Bell Roadtrip 2005 - The Quest for 50 (DONE!)

Anyone know a book agent?!

2005-11-06T16:49:00.000-05:00

OK, enough folks have told us to turn this blog into some sort of book or magazine piece that maybe I should actually consider it.

If anyone has a connection that might have an interest in publishing any of our writings or photos in a book or magazine, please let me know! Thanks.

Otherwise, I think the blog is done. It's been a pleasure sharing our stories. I hope it will encourage some of you to get out and see the country! Godspeed.

On Top of the World!

2005-10-31T21:54:00.000-05:00

Enjoying the "diving board" on top of Half Dome

The Texas Gulf Coast

2005-10-31T21:52:00.001-05:00

Nothing can stop us!

2005-10-31T21:52:00.000-05:00

Uhaul

Sailing on Galveston Bay

2005-10-31T21:50:00.001-05:00

Texas

Morning Sun at Bryce Canyon

2005-10-31T21:44:00.000-05:00

Bryce

Hawaii!

2005-10-31T21:39:00.000-05:00

Hawaii!

Half Dome & the Yosemite Valley

2005-10-31T21:35:00.000-05:00

Half Dome

Sunrise at Crater Lake

2005-10-31T21:31:00.000-05:00

Sunrise at Crater Lake N.P.

The Oregon Coast

2005-10-31T21:29:00.000-05:00

The Oregon Coast

Dog Sledding in Alaska

2005-10-31T21:27:00.000-05:00

Dog Sledding on a Glacier

Denali

2005-10-31T21:22:00.000-05:00

Denali Duck

Seattle & Mt. Rainier

2005-10-31T21:19:00.000-05:00

Seattle & Mt. Rainier

More Glacier National Park

2005-10-31T21:17:00.001-05:00

More Glacier National Park

Bear Grass at Glacier N.P.

2005-10-31T21:17:00.000-05:00

Bear!

2005-10-31T21:15:00.000-05:00

We saw LOTS of bears on our trip -- especially in Yellowstone. The bears were a highlight of our trip... just not when we were in our tent!

More Yellowstone

2005-10-31T21:11:00.000-05:00

Yellowstone was too amazing for just one photo memory!

Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone

2005-10-31T21:09:00.000-05:00

Wow.

Driving Across South Dakota

2005-10-31T21:05:00.000-05:00

We finally reached "The West" and we loved it!

Almost Done

2005-10-31T21:00:00.000-05:00

The technical difficulties are that I'm having trouble posting any final photos. If I can't solve the problem, then we'll be done with photos, and I'll wrap this whole thing up soon. All the photos are already on the blog in the archives. I just thought posting my very favorites would be a fun recap.

Make Way for Ducklings!

2005-10-23T17:14:00.000-05:00

Ducks in Maine

Lake Pemaquid, Maine

2005-10-23T17:12:00.000-05:00

2005-10-23T01:35:00.000-05:00

Stonington, CT at Bunny and Irish O'Callahan's beautiful home.

Any Questions?!

2005-10-23T01:33:00.000-05:00

As we wind this down, if any readers out there still have any questions about our trip, now's the time to ask! Use the comment section if you have a question!

About Ready to Wrap This Up...

2005-10-23T01:31:00.000-05:00

Well, we've reached our goal of 10,000 hits and we've been home for a month now... I guess it's about time to wind down the blog. Over the next few days, I'm going to post a few of my favorite (non-Naitonal Park) photos for memory's sake.

Some Final Stats (4): Where Did We Sleep?

2005-10-22T10:03:00.000-05:00

We were gone for just over 100 nights.

...And we stayed with friends and family 50 nights! Thank you!!

The hospitality was amazing. We stayed with friends that we haven't talked to in years. We got to visit some home towns that we would never otherwise visit. We called up relatives on a half hour notice, and they welcomed us into their homes.

Our hosts were one of the biggest highlights of the trip. It was truly a pleasure to visit so many nice folks. We even met new friends on the road that offered us their homes when we came through town.

Some people were constantly surprised that we had so many contacts spread out all over the country. They would ask, "You really know someone in Albuquerque?" Yep. Columbia, Missouri? Yep. Bath, Maine? Yep. Minneapolis? Yep. Seattle? Yep. Dayton? Yep. San Diego? Yep. Yep. Yep!

The whole experience was incredibly humbling and made us thankful to know so many good people all over this great country.

When we weren't staying in YOUR house, we were camping most of the time. We camped almost 30 nights! That's definitely more camping than I've done in my entire life combined! We never camped just for the sake of camping -- almost every night we camped was in a National Park. And we are now VERY good at setting up and breaking down the tent:) And after that first night in Kentucky, we never left trash outside again. Thank god we learned our lesson before we got to bear country!

Our last option was staying in a hotel, which we had to do about 20 times. At times, however, we had long stretches without needing a hotel at all. In fact, during the entire month of August, we stayed in a hotel just 3 times, and that hardly counts because it was in Vegas!

Anyway, a huge thanks to all of our hosts, and the even bigger number of folks that offered to take us in. Thank you!! You're always welcome in Virginia!

10,000 HITS!

2005-10-21T09:48:00.000-05:00

Crossed into 5-digit land in the number of hits last night:) That's one hit for every 2 miles driven!

Congrats to the Bell parents for being #10,000... Of course, they (along with Elizabeth's family too) are probably the main reason we have this many hits to begin with! Regardless, it's a big number, and we're glad we've gotten to share our trip with others.

A related story: I went to a UVA Law alumni function the other night on Capitol Hill. I started talking to some random guy who I'd never met before, and he asked about what I do. I mentioned the roadtrip in passing, and he said, "Wait. Do you know Tara Fisher?" FYI, Tara is a close friend and one of our loyal fans, and she's shared our story and our blog with friends in her office on the Hill. It was fun meeting a total stranger that knew about our trip!

