After getting into Lethbridge around 2am last night, I was up around 7am this morning, and knowing that I was (probably) going to end up in my own bed, I pretty much just dragged myself out of bed and got on the road. The whole unplanned stopover in Dauphin / Winnipeg sort of killed my enthusiasm for wandering around and taking slower but more scenic routes. With the truck fixed, I found myself just wanting to be home. Still, even the most direct routes made for beautiful driving.
First, a quick recap of yesterday (day eight), since I was too tired to write or upload pics or do much of anything except fall into bed and sleep at the end of the day. I woke up in Winnipeg yesterday and headed back up to Dauphin to pick up the H1; about a three hour drive, and of course right back through Riding Mountain National Park. It took a little longer than they were expecting, but the H1 was good to go around 2:00pm. You’ll note, in the picture, a complete lack of motor oil puddles under the truck. A big improvement, I think.
Once I had the truck it was right back south, through — you guessed it — Riding Mountain National Park. Really, it’s a fine national park, but seeing it three times in three days is a bit much. Going south, the fog had really settled in, which made for an interesting view and somewhat more stressful driving. After that it was just lots of west on the highway, for about 12 hours of driving after picking up the truck.
So today I was up around 7 and headed right out. It was uneventful driving to the U.S. border, and even the border crossing was pretty basic, considering I was driving from Canada in a truck that I had just bought a week ago in the United States. The border guard asked me lots of questions, but his heart wasn’t really in it and it only took 5 minutes or so for them to confirm that the truck was not stolen and that I was allowed to enter the country.
And then I was in the home stretch, and it went pretty quickly — partly thanks to an excellent audiobook of Fear and Loathing. I love the original book, but the movie and this audiobook really make strong cases that this work is meant to be performed, not just read. The only real excitement in the last several hundred miles was a lot of rain getting into the Seattle area, and a fair amount of snow coming over I-90.
And then home and the fun of parking the H1 in my apartment’s garage. Ugh, that took a bit of work, but I managed it eventually. It’s hard to believe the trip is over; it started so leisurely, but then the past couple of days have sort of been a blur as I focused on just getting home. Final stats for the drive (including the couple of days with the loaner car while the H1 was being repaired): nine days total, 3438 miles covered, 63 hours of actual driving, 94mph top speed (that had to be the loaner car).
And that concludes the Buffalo to Seattle trip. Over the next week or two, I’ll post some reviews of auidobooks and new music that I listened to on this trip. The next adventure that I’m hoping to blog will be when I drive in the Baja 1000, starting around November 10th.
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