Driving In Strange Places
I have 250,000 miles on my car. I have, over the last 2 1/2 years, become experienced at driving to Seattle and back, lately all on the same day. I have decided that 7 hours in the car in a day is my limit, less if I can't spend the middle hours out of it.
So, when Connie and Dean announced their wedding in Minnesota, with 23 hours of driving one way (not including potty stops), I did not even consider driving. That is 3 days minimum in the car each way. In an old car. Through the Rocky Mountains in May, which is worse than the Cascades because most passes in the Rockies that are higher than most mountains in the Cascades.
Just checked: In the Rockies, there are 56 passes over 12,000 feet, an additional 8 over 13,000 feet. Mt Rainier, our highest spot, is 14,410 feet. Mt Adams is 12,281 feet, Mt Baker is 10,781 feet, and Mt. St. Helens is 8,363 feet, but it used to be 9,677 feet. See? A lot of Rocky Mountain passes are higher than most of the Cascades! Only Rainer is taller! (For my European friends, please substitute . for ,!)
Jack said we should rely on Dean and Connie for driving because we don't know where anything is. But I said we should rent our own car and rely on my phone's GPS. I won. When we got to Minnesota, the only choice of car was a Mitsubishi Mirage. There are a lot of adjustments to make when you are used to driving a min-van. For one thing, the rearview mirror was where I am used to having a clear windshield in the mini-van. Space is another. Getting up out of the car. I came up with the following good things about the car:
1. It is easier to park.
2. Is is bright blue.
I almost added gas mileage, but almost any car is going to beat a 14 year old minivan with 250,000 miles on it. For example, a brand new minivan. And I was also going to say it is bigger than a Smart Car, but that also seemed pointless.
Well, on to our adventures with the mile markers and exit signs. The GPS got us lost first thing because I didn't have the volume up, and the roads between the airport and our hotel were marked with two sets of highway numbers. (Actually, the GPS also led us astray on the way back to the airport, but whatever.)
Freeway exit signs in Washington (and Oregon, where I do 99% of my driving) are sensible: The exit numbers correspond to the mileage on the highway. So you know, if you take the (now very familiar) exit 31 at North Bend on the way to Seattle, you have 31 miles left on I-90 before it ends at I-5. We (and Oregon) also have mile markers every mile, so you don't even have to keep track of mileage with the odometer. Having driven in Massachusetts in 1989, I knew that not all states were so enlightened. There they labeled exits sequentially, with miles between, say exit 5 and 6. I hope someone in Massachusetts took it upon themselves to change this, but probably not.
We went to Willow Creek State Park in Wisconsin. It was a little over an hour drive, so not a problem. We set out from our hotel, which was off exit 10 on I-494. Watched the exit numbers go down to 1...then straight to 60. We thought we must be in Wisconsin now! But we weren't. Then exit number 250 went by. Hey, surely we are in Wisconsin! But we were still in Minnesota!
This was clarified at dinner the next day: exit numbers are dependent on which county you are in.
I think I like Massachusetts's method better.
Never did see any mile markers.
Well, Here is the Rental Car, anyway. And Jack.
posted by Marion @ 6:03 PM
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