Zion National Park (Utah)

2005-10-19T14:53:00.000-05:00

Sequoia National Park (California)

2005-10-19T14:52:00.002-05:00

Yosemite National Park (California)

2005-10-19T14:52:00.001-05:00

Yellowstone National Park (Wyoming)

2005-10-19T14:52:00.000-05:00

Mount Ranier National Park (Washington)

2005-10-19T14:51:00.001-05:00

Rocky Mountain National Park (Colorado)

2005-10-19T14:51:00.000-05:00

Mammoth Cave National Park (Kentucky)

2005-10-19T14:50:00.000-05:00

Kenai Fjords National Park (Alaska)

2005-10-19T14:49:00.001-05:00

Kings Canyon National Park (California)

2005-10-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

Guadalupe Mountains National Park (Texas)

2005-10-19T14:48:00.001-05:00

Grand Teton National Park (Wyoming)

2005-10-19T14:48:00.000-05:00

Grand Canyon National Park (Arizona)

2005-10-19T14:47:00.001-05:00

Glacier National Park (Montana)

2005-10-19T14:47:00.000-05:00

Denali National Park (Alaska)

2005-10-19T14:46:00.000-05:00

Mt. McKinley

Crater Lake National Park (Oregon)

2005-10-19T11:18:00.000-05:00

Capitol Reef National Park (Utah)

2005-10-19T11:17:00.000-05:00

Canyonlands National Park (Utah)

2005-10-19T11:15:00.000-05:00

Bryce Canyon National Park (Utah)

2005-10-19T11:13:00.000-05:00

Badlands National Park (South Dakota)

2005-10-19T11:10:00.000-05:00

Arches National Park (Utah)

2005-10-19T11:08:00.000-05:00

Acadia National Park (Maine)

2005-10-19T11:05:00.000-05:00

One Photo Per Park

2005-10-19T11:04:00.000-05:00

Some of our best photos from the National Parks... coming up next!

Some Final Stats (3): How Many National Parks?

2005-10-14T16:57:00.000-05:00

Lots!!

Final tally is 21 National Parks visited. In case you're wondering, there are 58 total.

The parks we visited:

Acadia (Maine)
Arches (Utah)
Badlands (S. Dakota)
Bryce Canyon (Utah)
Canyonlands (Utah)
Capitol Reef (Utah)
Crater Lake (Oregon)
Denali (Alaska)
Glacier (Montana)
Grand Canyon (Arizona)
Grand Teton (Wyoming)
Guadalupe (Texas)
Kenai Fjords (Alaska)
Kings Canyon (California)
Mammoth Cave (Kentucky)
Mount Ranier (Washington)
Rocky Mountain (Colorado)
Sequoia (California)
Yellowstone (Wyoming)
Yosemite (California)
Zion (Utah)

Some Final Stats (2): Gas, Gas, Gas!

2005-10-13T14:36:00.000-05:00

Welllll, maybe we didn't pick the greatest summer ever to drive 20,000 miles...
Have you heard that gas prices have been a little high recently? :)

No doubt about it -- we burned some serious petrol this summer. With such a heavy load, Bessie didn't get the greatest mileage. We could only go about 350 miles between fill-ups... which meant that there were days where we had to get gas three times. I'm sure the credit card company must have wondered what we were doing!

Cheapest gas? We paid $1.99 in Ohio back in June. That was definitely the last time we saw that 1 at the beginning of the gas price!

Most expensive gas? As we all know, right after Katrina hit, the prices spiked. Western Colorado had the most expensive gas that we saw ... it was $3.49 at one place. I think the worst we ever paid was $3.19. I just remember being excited about paying $2.99 -- and then realizing how jaded we'd become!

When we drove through the hurricane zone, the gas was surprisingly cheap -- generally $2.49 through Louisiana and Mississippi.

For the final tally, we spent about $2,500 on gas for the entire trip. The final 2-3 weeks were the worst -- we spent almost $1000 in that short time because (1) we were driving a lot and (2) the final 1500 miles were in a U-Haul truck, which got about 8 miles per gallon!

And the worst part? Bessie broke down for the last time 7 miles after we filled up. She died with a FULL TANK!

Some Final Stats (1): We Traveled a LONG WAY!

2005-10-13T14:16:00.000-05:00

When we count the rental add-ons to Bessie's efforts, we drove over 20,000 miles. It seemed like we were getting an oil change every couple of weeks!

Adding the miles flown puts us over 28,000 miles.

How about a little perspective... last time I checked, the circumference of the globe was about 25,000 miles. So, yes, we could have circled the entire world!

The Saddest Reality!

2005-10-12T07:56:00.000-05:00

First day going back to work :(

You know how hard it is to go back to work after a 3-day weekend? Try doing it after a 4-month weekend!

The Sad Reality!

2005-10-07T07:29:00.000-05:00

Just ignore the trailer!

A Couple of Fun Photos

2005-10-07T07:28:00.000-05:00

Hold that zoom!

Tying Up Some Loose Ends (3): What happened to Bessie?!

2005-10-06T11:58:00.000-05:00

Wellllll, let's just say that maybe we should have sent Bessie "out to pasture" down in Louisiana!
Just kidding, it's not quite that bad.

When we got home, we towed Bessie over to our Volvo mechanic (that U-Haul truck comes in handy!) Somebody asked if Elizabeth was driving the U-Haul truck to work... the answer is no. E's parents were kind enough to lend us a car so that we could get around while we were down a car. It was really nice having that car because when we first got back, although I did find my keys, my car's battery was shot, and we had to go get a new one.

The Volvo place gave us the prognosis, and the fix was going to be an expensive one (we blew the gasket between the transmission and engine) -- so we decided to sell the car to the Volvo place (we made enough to at least pay for the tow home!), and get a new car.

Bessie served us well for most of the trip, and for that, we're thankful. If she'd died completely in the first month, who knows what we would have done. Renting a car would have been too expensive. We probably would have had to try to buy something.

And no one can dispute that Bessie went out with a bang! She went down in a blaze of glory, giving the last of her energy to take us around this great country:)

Thanks, Bessie...

I hope the new owner likes the map of 50 states on the window!

Who You Callin' Bessie?!

2005-10-06T00:12:00.000-05:00

We have a new ride! Bessie is done. This is our new Subaru Outback! The first new car either of us has ever owned.

"757 is a plane, not a cell phone bill!"

2005-10-04T14:36:00.000-05:00

...at least that's what I tried to explain to my cell phone carrier after seeing my cell phone bill during the roadtrip.

Yes, I had a $757 cell phone bill.

