timothy's Journal: Big Trip 2010: No. 3

20100621 (Monday): Trip notes continue! These notes are of course sketchy and telegraphic, not meant to be all-compassing.

m375 (approx) Super 8 Motel, Coeur d'Lane, ID, where I spent the night for about $50 (with AAA discount). A hotel night I'd rather have avoided, but not so bad as things go. It may simply be luck in this location, but was far nicer than previous Super 8 motels I've stayed in before -- clean, pleasant, nicely appointed for my purposes, even had a fridge and microwave, and a nice selection of breakfast foods.

m380:
Left from CostCo in Coeur d'Lane, ID, with:
- 4 New tires (total damage, about $585 for the tires / labor / fiddly bits)
- 1 new wheel ($100 at local Les Schwab), the look of which I think is actually better than my factory tires, but I realize to many people the mismatch would be jarring. I don't care $300 worth at the moment to have a matching set.
- new GPS ($80 for a Magellan RoadMate; seems at least adequate for my purposes)
- 1 lb shrimp (I don't need the lettuce or lemon wedges, but Hey)
- 13 lb oranges
- fresh gas; CostCo was only a few cents cheaper than the local competition, but a few cents is better than nothing

Note: I'll have to revise this estimate if my tires fall off, but for now, I will say the tire crew at the CostCo were fantastic. I had to call them a few times (starting from my place stranded off I-90), was happy they had a set of compatible tires in stock, and they were courteous and helpful when I got there, helped me out of my predicament. (I got 3 of my new tires yesterday -- Sunday -- and the fourth this morning, after finding a compatible wheel on wihch to mount it; the fellows at CostCo put on my donut spare yesterday so I could get to a hotel, to Les Schwab, etc.)

m441: passed the place where I spent far too much of yesterday morning and afternoon with my disabled car, trying to be vigilant for more debris. Don't want to repeat that experience.

m444: Montana welcomes me! Reminded me of how close I'd been to the state line when I had to be hauled back nearly to Washington.

m562: A waddling duck and her two tiny ducklings (each of which I think could have fit into a yogurt container) just barely survived their trip south across the road. No one else in sight, so I swerved slightly, which I think made the difference.

m589: Rest stop in Montana, time for some oranges, an egg, a yogurt, a sm. chocolate bar, some prunes, and to fiddle with the new GPS, which I eventually got to admit is in Mountain time. Never owned a Magellan before; so far, I'm pretty pleased with it; I like the system of creating custom searches which can be saved for easy re-use. (So far, I've made ones for Starbucks, and Camping.) One thing I noticed -- and I wonder if this is tied to the wheel / tire replacement -- is that my speed as shown on the car's speedometer is slightly higher than that shown by the GPS. With my previous GPS (which I believe was stolen, several months back), the car's speed tracked the GPS's display pretty well.

Should be in Denver in plenty of time for dinner tomorrow; only a few days later than the estimate I had this time last week. At least one of the friends I'd hoped to see in Colorado will be traveling while I'm there, and my friend Don recently succeeded in selling his house in Colorado Springs and moving to California, so (though I regret being unable to see them) my Colorado time will be better spent than I'd feared.