Day 2: OR, WA, ID, MT

October 6, 2011

BTW, I spelt snowploughs the British way when I wrote yesterday. The signs here actually say snowplows :). Another comment I missed making – there was a curious billboard I saw on I-505. It said Let us vote them ALL out. I thought that was cool; although, there were no alternatives prescribed.

I had a disturbed sleep last night in the motel. Apollo was getting antsy every time he heard some noise outside. On top of that, he woke me up at 4 am. I took him out; it was freezing outside. Didn't seem to bother him though! We hit the road early – given that we were planning on driving 50 miles more than the previous day. Right outside Bend, there was an awesome location – Peter Skene Ogden spot which is a breathtaking gorge created by Crooked River (yes, that is the name of the river). I also drove past Madras, Oregon. Hmm… best kept a secret from Tamil Nadu politicians lest they insist on renaming it to Chennai, Oregon!

US-97 is a beautiful highway. Just that it is not an interstate and there are times one would have to pass slower traffic driving over the dotted yellow lines. I was considering passing a car in front of me twice – by going to the left of the dotted yellow line, decided against it and kept driving behind the car. Out of nowhere, an Oregon State trooper shows up, pulls me over and points out that I was driving too close to the car in front of me and he noticed my car go over the yellow line twice. I will update tomorrow on how this episode turned out – did I get a ticket on day 2? Did I get a break? Why? Care to speculate? Do comment – but I will update tomorrow how this one turned out.

Washington state was boring – at least, where I drove. As I came close to Spokane, it also started drizzling, coupled with construction delays, making the exit to Idaho a welcome relief! It was still raining on I-90E in Idaho, but the moment I crossed over into Montana, the skies cleared up, the speed limit got lifted and it was simply a pleasure to floor the pedal quite a few times as I breezed through the last 150 miles or so to Missoula.

I am a fan of Tom Petty. And the song, Runnin' down a dream is a classic drive song. I had always wanted to play that song and drive in Montana flooring the gas pedal. I can check that one off today!