Note to self: Confirm that you have a NATIONAL plan before heading out for a 20,000-mile roadtrip! I didn't learn I had a problem until a month into the trip -- after I'd beeng ringing up roaming charges of about $1/minute.

I told them it must be a mistake becaues I'd signed up for a national plan in April. Well, it turns out, they processed it wrong, and I had had a local plan since April.

Phone Rep: "You've had this plan since April, and since you haven't complained about the problem for over 3 months, it's now too late to do anything about it.

ME: "But it was your mistake! I haven't traveled in the first three months of the plan, so I had no opportunity to notice you screwed up!!"

Phone Rep: "Sorry. Nothing we can do. I am authorized to offer you a $100 credit."

ME: "Gee, thanks. Please put your supervisor on the phone."

Supervisor: "Hello Mr. Bell, blah, blah, blah, etc... there's nothing we can do for you. You owe us TONS of money! HA HA HA HA!"

[OK, so the last part of that is hyperbole, but the rest is the truth!]

ME: "Well, I'll just call the agent that signed me up and I'll get this worked out."

So, I call the original agent, and hear a recording saying "Agent _____ is no longer employed here."

Lovely.

* * *

Well, this ultimately had a happy ending.

I remembered that I'd sent in my contract/application as an e-mail attachment. I also had the e-mail exchanges with the original representavie. Once I pulled together all the evidence, everything worked out just fine.

Tying Up Some Loose Ends (2): E's Cell Phone Charger

2005-10-04T14:23:00.000-05:00

Oh, the irony is RICH.

Some of you may remember the story about Elizabeth's cell phone charger (wall plug-in variety). She left it at a hotel in Oxnard, CA just 2 days before we left on the trip. We called and asked them to mail it to us on the road.

We decided sending it to Maine would allow enough time for the mailing, but they took about a month, and it didn't arrive in Maine until we were already in Wyoming!

We asked our friends in Maine to mail it to us in Seattle. They too, unfortunately, weren't able to get it to us while we were there. It eventually arrived in Seattle, but we were already in San Diego! (By the way, we had also driven through Oxnard, CA by this point!)

We finally asked our friends in Seattle to just mail it home. We were getting by OK with just the car charger (imagine that, being on a roadtrip!) All in all, the charger made three cross-country journeys in the mail!

Anyway, as Paul Harvey would say, now it's time for "the rest of the story":
When we got home, the package with the phone charger was waiting for us. Finally! Elizabeth opened the package...

...and found a charger that wasn't even hers and doesn't fit her phone. Heh.

Classic.

Operation 10,000

2005-10-03T17:28:00.000-05:00

Well, we've made it over 9,000 hits now. Let's see if we can't make it all the way to 10,000! I've still got a few more things to post, so please keep coming back for new material until we hit 10,000 hits!

Tying Up Some Loose Ends: I found my car keys!

2005-10-03T17:20:00.000-05:00

I'm sure you all remember the car key debacle... For the new readers, I'll summarize by saying that I hid my car keys so well that my family couldn't find them in our house while we were gone, and I had to have my own car TOWED for street paving.

Not one of my finer moments!

Everyone was conjecturing about where I'd find them. Well, I found them as soon as we got home -- it only took about 5 minutes of searching.

They were in the general vicinity of where I thought they were (in our basement store room), but I hid them in a different box than I remembered. They were in a small bicycle inner tube box, and as soon as I picked it up, I knew the keys were in there. However, I really have no memory of putting them there. Oh well.

At least I found them!

In Loving Memory of Grandpa Bell

2005-10-02T22:55:00.000-05:00

My Grandpa, Robert Bell Sr., passed away a few days ago. He was 95 years old, and lived near San Franciso with Aunt Mary and Uncle Ed. It's always sad to see a life end, but Grandpa lived a very full life, and I'm glad he'll now be reunited with Grandma. One of Grandpa's biggest joys was his family -- he and Grandma had seven children and 21 grandchildren.

Here's a really nice article about Grandpa.

I feel very fortunate that we got to visit Grandpa on the roadtrip not long ago. This photo was taken around August 1, 2005.

A Good Reason To Come Home

2005-09-29T22:45:00.000-05:00

Calm down, he's not ours!

But our new nephew Kellen grew in leaps and bounds while we were gone! Malia and Blair live just down the street from us, and it's great to be back home and close to this little guy!

Bell Tracker

2005-09-29T22:42:00.000-05:00

This photo was taken upon our arrival home in Springfield... I haven't drawn the final route up I-95 yet, but you can imagine that one pretty easily!

The Final Sticker!

2005-09-29T22:19:00.000-05:00

I'm relishing placing the 50th sticker on Bessie on the final day -- notwithstanding the fact that she was no longer moving under her own power!

The 50th State (at least for us)!

2005-09-29T22:09:00.000-05:00

The biggest moment of our final day on the road (other than arriving home) was crossing into state #50, North Carolina!

The one thing we did for every single state was take a photo of the "Welcome to ____" sign as we entered each state. This was not an easy endeavor! Some states that had a river as a border put the sign on the middle of the bridge where there was no place to pull over (thanks a bunch, Kentucky and Nebraska...). Other times we blew past it by 500 yards and had to run back on the shoulder to snap the picture. Alaska and Hawaii were a little complicated, but we got them too.

The North Carolina sign was, unfortunatley, about 20 feet off the ground and in a patch of high weeds. I taped the sign as high as I could and then had to run back to snap this picture.

Crossing into NC was a great feeling. We still had 6 more hours of driving to get home, but we'd completed our quest -- the quest for 50!

At Least I Didn't Lose My Shirt This Time!

2005-09-29T14:05:00.000-05:00

Our little "almost altercation" that occurred at the gas station in Florida reminds me of my only other near-fight. It's totally unrelated to the roadtrip, but I need to share it so you can see how much my fighting skills have improved!

When I was about 21, I was at a dance club in DC with some friends. While I was standing in line in the men's room, somebody else accidentally bumped into one of the guys already using a urinal. The guy was not pleased about it. And he was HUGE. And VERY drunk.

And, worst yet, he thought I was the guy who bumped him!

You can see where this is going...

