Friday, July 27, 2007

Out there

We've reached Seattle! Our route took us through Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Rapid City, Cody, Grand Teton National Park, Bozeman, and Spokane. Here are some of my favorite photos (warning: this is photo-heavy):

The tabby apparently trying to avoid the journey by donating himself to charity:
100_1470

The cats in the car. We kept them crated except when they were in hotels.
100_1508_00

A brief stop in Chicago at Arcadia Knitting for the Panopticon's 1000 Knitters photoshoot. Here is the man himself, holding the Argosy scarf I worked on for most of the trip (more on that later):
100_1540_00

The cow-cat lounging in a Chicago hotel. At king size, this was definitely the biggest bed we saw on our trip, but the two cats still managed to spread out enough to take up at least a quarter of it. I think they come with little air pumps or something that they use to inflate themselves when needed.
100_1545_00

The Argosy scarf, somewhere on the way to Minneapolis.
100_1554_00

A brush fire beside the highway in Wisconsin. Yes, we called 911 about this and yes, they already knew.
100_1557_00

One of the dozen or so Wall Drug signs we saw en route. I wish I'd caught the one that said "ONLY 355 MILES TO WALL DRUG!"
100_1596_00

The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We didn't go inside. We did, however, stop for lunch at Ziggy's, a nearby hot dog place that won me over when the women let us bring the cats inside (crated, of course) so they could sit in an air-conditioned area while we ate, instead of out in the car on a sunny 100-degree day. 100_1612_00

Something we saw near an Old West ghost town in South Dakota east of the Badlands. We still have no idea what it was for, but it looked pretty cool.
100_1644_00

Badlands National Park. It was hot and dry but beautiful. We saw deer and prairie dog colonies and the tiny town of Interior, SD, population 67.
100_1655_00
100_1688_00
100_1699_00
100_1679_00

The Cody Nite Rodeo. We got to see the One-Arm Bandit and his bison. They started off going in circles on the ground, but eventually the rider herded the bison up a ramp and onto the top of the van.
100_1805

Grand Teton National Park from the east side of Signal Mountain, just before sunset.
100_1861

The Tetons from the west side of Signal Mountain during sunset.
100_1887

One of the buffalo we saw. This one was calmly grazing right beside the road in the park.
100_1849

Yellowstone Lake in Yellowstone National Park, behind some roadside geothermal activity.
100_1828
Old Faithful doing its thing.
100_1908
Mammoth Hot Springs.
100_1941

Part of Mystery Stole 3. I started this in Montana when I got tired of working on Argosy.
100_1955

We started keeping an eye out for amusing/odd signs somewhere in Ohio. Somewhere in western Montana, we spotted a large banner that said...well actually, we weren't sure what it said at first.
100_1954b
From a distance the letter "c" looked like an "o" and I caught myself wondering if this was some type of pasta I had never heard of before, but as we got closer we saw the alarmed cartoon bull on the sign and realized that it was an ad for the upcoming Testicle (i.e. prairie oyster) Festival. By the time I switched the camera on we had passed the sign, so we ended up turning back east at the next exit so we could drive by again for a picture.

Knitting
I finished the Pomatomus socks before the trip but didn't get around to take a picture until today.
Pomatomus (finished)

The Argosy scarf is currently resting. I started this one for the Tour de France knitalong and managed to get through about 18 repeats before deciding I'd had enough (temporarily) of the yarn-pattern combination. In hindsight, I probably could have made it a bit wider.

I'm on clue 3 for the Mystery Stole.

This new place of ours has had a couple of warts, including the fridge that doesn't really refrigerate (we had to throw out a 3-day-old carton of milk before I would finally admit this; fortunately the freezer works just fine), but the location is pretty good--we're minutes away from a lot of the things we need and the nearest yarn store, the Fiber Gallery, is only a 20-minute walk away. I think I'm going to like it here...

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

What an awesome trip and great photos. If you want to see the country and learn how people across America really live, it's the best way to go. Glad you all made it safely to Seattle and wishing you happy new endeavors. A yarn store within walking distance = heaven.

Devorah said...

Glad to see you made it safely and had a good time to boot. Thanks for sharing such great photos. Good luck in your new locale.

Theresa said...

Welcome to the west coast! That's a great drive - I remember when I enjoyed it! Good luck settling in!

knitseashore said...

What a wonderful trip! Glad that you are settled in and enjoying your new home (even if you have appliance issues). I hope the cats are settling in OK and have forgiven you. :)

cindy said...

Love the canyon shots and the cat pics as well in a later post.I'm impressed with your progress on MS3...I'm still on clue #1.WIsh you well in Seattle!

Anonymous said...

I was just talking with someone about Wall Drug today. Did you get a 5-cent cup of coffee? They have free water, too, I'm told.

Looks like a great cross-country trip, with a good balance between majestic scenery and eccentric Americana!