Impressions of Driving Across the USA

On August 17, the Wegener Family Reunion ended at Bear Lake. At 2:00 PM, that same day, Kathie and I commenced our cross-country trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with Jeff and Kimi, who are off to dental school for four years. They drove a Budget rental truck...we drove their car. That night we made it to Cheyenne, Wyoming, the next to Des Moines, Iowa, the next to Youngstown, Ohio...and next morning to Pittsburgh. The first item of business was to close on their home...then unload the truck. 5 dental students, all members of the local LDS Ward, came to help. The Church in action is most impressive.

Wyoming: Wyoming is also impressive...it's big...it's wide open...it's mean. Between 1846 and 1860 about six thousands Latter Day Saints died on the trek between Nauvoo and Utah. Wyoming took the largest toll...especially during winter. People still die in Wyoming during winter crossings, even on modern highways. Wyoming weather must be respected...even feared. We have driven across Wyoming a number of times, but after this crossing, I commented to Kathie..."I'm sorry...if I had been a Mormon pioneer, and had they told me about Wyoming...I would not have gone." It is just as well that only a handful of men in the advance party of 1846/47 knew about Wyoming...and they obviously were not telling. Our admiration for those marvellous, faithful Saints has only increased.

Wind Mills: We saw hundreds (maybe thousands) of windmills in Wyoming and across the Great Plains. They were the huge kind...they must cost a fortune to purchase and install. We even saw windmill blades loaded on semis rolling down the highway to their destined spot on the landscape. The sight of endless rows of windmills was so impressive that it might make a skeptic like me believe that T. Boone Pickens and Barack Hussein Obama may be on to something that will save the planet. Well...maybe not. We did not see a single windmill turning during the entire trip. I guess the wind has to be blowing. So there were millions of dollars sitting on the plains doing nothing...not generating even a single watt. By contrast, I thought of the Intermountain Power Plant (IPP) down by Delta, Utah. Miners are employed 24/7 digging coal which, while it may be a finite resource, will never run out before science actually comes up with another reliable source of energy. The coal trains are running 24/7, transporting coal to power plants like IPP. The power plants are producing power 24/7. The whole industry employs thousands of people. Power is made available to consumers nationwide 24/7. No-one has to depend on either the wind blowing or the sun shining. That is far more impressive to me than huge windmills standing idle on the Great Plains. On the bright side, if the windmills are not turning, there would be no chance that they would be killing birds. That would actually make some people feel all warm and fuzzy, even as they sit in the dark.

Mid-Western Farms: One impression driving across the Great Plain states, was the beauty of the farms. Utah/Idaho farms, by comparison, are messy...visually unattractive. Utah/Idaho farmers have saved every piece of farm equipment and every automobile that they have ever owned. One day they are going to need something out there in the mess, I guess. In contrast, the mid-western farmers appear to take great pride in the appearance of their homesteads and groupings of farm buildings. They may have developed without much planning, but their traditional white color against surrounding green trees, fronted by acre after acre of corn fields, presented us with post-card type beauty mile after mile. We were impressed by the industry and pride of the mid-country farmers.

Truckers: Truckers are an interesting breed. They live on the highways. They own the highways. During some legs of the trip, trucks outnumbered cars 10:1. Even so, these interesting blokes, tolerate long lines at the diesel pumps, where they pay $4:50/gal...and they tolerate the rest of us who are not professional drivers. Jeff's rental truck was huge and he was obviously a novice truck driver...he had a hard time holding the truck in his lane a number of times...really scared us a few times. The truckers, on the other hand, have to know that rental trucks are being driven by novices. They gave Jeff a wide berth. Not once did we see an aggressive move by a trucker...not even a honk. Truckers deserve our respect. Who would want that job?