He grabbed ME by the collar and made his big paw into a fist about a foot from my face. He colorfully threatened to rearrange my face, and, unlike with the guy in Florida, I believed he had every intention of actually doing so. Fortunately, he didn't want to do the deed while still in the bathroom. He wanted to "step outside" to settle "our" differences. The fact that I wanted nothing to do with this situation made no difference. As he dragged me out of the bathroom, I pleaded with the numerous onlookers for a little help, but they too, unfortunatley, wanted nothing to do with the situation!

My only goal was to difuse the situation without having to visit the ER for a broken face.... and the situation wasn't getting any better. My advocacy skills were having no impact on this guy.

However, as the collar on my t-shirt got streched bigger and bigger, I saw the opening for my escape. Literally. I slithered out of my T-shirt and bolted, bare chested, for the crowded dance floor! The big dude was left holding onto my empty T-shirt!

Man, I would have paid anything to see the look on his face at that moment... but I was too busy escaping a butt-whooping to look back.

The guy got kicked out of the club. I was supposed to get kicked out too for "fighting"... but I convinced the bouncers that I needed to find my shirt, and I ended up staying a couple more hours.

So, say what you will about the Florida incident -- at least I got out of the situation with my shirt intact:)

A Welcome Rest in Florida

2005-09-29T13:59:00.000-05:00

In Florida, we stayed with Elizabeth's grandmother in Jacksonville. We didn't get in until almost 3:00 a.m., but Gammie still welcomed us with open arms! It was really nice to chill out for a full day there (we stayed 2 nights) before making the final push north on 95.

And how nice of Gammie to not mind having a big U-Haul and trailer parked in front of her house!

Katrina's Wake

2005-09-29T13:58:00.000-05:00

Not even the ubiquitous "golden arches" could withstand the forces of Katrina... and this was about 40 miles inland in Mississippi.

"Take your glasses off, MFer, so I can punch you in the face!"

2005-09-27T23:41:00.000-05:00

You know your day has gone from really bad to SURREAL when you hear those words hurled at you from three feet away…

But, first, let me set the stage. [And this is my last real story... and it's a long one, so bear with me!]

This is the day we woke up in Breaux Bridge, LA, and got towed to a U-Haul rental place in Lafayette. Once we’d paid for the truck and trailer, I was just praying that Bessie would have enough left in her to make it up the trailer on her own power. If not, we’d be stuck once again. The trailer didn’t have any type of winch on it. The car had to make it up on its own power. Luckily, the car made it up and we got everything strapped down tightly – although it might have been a fitting ending to this whole debacle, I really didn’t want the car to roll off the trailer while we were driving!

When the U-Haul folks heard we had to go 1500 miles, they said, “Give ‘em the good truck!”… but the truck was nothing to write home about. It had 150,000 miles on it! Geesh, I’d hate to see the “bad” truck! I guess I should have been happy that it had 11,000 miles less than Bessie.

The truck ran very rough, and it was hard not to worry about breaking down AGAIN! Oh, and by the way, as we were checking out at U-Haul, it occurred to me for the first time to ask what kind of mileage the truck got. U-Haul’s response: “Oh, 6 or 7 miles per gallon.”

6 miles per gallon? And we have to go 1500 miles? And gas is pushing $4/gallon in some places?

D’oh!!!!

Oh well. In for a dime, in for a dollar. Just get us HOME!

We didn’t get out of Lafayette until about 11 a.m. We knew we had a long drive ahead of us – we were expecting it would be about 10-12 hours to Jacksonville, and we’d have to make it through the worst of the hurricane damage in Mississippi.

Once on the road, everything went pretty smoothly. We passed the junction where I-10 dips down to New Orleans. The interstate was packed with cars heading back there. Luckily, we didn’t have to go that direction. We stayed on the interstate until Mississippi, where we cut about 30 miles north to a much smaller road. We’d heard that I-10 was in bad shape near Biloxi, and we didn’t want to mess with that. The detour added about 2 hours to our trip.

Once we were settled in the U-Haul, Elizabeth called the guy in Denver who installed the transmission, and gave him a piece of her mind. If I thought she was mad when we got rear-ended the day before, that was nothing! But the guy wouldn’t budge. He said he would honor the warranty – IF we brought it back to Denver. As if.

As we drove, the devastation of Katrina was apparent even 40 miles inland. We saw thousands of downed trees and many homes with considerable damage. We were worried about finding gas, so we never let the tank go below half. Considering the pathetic mileage, that meant filling up pretty often!

But, actually, we were pleasantly surprised with the gas situation. First of all, the truck got almost 10 MPG. Nothing great, but a LOT better than 6. Secondly, there was plenty of gas in Louisiana and Mississippi, and it was CHEAP. Well, not 1999 cheap, but cheap for these days ($2.49). Almost everyone else at the gas stations was filling up generators and extra containers. It was pretty sobering.

We kept cruising along and finally made it out of the hurricane zone. We hit Florida right before sunset, and we were VERY happy to make it to the sunshine state.

* * *

After we stopped to get gas somewhere around Pensacola, Elizabeth was pulling the truck out of the gas station – and that’s when the night got REALLY interesting!

Now, I take much of the blame for what happened next because I was outside the truck attempting to give Elizabeth a little help with moving the truck. As she made her turn out of the gas pump aisle, the trailer didn’t turn on quite the same line. At first, she looked fine, but all of a sudden, the angle started decreasing very quickly. Too quickly.
It was like one of those bad slow motion dreams… and by the time I realized the trailer wasn’t going to clear another car, it was too late. I yelled at Elizabeth to STOP! But, CRUNCH.

Oh, no. No, no, no, no! This cannot be happening! Not here. Not now!

It wasn’t really a “crunch” – it was more of just a minor rub against the front bumper of a black car. She stopped before the damage got too bad. In fact, the damage was incredibly minor.

But all of a sudden, I hear, “WHAT THE F*#$?! DID YOU JUST HIT MY CAR, MFer?! I SHOULD KICK YOU A$$!! I JUST GOT THAT PAINT JOB DONE! IT COST ME $4,000! YOU LITTLE @#$%, I’M GONNA @#%$ YOU UP!”

