Author: P.J. Gardner

Mile 6592 – Los Angeles, California (local miles). In LA we saw more TV than the entire rest of the trip combined. Although I like Obama, an entire day of rah-rah-rah on TV was more than I could bear. By the time Obama came on, I was turned off and escaped (sorry, everyone).

Over the two days, we spent time with my dad and stepmother, washed the car, changed its oil, and caught up on forwarded mail.

~ posted by Arjan

I was pleased to have lots of time to work on our blog photos while we were in Los Angeles, but I was disappointed that I didn’t have a chance to take my vintage postcard photographs in the Los Angeles area. I will have to try again when we come back to California in October for Jan’s 98th birthday.

~ posted by P.J.

[Photograph © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]

Mile 2858 – Kalispell, Montana (local miles only). We did a four-plus hour hike near Lake MacDonald today.

[Photographs © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]

Mile 2473 – Havre, Montana. A town polluted by gambling but better than Williston, North Dakota, a town polluted by oil drilling. On to to Glacier National Park tomorrow.

~ Posted by Arjan

The striking thing about today’s travel was the subtle transition from the continuous farmland of North Dakota to the western vistas of Montana. Both states have big skies and distant horizons, but the rich fields and standing ponds of North Dakota slowly morphed into the dry grasslands and gulches of central Montana. There was no neat dividing line like there is on the map.

The driving on Route 2 is very easy. We covered 580 miles in 11 hours, with only one brief side trip to the Fort Peck Dam near Glasgow, Montana.

~ Posted by P.J.

[Photograph © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]

Mile 1534 – Cloquet, Minnesota, just west of Duluth. Traveled the south coast of Lake Superior, into a cold front which cleared out the humidity and knocked the temperature down to my comfort level (between +80 and -80 F). Empty roads. Put my feet into Lake Superior and visited the village of Bayfield, Wisconsin, which reminded us of a coastal village on the Atlantic.

~ Posted by Arjan

Today we followed Lake Superior along the Upper Pennisula of Michigan and the north coast of Wisconsin under constantly changing cloudscapes. In Michigan, we started off under cloudy skies, but a few miles beyond Munising, the sun burst forth and we walked barefoot through fine, orange sand down to the beach. In Wisconsin, a scenic detour brought us to Bayfield, a town that reminded us of New England, and the late afternoon sun turned an ordinary wayside stop near the Iron River into an art gallery.

In between peeks at the Great Lake, we followed some of the straightest roads I have ever seen— miles and miles of the road opening before us and disappearing behind us in monotonous lines.

~ Posted by P.J.

[Photographs © 2012 P.J. Gardner. All Rights Reserved.]