Budget Rental Truck: The highlight of the entire trip, from Jeff's perspective, was getting rid of the rental truck. It was not all that bad to drive on the highway...we stayed in touch with walkie-talkies...the truck did not go much over 65 at any time...but it was a pain driving in the city. It did not help that Jeff took a wrong turn into Pittsburgh. The streets were narrow...one time we did not think that he would even make it between the cars parked on each side of the road. It was more than close...from our perspective following behind, it was breathtaking. Then it was impossible to turn corners without running the rear wheels over curbs. Jeff only hit one telephone pole...it was a glancing blow, which did not damage the truck. Kathie and I held our breath at one point when Jeff had to back up to make a turn. He actually backed between two parking meters ...there was no skill involved...he had no idea that they were there. The next trial was finding a service station in Pittsburgh which had diesel fuel. We drove from station to station without luck. At one point Jeff held up a line of traffic, jockeying the truck out onto the road while Kimi guided him around a parked car. The owner of the car just stood there daring Jeff to hit it. He missed...and Kimi had to run down the road to catch Jeff...who was mightily stressed. When we finally found a service station with diesel, it was on the opposite side of a median...of course...and it was dark. When Jeff found an opening he cut through and we followed...trouble was there was nowhere to go. We thought we were turning into a street, but no...Jeff was stuck jockeying the truck back and forth...holding up traffic again. Pittsburgh drivers were not as kind, courteous and understanding as the highway truckers.

Welcome to Pittsburgh: The highlight of that evening was Kathie's attempt to go to the ladies room at the service station. This was an introduction to life in the big city. The restroom was a uni-sex type outside the station. The door was locked and a women's voice said pleasantly ..."Just a minute." Kathie waited...and waited. There was a car parked close by, with a driver in it. Kathie asked if he was waiting for someone. He said yes. Kathie continued to wait. Kimi joined her. I was watching all this unfold from a distance. I was thinking that Kathie was not going to want to go into that bathroom for a while. Finally a man ducked out of the restroom. As he went by he said "She will be out in a minute." Kimi says that she would have loved to have had a photo of Kathie at that point...her jaw had dropped...her mouth was open. Then a women walked out casually smoking a cigarette. The guys drove away...the woman got into another car...she went her way. Kathie was incredulous...she looked at Kimi and said..."They were in there having a quicky." Welcome to life in the big city. We live a sheltered life in Logan, Utah, by comparison.

Pittsburgh: The city reminds me of Sydney; the downtown area is full of interesting highrise buildings on a waterfront, the suburbs are all hills and valleys, with buildings constructed on the most unlikely sites. Of course, that makes it visually attractive, but an absolute nightmare to drive through. Coming from the west, as we do, where Brigham Young's colonizers laid out about 500 cities on a grid pattern, Pittsburgh is a nightmare of narrow roads with twists and turns. It has all of the big city freeways...even tunnels...all of which apparently exceeded their capacity about ten years ago. The areas huge steel mills closed down years ago and those sites have been redeveloped into major shopping/dining destinations...all very well done. The city is a melting pot of ethnic groups. Jeff and Kimi's neighbors came to introduce themselves. We noticed that they were proud to flaunt their ethnicity..."We're Polish"...or..."I'm Tony, your Italian neighbor." We think Jeff and Kimi are going to enjoy Pittsburgh.

The Locked Door: Would you believe it? We had not been in Jeff and Kimi's new home a day before someone forgot the key. Well...we all walked out, and as Kathie shut the front door she said... "I hope someone has a key". It was good thinking, but a tad late. We looked for an open window...borrowed a couple of ladders to check out second floor windows. It became a neighborhood project. Then we discovered that the kitchen window was unlocked. But there was a problem. It was a single-hung type...it only opened a few inches. Jeff borrowed a screw driver from a neighbor and succeeded in gaining a few more inches. Jeff tried but did not fit. Kathie made some comment about the size of his head. It was one of those situations where all eyes flashed from body to body...then all settled on Kimi. Still it was questionable. Kimi is...shall we say...well endowed...but who knew...she managed to squeeze her top half through. Jeff and I then took a leg each and pushed. Jeff was pressing down Kimi's rear end and she made it. It was interesting watching her rotate the body in the kitchen sink, but it was a painful experience which left her legs bruised. Kathie took photos and people would ask "Kimi...how did you do that?" Jeff and I decided to embellish the story, along the lines of the old BYU coed joke. We told those who asked... "It was easy...we just threw a twinkie through the window and greased her hips." I know...that's terrible.