Thinking to myself: Oh, geeesh. You must be kidding. This cannot be real. This is a bad joke, right?! After all we’ve been through. After 8 hours in the car (and 5 more to go)… and breaking down and towing our car through the hurricane zone… not only do we get in an accident, but we hit some 20-year-old kid who is COMPLETELY out of control and wants to kick my butt.

GOOD TIMES.

The car was a 1996 Impala. The kid was wearing a “wife beater” and shorts that were showing half his boxers. The kid was clearly in love with his car. And he was NOT happy.
He got right up in my face and yelled, “TAKE YOUR GLASSES OFF, MFer, SO I CAN PUNCH YOU IN THE FACE!”

That was definitely my favorite line of the incident! I guess it’s a good thing I wasn’t just wearing my contacts that day! I wanted to tell the kid to stop yelling at me because I wasn’t even the one driving! I wanted to say, “if it weren’t for me, your whole bumper would be gone! Go talk to the driver!” Elizabeth might not have liked that too much.

I didn’t say much to the kid. I think I was too tired to be very scared. I was just in total disbelief. At one point, I did mention to him that threatening bodily injury was the definition of an assault. Man, what a dorky lawyer thing to say! For some reason, that didn’t seem to calm him down much!

So, the kid continues to freak out. Instead of just backing his car up so it’s no longer in contact with the trailer, he wanted to detach our trailer from the truck! He actually started to try to do this. He was CRAZY! By now his yelling and cursing have attracted quite a crowd. And the nice thing is that everyone is on OUR side! Everyone’s ready to jump in our behalf and is ready to be a witness if he actually does take a swing. It was a nice feeling.

We told the kid to calm down because our insurance would take care of it. I was REALLY glad we paid for the extra insurance from U-Haul earlier that day. He didn’t want anything to do with insurance. He screamed, “Write me a check, #$%@! Write me a check for $600!”

Calm down, insurance will cover it. “Write me a check for $200!”

Calm down, insurance will cover it. “Write me a check for $100!”

Hmmmm. Now we’re talking!

Should we try to hold out until he’ll pay US to walk away?!

We finally had him calmed down and in agreement to end this debacle for $100 cash …when the cops showed up. At this point the kid really calmed down. He told the officers that there had just been a misunderstanding, and that we’d agreed to settle it for cash. I think the kid realized that HE could be in a lot more trouble with the law than us.

I asked the cops if handling this with cash was OK. I certainly didn’t want to do something under the table that would come back to bite us. He said it was fine, and it was a binding agreement. He even gave me a reference number for the case. I mentioned that since we had the U-Haul insurance, perhaps it would be better to go that route. He pulled me aside, and said, “Let me explain how that will work. We’ll have to do a formal report, and then I’ll have to ticket your wife for causing the accident. It will be a $120 ticket plus points.” I see.

I thanked the officer for explaining things with such clarity and said we’ll take option #1, thank you very much!

Some money changed hands, the crowd disbursed, and we hit the road again. Hmmm, that only slowed us down another hour. No wonder we didn’t get to Jacksonville until 3:00 a.m.!

By the way, we'll have a few more things to share before we wrap up the blog for good. As always, thanks for reading!

More Blogging... NOW

2005-09-27T22:29:00.000-05:00

Final Sticker Map

2005-09-27T22:25:00.000-05:00

final map

More Blogging Soon!

2005-09-25T10:27:00.000-05:00

Sorry, that whole "work" thing has seriously hampered my ability to blog... and it's taken some time to unpack and do LOTS of laundry! I'll have couple of new stories up soon!

Sorry for the blogging pause

2005-09-21T16:33:00.000-05:00

I've got one more story about the trip home in the U-Haul, and then I'll get around to some wrap-up and summary pieces. Check back soon!

Desperate Times -- Desperate Measures!

2005-09-19T21:54:00.000-05:00

So, we can’t drive Bessie and we don’t want to leave her. Hmmmm… maybe we can rent something and tow her! Rental companies surely rent something fairly big with a tow hitch, right? Um, wrong. We found one place that actually rents cars that can tow, but (a) none were available and (b) they don’t do one-way rentals.

Moreover, as we feared, there were basically no rental cars in Lafayette. Not just towing vehicles, but ANY vehicles. We thought we might be able to do better in Houston, but this was hardly an ideal plan because we were four hours from Houston. Oh yeah, and we had no way to get to Houston because there were no rental cars! Things did not look promising. And it wasn’t like we could just hang out where we were because we’d been given the motel room for only a single night.

Well, I’ve seen a lot of folks out on the road moving themselves in U-Haul trucks and towing their cars. Hmmmm. How expensive is that? Then again, if it would work, does it even matter what the price is?!

But what are the odds of getting a truck and trailer in Lafayette?

I called U-Haul and told them I wanted the smallest truck possible that could tow a car trailer. The price was expensive, but definitely feasible (and considering the expense of one-way car rentals, the price was at least somewhat justifiable). So I said to the U-Haul woman, “Well, here’s where it gets complicated. I want to pick up the truck in Lafayette, Louisiana.” Silence. Then, finally, “Let me check,” she responded. After a long wait, she came back and said there is a truck and trailer in Lafayette!

When is it available?
When do you want it?
NOW.
Come on over!

Sweet!!!!!!!

We called AAA, and climbed into the second tow truck in 24 hours.

Back to the story...

2005-09-18T12:15:00.000-05:00

OK, enough of all this celebrating! I've got some stories to finish.

One thing I forgot to mention about Thursday night --

When we pulled over, we left our smoking car pretty quickly to inquire at the Best Western. It was a fairly good walk, and the car was no longer in sight.

After leaving the Best Western, defeated, we saw a large plume of smoke rising from the area where we'd left the car. A much larger plume than when we left!

No, this cannot be happening.

I don't even care about the car anymore, but we certainly have stuff inside that we'd rather not have go up in flames!

Elizabeth broke into a sprint, and I followed. We turned a corner and the car came into view. At the same time Burger King came into view too... And I've never been so happy to see those char-broiled burgers from BK!

We stopped running and busted out laughing in relief. It was a bad day, but not THAT bad:)

DONE!!!!!

2005-09-18T11:49:00.000-05:00

We just crossed into NC! Woo-Hoo!!

We have been in all 50 states in the last 105 days!

