trial runs, it had continued to record even after prolonged stops. But today, if I stopped too long, it lost the prior recording and started over from where we were. So, "Johnny 5" (the robot from
Short Circuit) did not get his insatiable appetite for "input" satisfied today.
Speeds averaged 60-65 mph, temperatures from 49-61 degrees F, and altitudes from 4500-6500 feet.
I planned to stay in Dillon, Montana tonight, which would have been 390 miles for the day, close to my budget of 400 per day, but the sun was still shining when we got there so we went another hour to Butte. At this rate, I may finish early (if I finish at all) or, I may take some longer, slower, more scenic routes and stop more to see, photograph, and videotape stuff.
Spending the day on the freeway was not conducive to photography. It was not like the little two-lanes that I can stop on a dime any time to take pictures or do a quick U-turn to video. I'll be glad when I get off the freeways to get some pictures and video.
Here are the only two pictures I took speeding along the freeway of little Lady in a couple of her favorite travel postures. Watching the computer does the same for her as it does for me - puts us to sleep.
