6/19/2018

To follow up last year’s trip around the world, this year we are going for the Great American Road Trip.  Tomorrow we leave from home in Edmonds, Washington for our trip to trace the westbound path of Lewis & Clark from St Louis, Missouri to Astoria, Oregon.  To get to St Louis, we will take the scenic route across the Cascades at Snoqualmie Pass, via Oregon, Idaho, Utah, Colorado and Kansas to Kansas City where we are going to join a family reunion of cousins we have not seen for a long time.  After the reunion, we will continue on to St Louis, then follow the route taken by the 1804-1806 Lewis & Clark expedition from there.  This will take us up the Missouri River to North Dakota and Montana, over the Continental Divide at Lemhi Pass where the expedition crossed, and where it is so remote that it still looks today much like it did in 1805.  Then we will continue on over Lolo Pass and down the Clearwater River and Snake River, ultimately reaching the Columbia and following it all the way to the Pacific Ocean at Astoria, Oregon.

We will be making contemporaneous posts as we travel so tune in and join us as we go.

To learn about the expedition, we have been re-reading Stephen Ambrose’s “Undaunted Courage” which does a great job of relating the drama of the expedition — a great story.  I had read the book many years ago, but both Cheryl and I are reading it again with new eyes knowing that we are going to personally visit the places where the story took place.  Highly recommended!

For those who have been following along with our 2017 trip around the world in search of the world’s greatest engineering sights, my posts on that trip continue.  I am about to send our post about the St Paul’s Cathedral and the Shard in London, and these essays will continue when we return from the Lewis & Clark trip: more from London, then to New York, Chicago, and back to Seattle.

10:30 PM: got about another hour’s worth of packing to do.  This is the way it always seems to go — lots of pressure the last day with the flood of last-minute details.  Then … ahhh! … relax and watch the scenery go by.  Our trusty Sienna van is all shined up and thoroughly prepped and ready to go.  I don’t care if it gets messed up as we go along, but the trip starts out better, and the car seems to run better when it’s in great shape starting out.

Carol & Jim, Cheryl’s sister and brother-in-law are traveling with us on this trip, and have proved to be great traveling companions over the years, so we have been really looking forward to this one.

Cheers,

Scott