Now we just need to make it home! I'm taking nothing for granted at this point!

"South of the Border"

2005-09-18T10:55:00.000-05:00

I've never been so excited to see those annoying signs on I-95!!

49 down, one to go!!

2005-09-18T10:38:00.000-05:00

We left Jacksonville early this morning and we're now in South Carolina! We are quickly approaching state #50, North Carolina.

Yee-haw!

Another College Football Post

2005-09-18T10:36:00.000-05:00

Speaking of the Canes --
Two recent quotes from the college football world that totally cracked me up:

1) At the Miami-FSU game, the sportscaster asked Gov. Bush whether he had to remain impartial in this clash between 2 Florida schools. He responded, "Uh, I'm in my second term now...so I can say that I'm a die-hard Canes fan!"

2) In yesterday's UVA-Syracuse game, UVA coach Al Groh made a VERY gutsy decision to go for it on 4th down late in the game. It worked and UVA won. asked about it after the game, Groh said, "Have you ever seen the movie Risky Business? Sometimes you just have to say, 'what the heck.'". Suffice to say that Groh cleaned up the language considerably (the real word is NOT "hell")!

Classic.

I know, I know, this is totally off topic. Tough! I make the rules on this blog!

Got Some Canes Over Here!

2005-09-18T09:35:00.000-05:00

How 'bout them Canes pulling off the 3OT thriller at Clemson last night!

The game started at 3:30...I told Gammie we could go to dinner at 7. But at *7:40* we were just starting the third OT! D'oh!! At least it turned out well.

Operation 411

2005-09-18T00:20:00.000-05:00

Next option: my mom actually has a good friend who lives in Lafayette, and I remembered this. Now, I’ve never met her and she’s not exactly expecting guests. Oh yeah, and it’s almost 11 p.m. But, what the heck. I needed to call my mom for her number, but my mom’s out of town and it’s pushing midnight EST now. Well, that’s what cell phones and moms are for, right?! My mom was glad to help, but the friend had recently moved and she didn’t have her new phone number. D’oh! So, I called directory assistance. The last name of the friend is Brumfield. There were 5 listed Brumfields in Lafayette, but not the one I was looking for. I talked to my mom again. She mentioned that Mr. Brumfield grew up in Lafayette and has several brothers there.

OK, this is easy enough – one of the other male names MUST be one of his brothers, right? And, of course, that person will have her contact info, right?! No big deal – I’ll just call these complete strangers out of the blue at 11 p.m. This plan is BRILLIANT!

And if I succeed in getting the right number, then all I have to do is call up some woman who I’ve never met and ask her to take us in for the night! Oh yeah – and she’ll have to drive 10 miles each way to pick us up! Did I mention that it’s almost 11 p.m.?! No worries -- I’ll just have a PowerBar and this will all be fine. (BTW, if you’re not familiar with PowerBar ads, don’t worry about missing that joke!)

This whole operation was totally against my nature. I hate asking for favors. I hate doing any type of “cold calls” to strangers… but desperation provides some serious motivation.

Alas, the calls were interesting, but not successful. Example of a call:

ME: Uh, hi. Sorry to call so late. You’re name is Brumfield. Any chance you’re related to this other Brumfield dude named Gerard? [I’ve taken a few liberties with the actual transcript…]

Brumfield: Um, I don’t know think so.

ME; Bummer. Thanks anyway.

Brumfield: Well, wait. Is this guy white or black? ME: Honestly, I have no idea, but I think he’s probably white.

Brumfield. Oh. The only other Brumfield I know is Black.

ME: Um… well, is his name Gerard?

Brumfield: No.

* * *

… Welllllll, gee, I don’t think that’s gonna be much help then. And they all went something like that. I must say that everyone I called was friendly – especially considering the late hour. I bet one of the other random Brumfields would have taken us in if I would have asked!

So, anyway, we’re pretty much out of options. I made one last walk to see if tent camping was gonna be feasible. I circled around the Best Western, and I saw another motel. I was sure it would be full, but what the heck… let’s make sure.

And what do you know? They just had a cancellation! I know my desperation must have been obvious, and I asked, “How much?” But why did I bother? He could have said $400 and I would have gladly slapped down the plastic. His response: $60. SWEET! And it was a brand new and nice motel.

So, we cranked that A/C up and took a shower, and it felt a little bit like heaven. Ahh, simple pleasures.

Tomorrow we’ll deal with the car. Tonight, we have a place to sleep.

Hotel Bessie?!

2005-09-18T00:18:00.000-05:00

All that touching “perspective” aside, we still didn’t have a place to sleep! Oh yeah, and we no longer had a mode of transportation. We’ll worry about that tomorrow. First things first. And Hotel Bessie was NOT looking good. It was about 95 degrees with 100% humidity. There’s no room in the car other than the front seats. We’re parked in a very bright gas station. If the car is where we’re gonna “sleep”, we might as well just stay up all night.

Other options? Well, here’s the lay of the land – at this exit, there was the gas station, a couple of fast food joints, a casino, and a motel. By the way, if the casino had table games, I might have just spent the night there. I told Elizabeth I was feeling LUCKY! But slots and video poker just don’t do it for me, and that’s all they had.

We walked over to the motel and – SHOCKER! – they had no vacancies. They even had a sign on the door telling us to not even bother asking. We asked anyway. I’m a hopeless optimist. No dice. We asked about other motels nearby. They said everything’s been booked nonstop since the hurricane.

How about the tent? Will Burger King mind if we camp in their parking lot? Is it really safe to sleep in a BK parking lot? Are tractor trailers driving around more dangerous than hungry black bears in Yosemite? Hmmm. Probably so.

We even asked the motel woman if there was a place we might set up the tent. She didn’t know of any, but said she only lived a couple miles away and we could camp in her back yard. Wow! Special thanks to the nice desk lady at the Best Western in Breaux Bridge, LA. Small problem, however – we can’t drive anywhere. Could we ride our bikes and carry the tent? Doubtful.

It Finally Happened

2005-09-18T00:12:00.000-05:00

So, let’s take stock of the situation:

It’s 10:30 p.m. on Thursday night.
We’re pulled over in a gas station in a little area called Breaux Bridge, LA.
Our car has belched out its entire stock of transmission fluid.
We are STUCK.

