This last August my wife and I headed east. We strapped two bikes on top, threw camping gear, computers, clothes, toiletries, Immodium, and homebrew beer in the back, and drove across these United States to the east coast. We recommend this form of travel to everyone; driving across what is usually “flyover country,” is fun with straight and empty roads plus pleasant people in the “cities.” As an added bonus it does away with any direct interaction with those uptight drones of the Transportation Safety Administration. You don’t have to take off your shoes if you don’t want to.
Along the way, the family truckster (aka Volvo V70 XC) turned 200,000 miles on its odometer somewhere in South Dakota.
Nullius in Verba 
Quite a lot of variety there, Norm. Where would you say was your highlight?
K
The interior of the United States impressed me most. It’s incredibly open, wide open. And, the people in this ‘flyover country’ are really really nice. We met more nice people in Montana and South Dakota then we really expected.
This is a beautiful country: huge, wide open. There were times when I got onto the highway interstate 90 and I could look into my rearview mirror and there was no one coming from miles in either direction.
We saw lots of corn, soybeans, and wind farms.
We wonder what people do for good coffee between the Rocky Mountains and the east coast. We camped one night in a Montana State Park at the south end of Flat Head Lake. The next morning we discovered we had the wrong style propane canister for the stove we brought. That meant no coffee until we could locate a place along the way. We found a number of Casino/Cafes but no place that served decent coffee. Montana is not Washington or western Oregon where nearly every town has an espresso kiosk. We drove an hour until we found the metropolis of Kalispell with City Brew Coffee. If you are ever in Billings or Kalispell, Montana, we highly recommend City Brew Coffee.
We went into a Hardee’s fast food restaurant in Rapid City, South Dakota before finding our campground in Hill City, SD. In front of us was a young couple, probably mid 20s, putting in an order and then they asked for as many packages of barbecue sauce and mayonnaise as the woman would give them. So, we asked them why and they said that they mixed the two and then dipped pretty much everything in it. So, we decided to try it too. They finished before we did, and they came over to our table with a ‘so how do you like it?’ They then launched into their plans for the future. How she wanted to be an airline attendant. He was studying for his pilots license. They had just rented an apartment in Denver, Colorado. We learned their entire life stories in the matter of 10 min. And then a fellow in the next table told us that he loves Sturgis. He was an ex motorcycle cop. He told us his police force bought him a new Harley-Davidson Motorcycle every year until he retired. We learned all about his life since retirement. Everyone was incredibly friendly and nice.
We stayed in a KOA Campground in Hill City, South Dakota near Mount Rushmore. This was during Sturgis and Sturgis is huge; bikers travel from all over the world to attend Sturgis. Mount Rushmore is about 65 miles away from Sturgis and our campground the KOA Campground was probably 50% bikers. There was leather everywhere: leather jackets, leather chaps, leather saddle bags. And there were hundreds of big hog Harleys. As a group, they couldn’t have been nicer. They opened doors for you, they said good morning, in the evening we passed by one campsite it was playing opera.
We really enjoyed upstate New York. We stayed in one of those KOA cabins outside of Niagara Falls during a thunderstorm. It was wonderful. Niagara Falls has to be seen. The monster water is just amazing. You can feel it in your feet.
However, as soon as we hit New York state the tempo of traffic picked up tremendously, and the further south you went toward Washington DC., the more people you encounter. More cars on the road, more aggressive drivers, angrier people, more horns. I love that New York has signs advising drivers that they need to yield to blind people! “They’re blind, so don’t run them over, okay?”
I am sure that the state motto of New Jersey is ‘Get out of my f***ing way, a**hole. Hey, what are you looking at? Did you hear what I said?’ The state bird is the middle finger. The state song is a car horn blaring accompanied by a chorus of swearing.
Still, travelling across the United States by car gave me great pleasure. GPS is a must. Next weekend, I’ll post pictures from our three month sojourn on the east coast.
Sounds like a fabulous trip, and how wonderful to be able to take the time to meet those people.
I’ll look forward to seeing the next set of pics.
K
Looks like a great trip. Do you guys bike tour as well? I am always looking for people to tour with.