It’s all about the grade

In last week’s column our intrepid travellers redefined “steep” when they encountered California gas prices of $4.39 a gallon. As their travels continued back east, “steep” was redefined again, but this time by the South Dakota terrain.
As you may recall, my friends Eadi and Pick Zetty were heading cross country by motorcycle for a wedding in California. Our friend Paul Pressy was following along in his car and agreed to share some of their travel experiences as they made their way to the west coast and back to Pennsylvania.
The South Dakota portion of the trip was on the way home. Venturing into the Black Hills to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Mountain, it appeared as if weather would be their biggest problem, as Paul Pressy wrote:
“We have traveled over 4,270 miles to a point we call our midpoint. It’s time to head home. We will stop in the Badlands in South Dakota and then head home. Our travel stories will be changing to weather conditions from today on, seems a lot of flooding and tornados are all around us,” Paul wrote of the journey out of Sturgis.
“It was cold, lows in the high 40’s and then started showing threats of rain. By the time we got to Mount Rushmore we had some very light rain; then on to Crazy Horse Mountain.”

Well, it ends up the highlight of this leg of the trip wasn’t the weather, or the massive sculptures carved from the mountains, but the road itself. Being from southwestern Pennsylvania, where homes are built on grades engineers wouldn’t recommend for parking cars, my friends are used to steep grades. These are people who regularly travel Route 40 from the Summit to Uniontown which is posted as a dangerous mountain, with a big, red sign warning truckers to stop to test their brakes.
“When leaving Crazy Horse Mountain, we came to what we thought was a steep hill to go down of 10% grade, then the next one was 15% grade, both about 2 miles long. Keep in mind that the Summit on Route 40 is 7% grade; then when you got to the bottom is was curved to the left then the right,” Paul wrote.
Well, they made it to the bottom of both hills without burning their brakes or sliding over a cliff,  visited a prairie homestead, passed John Wayne’s birthplace in Iowa, and are now back home without incident after 16 days on the road.

“We highly recommend a road trip to see the country. But you must get off the interstates, the best sites are off the beaten paths. What a beautiful country we live in, I would never want to fly over and miss so much,” wrote Eadi Zetty at the end of the trip.
For more on the Crazy Horse Memorial www.crazyhorsememorial.org. Information about homesteading is available at www.prairiehomestead.com. Info on the John Wayne birthplace is available at www.johnwaynebirthplace.org.
Share your travel experiences and photos with me by emailing Chris@howyouspinit.com.

There and back again….

Our travellers have made it to California for the wedding  and are now heading back again, but not before suffering sticker shock at the gas pumps.

“Well, after paying for gas between $3.51 to $3.87, we where shocked at the price just over the border into California of $4.39. Good thing our travel in and out of California was just the wedding and not part of the tour,” writes Paul Pressy. “Once in Nevada we paid $3.76. We are outside of Salt Lake City, Utah looking out my window at snow still in the mountains.”(June 2) 

“Oh yes, we arrived in Boulder City, Nevada early enough to go see Hoover Dam,” Paul writes.

He sent along some photos of the dam, including construction of a a four-lane highway across the cliffs of the dam. 

What’s next?

“On to the Grand Canyon to the West and South Rim,” Paul writes.

Paul also noted the Hoover Dam lake is low following a flush of the system  to clear trash and debris on the the Colorado River.

“Well, now we are on the way to Cheyenne, WY and then the next two days visiting Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Mountain, Sturgis, and the Badlands,” Paul said.

Keep checking back for more photos and thoughts from the road.

More views from the road…..

Paul Pressy took these pictures from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon near Williams, AZ, the “short route” to the canyon from Interstate 40, as he explained in a recent note, 59 miles instead of 87 miles from the Flagstaff exit, then another 23 miles from the East entrance to the rim. The travellers needed to be in California before dark that day, so the short route was the obvious choice, even if gas prices weren’t skyrocketing. For those who have more time to spend, Paul notes that there are bus tours to the Grand Canyon out of both Flagstaff and Williams.

As you can see (especially if you zoom in to read the sign) they made it to California just as the sun was setting.

Notes from the road….

By Christine Haines and Paul Pressy
Photo by Paul Pressy

As I mentioned in my last post, some friends of mine are driving from southwestern Pennsylvania to California. While the purpose of the trip is to attend a family wedding, getting there and back is at least half the fun and most of the two-week vacation, so they’ve made it a bit of an adventure and have agreed to blog it for SpinIt.

I received my first post from my friend Paul Pressy four days into the trip. He’s traveling by car, while two others are riding a motorcycle. His first observations are about the price of gasoline, which was about $3.95 a gallon when they left Pennsylvania.

“The gas prices were a lot less than we thought. In Missouri it was $3.46 a gallon and in Oklahoma it was $3.49, then in Texas it was $3.65. The price in New Mexico is $3.67 and diesel was averaging $4.48 to $4.59…..it doesn’t make sense,” Paul wrote.

Given that they are in the heart of our domestic oil country, I would have expected even lower gas prices, but hey, the motorcycle gets great gas mileage and Paul’s driving a little four cylinder, so they shouldn’t have to stop too often. When they’ve stopped for the night, they’ve found some decent prices.

“Hotels are averaging around $59.00 to $69 per night, that’s staying in the better ones and using your AAA discounts,” Paul said.

I’ve found that local hotel managers often offer an even lower price than you can get off the Internet, especially when combined with an AAA or AARP discount.

There’s a downside to that motorcycle fuel economy, as Paul notes.

“The weather is up and down. We drove through five rain storms, and were hit with hail in Shamrock, TX, Monday. Pick and “E” got really wet on all of them…we are now in Tucumcari, New Mexico,” Paul said.

While in Texas, the three stopped by a site Paul visited 45 years ago: Cadillac Ranch. Here’s a picture Paul took there, plus a link to the attraction’s Web site.


http://www.legendsofamerica.com/PicturePages/66AmarilloCadillacRanch-15.html

They have plenty more sights to see on this trip, including the Grand Canyon and who knows what else they’ll run across. I think they’re coming home by the northern route. Keep checking http://www.howyouspinit.com/travelfor updates, and enjoy the journey.

To share your vacation photos and observations, email
chris@howyouspinit.com.

On the Road

By Christine Haines

 

Are you taking to the road for vacation this year or coming up with creative ways to vacation around town? Let me know!

Some friends of mine are heading cross-country over the next few weeks and will be sharing their adventures, money-saving tips and photos from the road as they head to California and back. Keep checking the Web site, www.howyouspinit.com/travel for the latest on their motorcycle/RV trip to the west coast.

Share  your vacation by e-mailing me at Chris@howyouspinit.com with your travel comments and photos or if you have any questions about how you can participate in our travel page.