We had no place to stay, and the car was undrivable. Sure, we could call AAA, but where could they take us? Lafayette? No hotel rooms. Baton Rouge? Not so much.

We’ve dodged so many bullets with our car problems… but sooner or later, lady luck was gonna catch up with us. And in Breaux Bridge, it finally happened. No doubt about it… we were in bad shape.

But the weird thing is that the knot in my stomach was gone. I guess the one good thing about breaking down is that you no longer have to WORRY about breaking down. This had been my absolute worst case hypothetical, and now it was an absolute reality. But I couldn’t help but smile a little bit. And dealing with the problem was almost better than anticipating and fearing it.

And let me say this at least once – compared to the hundreds of thousands of hurricane victims that have lost EVERYTHING (some of which, incidentally, were hanging out with us at this gas station), our situation was so minor that it’s hardly worth mentioning. That definitely helped us keep things in perspective and keep a sense of humor. And even if I whine a little bit about our situation, I do realize that in the grand scheme of life, this was not a big deal.

More later tonight

2005-09-17T18:43:00.000-05:00

Sorry to leave you hanging, but I have to go to dinner!

The Real Fun Begins

2005-09-17T17:53:00.000-05:00

So, we’re driving out of Houston, glad to be on the road, with visions of hitting Pensacola, FL by very late at night. (We figured we had to make it that far to get a hotel because of the Hurricane Katrina zone).

We were moving slowly in heavy rush hour traffic, still in Houston, and all of a sudden, BOOM!

My paranoid brain immediately thinks (i) the bikes or RocketBox have fallen off the roof or (ii) the car has fallen apart and the entire engine has fallen to the pavement on I-10.

Silly me. Nothing that exotic. We merely got rear-ended!!

Unbelievable. After all this, we’re now in a car accident! We jump out of the car, and Elizabeth is NOT happy. In fact, I’ve never seen her so fired up (well, until the next day, but I’ll get to that later!) She gave the driver a serious piece of her mind. Thankfully, though, there was absolutely no damage! Thank you, Volvo, for making big thick rubber bumpers that can absorb some impact! Most new cars absorb nothing but costly damage from the slightest contact. After Elizabeth colorfully emphasized to the guy how LUCKY he was that we drive a Volvo, we got back in the car and continued on our way.

Waiting for Bessie

2005-09-17T17:52:00.000-05:00

We got to the Houston mechanic, and he was kind enough to lend us a car. As luck would have it, my aunt and uncle, Margie & John Whelan, live just three miles away, and they let us stop in on zero notice. They took us to lunch, and we had a nice day with them.

We could have easily stayed with them on Thursday night, but we really wanted to hit the road. Jacksonville is about 14-16 hours from Houston… we wanted to be in Jacksonville by Friday night, and we didn’t want to do that whole drive on Friday. The car wasn’t done until about 5:00 p.m. By the way, we were right about the coolant hose – one of the hoses had just ruptured from old age, and it was a fairly easy and inexpensive fix.

The mechanic also fixed the downshift cable as planned. What he told us wasn’t encouraging, however. He said the old cable didn’t look that bad and he wasn’t sure if that was the problem. He also said the transmission fluid looked pretty bad. Great… our “new” transmission is going the path of the original one. But instead of it taking 11 years, it’s been about 11 days.
So we finally got on the road about 5:30 p.m. – just in time for Houston rush hour. Yes, we probably should have just stayed in Houston that night.

But we didn’t.

Adventures in Towing

2005-09-17T17:48:00.000-05:00

The only rub with this new problem is that we now had to get towed to the Houston mechanic, and we were on the complete opposite side of the city. And, incidentally, Houston is one of the most spread-out cities in the country.

We needed a 33-mile tow.

Don’t we have AAA? Of course! … But only the basic membership, which only covers 3 miles of towing. After that it’s almost $5 per mile. Ouch. You can do the math.

Too bad we don’t have the plus membership, which covers 100 miles of towing and is only $30 more. Hmmm… maybe we can become a plus member! Right now! We asked the AAA office, and they seemed to think it would work. We called AAA and made the upgrade. They said the card wouldn’t come for a week, but the membership would be effective today. Sweet!

The tow truck shows up, and we’re on our way. We start discussing our AAA membership, and the driver says we still have a basic membership. D’oh. We call back AAA. They now say the membership doesn’t kick in for a week. Nice.

So, not only is the tow $150, it’s basically $180 because we now have a useless plus membership! Oh, and to add insult to injury, we hear the dispatcher come over the radio and say “we don’t accept credit cards from AAA members. Only cash.”

Are you kidding me?

It’s one thing if they said they never except credit, but why only punish AAA members? Ridiculous.

Gee, ever been towed to an ATM machine? We have.

When It Rains, It Pours

2005-09-17T17:47:00.000-05:00

Upon arriving in Houston, we stopped at a AAA office to check on the road conditions along the Gulf Coast in Louisiana and Mississippi (in order to plan our trip home). We were pleased to learn that we could use I-10 along the coast, and we returned to our car.
But there was a huge puddle under the car. And it was bright green. Please, tell me that puddle was here when we got here! Uhh, not so much.

Now, I’m admittedly pretty useless around cars, but thanks to our recent problems, I know that transmission fluid is generally tinted red (except when it’s in our car – and then it’s BLACK, but that’s another story). The green stuff comes from the radiator.

We checked the coolant level and it was bone dry. We apparently just dumped our entire coolant load in the AAA parking lot.

Lovely.

The car is now, for the first time on the trip, truly undrivable. And this is totally unrelated to the transmission! What is going on? Bessie clearly did NOT get the message about cooperating.

But, still, the situation really wasn’t that bad. First, we were in a parking lot (of AAA no less!), not on the side of the road. We weren’t in rural Texas; we weren’t in the hurricane zone of destruction. Instead, we were in Houston, only 15 minutes from where we were going to stay, and we already had an appointment to get the car serviced the next morning! In fact, this was actually lucky! If it had happened later, we could be in real trouble. Bessie was being really nice by doing this now. Yeah, that’s the ticket. No worries!

