On the road

Bit of a catch-up required as we’ve been without internet since last weekend.   
Quick version: We left Seattle; we drove to Glacier National Park and spent the night there; we drove to Yellowstone and spent two nights there; then we drove via Teton National Park to Salt Lake City, which where we are now.  Photo-heavy posts on those places incoming soon.

Just a wee jaunt, really

So, we left Seattle on Sunday (12th) and picked a car from the airport.  Here she is:

Freedom ain’t free; it has a $1000 one-way fee

A Jeep Patriot: so goddamn American that when you turn the key you hear eagles screeching.  I’d only been driving it five minutes and already felt the need to spell things wrong and use my cutlery like a toddler.  We still had to drop the back seats to fit the body bags in, mind.
I’ll not dwell on the harridan from Budget who made the car collection process as awful as possible.  I’m very aware that each of their staff has a procedure to follow to get as much extra cash out of you as possible, but they aren’t supposed to make you feel unreasonable for not wanting the $80 per day ‘upgrade’ on a 27 day rental.  She’s not made this car’s life any easier for the next month, I assure you.

Uh huh. Nice new car you had there.

When we first set off, the local weather system thought it’d keep it familiar for me by pissing down.  

Ignoring the massive roads, rolling forests and vast mountains: just like home

I’ve driven in the States a fair bit before, but you never quite get your head around the scale of things.  Since we in the UK are never more than 70 miles from the coast, driving 120 miles between vestiges of civilisation is jarring.  There is a sense of freedom that we would struggle to replicate without escaping to the continent.

Pictured: symbolism

First stop was at an old mining town called Roslyn, when we were about two hours out, in order to get some breakfast and punish our arteries while we were there.

Then it was pretty much only stopping for fuel until Spokane, for which I am still unsure as to the pronunciation.  It has a rather nice waterfall and hydroelectric plant though, which was diverting for ten minutes.

We popped in for a burger at some place on Flathead Lake  and took some scenic pictures.

 
Which was nice.

We got to Glacier Park and caught this view before bedtime:

It’s alright, I guess

And woke up to this:

It’s not Bala though, is it?

We went through the park (which Chan wants to talk about), and went on our merry way to Montana, which re-defined vast for me.

About another 550 miles of this

With the occasional bit of this

We then spent three days looking for Yogi and Boo Boo in Yellowstone (more to come on that) before working our way down through Teton Park (Yellowstone’s more modest neighbour) and on to Salt Lake City – which looks a lot like Las Vegas in the night time, ironically enough.

Kurzfassung auf Deutsch: Wir sind sehr weit mit unseren vulgäre amerikanische Mietwagen gereist.  Wir haben Spaß gehabt, aber jetzt bin ich kaputt und ich brauche Bier.