My cousin David was kind enough to pick us up, and we still got to go sailing that night. We’ve had all these car problems, but we always keep dodging the bullet! We haven’t even had to change our plans yet.

A Little Bit of Background

2005-09-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

This saga actually starts back in Denver. That’s where we got our transmission replaced. We got a used transmission because a new one was prohibitively expensive. We knew it was a bit of a crapshoot to get a used transmission. We knew it might not last for years down the road. But we only really needed it to last for three weeks so we could make it home. Was that too much to ask?

Apparently so.

Within days of the transmission fix, we noticed some minor problems. We were in New Mexico and noticed the car wasn’t downshifting well, but it was too late to bring it back to Denver. It was incredibly disappointing to have to start worrying about the car again after thinking that we had finally solved the transmission problem in Denver. My bigger concern is that we had the long drive across west Texas in front of us.

We called the Denver mechanic to complain, and he said it sounded like the downshift cable needed to be replaced, and he had a friend in Houston that could do it for us free of cost. It sounded like a decent option if we could just make it that far.

We thankfully made it across Texas and all the way down to Corpus Christi. The transmission issue persisted, but the car was still moving, and we made it to Houston on Wednesday afternoon (September 14). We were scheduled to drive the car to the Houston mechanic the next morning.

And that’s when the fun began.

Going Out with a Bang

2005-09-17T17:37:00.000-05:00

Well, well, well… where to begin? The events of the last 48 hours have certainly made the final week of this trip interesting. It seems like we had a lot of crazy stories in the first week, and it looks like we’re matching it on the last week.

These most recent adventures border on the ridiculous repeatedly, and they make our prior stories look tame! This is gonna take me a little bit of time, so please bear with me. Get a cup of coffee and sit down for a little reading!

Sooner or Later...

2005-09-17T17:25:00.000-05:00

...it had to happen. Read on.

Not a Bad Backyard View!

2005-09-17T12:24:00.000-05:00

This is the back of David & Elizabeth's place in Seabrook, TX.

Sailing on Galveston Bay

2005-09-17T12:02:00.000-05:00

David owns a business in the sailing industry (check him out at www.gulfcoastcomposite.com), and he runs a weekly competitive racing series from the local yacht club. We just happened to hit Houston on the night of the weekly race, and when David offered to get us on some of the racing sailboats, we quickly agreed!

The sailboats were J-80 class boats – approximately 26 feet long. I’ve been sailing a number of times, but never in competition. It was an entirely new ballgame! Elizabeth and I were put on different boats… with only a 4-person crew, no one would want both of us rookies on the same boat!

Once the racing started, I couldn’t believe how intense the action was and how close the boats came to crashing into one another! Just before the start, all the boats try to bunch up around the starting line. This would be fine and well except for the small fact that they’re all still sailing and moving! And once the race starts, the close encounters are even crazier! Although we didn’t see any accidents, they are apparently quite common.

And David's business involves repairing and refurbishing all kinds of boats, but particularly racing sailboats. Little wonder why it’s a very wise business investment for him to sponsor this racing series!

Once in the race, my only job – other than to stay out of the way and provide ballast – was to raise and lower the spinnaker sail. This only occurred twice during the race, but I still managed to botch it. D’oh! Just 10 seconds from finishing the race, as I was scrambling to switch sides on the boat, I stepped on the rope holding the spinnaker. The rope disengaged from the lock it was in, and the spinnaker came tumbling down! A mad scramble ensued to get it back up, and in the mean time, Elizabeth’s boat passed us! How fitting.

Thanks to Steve, Casey, and Chris for putting up with me with such good humor. At least those guys didn’t have to hear about losing from their wives for a1600-mile drive home:)

Captain Victoria

2005-09-17T12:01:00.000-05:00

My cousin David gets ready to run the sailing race (the flags are used to signal the start and other things that are beyond my limited knowledge!). His two-year-old daugher Victoria gets ready to take over from the helm!

David & Elizabeth Squared

2005-09-17T11:58:00.000-05:00

Well, how could we pass this up?

When we left Corpus, we drove up to the Houston area to spend a night with my cousin, David, and his wife (yes, you guessed it), Elizabeth! They got married about two years earlier than us.

Apparently this little name game created some serious consternation for my dad when, three years ago (before E and I got married), my mom mentioned to my dad that “David and Elizabeth are pregnant!” Heh.

David & Elizabeth have two incredibly cute little girls and a very cool house that is literally touching the Galveston Bay. The address is actually Seabrook, TX, but it’s just outside of Houston. It’s been a number of years since I’ve seen David, but he and Elizabeth couldn’t have been more hospitable to us. Thanks!

East Coast!

2005-09-17T09:52:00.000-05:00

We have hit the Atlantic! We no longer have to go east!

We're now in Jacksonville, FL at E's Grandma's house. We got in around 2:45 AM last night. It was a very long day. We now have a full day off to relax, and then tomorrow we make the final push home.

Just 700 miles north on I-95... Piece of cake!

45, 46, 47

2005-09-16T18:38:00.000-05:00

We made it to Florida!

We just passed through the heart of the Katrina damage in Mississippi and Alabama. We detoured off of I-10 to avoid the Mississippi Gulf Coast. We were about 30 miles north of I-10 and there was still a lot of damage. It was very sobering.

No problems with gas, though -- it was easily available and cheaper than we've seen in many, many weeks ($2.49). Everyone else was filling every possible container to run their generators.

Anyway, we're happy to be in FLA... We'll be back in the Eastern time zone in a little while!

Homebound

2005-09-16T13:40:00.000-05:00

Well we're in Louisiana now - only SIX more states left! We are truly on the way home.

The blog readership has been decreasing lately. In an attempt to bring some more readers to our site, we have had some crazy adventures. Only our family knows what is going on. Stay tuned...

There should be new posts by Saturday evening. It will be worth the wait - trust me!

Sunset at Snoopy's

2005-09-14T01:04:00.000-05:00

On our last night in Corpus Christi, we enjoyed dinner at an old Bell family favorite -- Snoopy's restaurant on Padre Island.

The sun sets on Corpus and the sun is beginning to set on our roadtrip. Yes, it's hard to believe, but it's true! We're now on week 15! Where has the time gone? This is the final week. We'll be done before you know it.