5333 miles...

Stayed the night at Super 8 motel outside of Mansfield Ohio sitting in a Denny's. (Denny's is my friend:)

Yesterday I went to Hershey Pennsylvania a beautiful town with a wonderful history and the home of Hershey chocolate, my intention to spread some of Margie's ashes in a place very close to her heart.
The factory is in the middle of town and so the town smelled like chocolate when I drove through it the night before.
There is Hershey park a very large amusement park with 12 roller coasters of all shapes and sizes, plenty of rides and rather expensive for the day. I was not into rides so it wasn't on my agenda.

Chocolate World gives you hands on approach to making your own chocolate bar and has a free tour of the chocolate process.

The Hershey Hotel, a beautiful and I bet expensive place to stay.

The Hershey gardens very beautiful botanical garden up by the hotel and home to many roses.

The entire town has something to see from the Hershey shaped street lights to friendly people, it's very much a community atmosphere that survives on the tourist element.

The Hershey Museum, a complete history of the Hershey family and the amazing things they did for the community, I did not take the tour of the museum but here are a couple of history facts I learned.

Milton Hershey and his wife could not have children of their own so they adopted 2 kids and because of their love for children they started a school for kids who could not afford it and all the children had to do was keep a certain grade point average and they would be able to afford grants or have their school all payed for by the Milton foundation.
There is a cancelled check in the museum for a ticket aboard the Titanic, they were supposed to travel on it's maiden voyage but his wife became ill so he cancelled their trip, if they had been on board the Hershey legacy might not exist today.

After walking around awhile I needed to find a place for Margie.

I had shared my story with a few people so far everyone I have met is surprised about what I am doing and really thinks it is a great way to honor her, some even made suggestions of places for her ashes to be poured.
I was on my way back to my car but decided to get some pictures of the hotel before I left, so I took a bus up there and on my way met up with a bus driver who suggested a great place, he said all the suggestions given to me were good but they were outside of town and he said I should keep her in town with the chocolate he said there was no reason I could not pour her ashes here. He told me about this hedge cut in the words of Hershey Coco by the factory so I went there and it was perfect so Margie is in the home of chocolate and roses.
What better place to climax this story, I still have a few places to to go and nights to sleep before I am home but I did what I intended, I honored her and me...

4654...miles Best laid plans

So I hit slight snag on my time line that forced me to eliminate some stops.
I am sitting in the Best Western in Newport News Virginia and after realizing how long it took me to get over here from the West Coast I have had reevaluate my schedule so that I can make it back, my main focus is Hershey Pennsylvania that is the all for her.

I did not get to New Orleans or DC this go around maybe another day.

Outside of Alabama a truck threw a rock into my windshield that left a really nasty chip so I am trying to get safe lite to fill it before I travel on tomorrow

What have I learned so far.

I needed more time for this,

I am insignificant in the scheme of things, my journey is my own cause and unless people know me they just pass me without even a look, I drove the speed limit the whole way and did not tempt the idiots that passed me, I had no reason to be on anyone's schedule but my own.

Sacramento California has an incredible variety of tree's, every breed of tree imaginable is dispayed all over the city some I have never seen before.

If you have never traveled the coastal route of California I recommend it, when your driving along the cliff side with the ocean on your right it's amazing.

Chandler Arizona is like a huge shopping mall for miles, it seems to be prosperous but at what price to the ones I saw on the street.

When you drive through Texas and stop at an inspection point don't have anything black sitting on the passenger seat.

Some Texas drivers are bad in any state.

I love storms but not the humidity, I saw amazing lightning storms that lit the sky for miles all around me.

If you want to visit New Orleans go with someone who knows there way around and don't trust a GPS that tells you to turn into on coming traffic, just trying to find a place to park that was safe took more time than I had and this was a weekday, so I decided it was better to push on.

If you want to learn about the history of music come to the East Coast if I had time to stop I would have visited all the museums and even caught a concert.

Advertisements on the radio are the same everywhere except for the dialects used.

Everything is green when you get out of Texas all the way to the East Coast.

I said I have respect for truck drivers but I ran into some that would just as soon swatted me off the road than share it, a few times it was scary.

I am not the greatest picture taker when I'm on a deadline.

On the East Coast it's called Hardee's and on the West Coast it's called Carl's Jr, but Hardee's has the best chicken sandwich ever.

If you want to learn about a culture don't be a tourist, spend time in it because you can't see it from the freeways.

I saw a great disconnect in people because of technology and yet the ugly truth is that it builds bridges across culture lines that were never there before, it's all a dance.

I did this journey for us so I discovered an interesting thing, when Margie and I traveled it was very much the same way I am traveling, I don't see what everyone else see's and I tend to arrive late or leave before the exciting stuff happens, sounds like a normal vacation honey...

Slight Change...

I have had a slight change of plans I will fill you in when I get to my motel...

3138 miles...

Stayed the night at Days Inn in Vinnie Texas, got my 8 hours of sleep and the humidity has to be 100% here.

After my stop at the Denny's on 8/6 I decided I would drive at night for awhile and make up some miles. During the night trucks own the road, big rigs hauling goods across the state and even though the regular speed limit is 80 during the night it is posted at 65 even though none of them drive that speed.
I saw some beautiful lightning storms all around me (be careful what you wish for) they lit up the night sky like a giant switch being turned off and on, there were far enough away I did not have to worry about them bu they were quite impressive. As I passed through El Paso I saw the big Texas star on the side of the hill, everything in Texas is big.

About an hour later after the storms passed I saw this red glow in the clouds on the left side of the road and as I got closer I saw there was a fire in the hills that had been started by the lightning, it was quite a blaze and shows you how potent a bolt of lightning can be.

I drove until 2 am but had to stop for the night, most places were booked up due to an oil company and stock car races on the same day but I finally found a Holiday Inn Express with one room available and crashed for the night.

8/7 After getting a few hours sleep I started off again, some things you should know about that.
The regular speed limit is 80 except at night when it drops down to 65 (no one drove 65 at night). If you own a muscle machine or stock ride come drive in Texas, everyone drives big gas guzzling machines, I saw more Escalades, trucks and monster rigs than I have seen in any other state, no one here seems to worry about high gas prices.

Texas is a contradiction at least in it's drivers, there are signs all over that state that say, "Drive Friendly", so I drove the speed limit and I was courteous but pretty much everyone on the road was not. Don't get me wrong the people I met on my stops were fine but when they get behind the wheel a switch turns on and it's everyone for themselves, I equated it to an episode of the old Star Trek series called, "Lazarus", that was for Ken.

Everyone drives there own way, I was stopped in traffic due to an accident further up and to my right about 5 trucks took off over the embankment to hit a lower road and get ahead of the traffic, and I saw more collisions and off road accidents than I did in any other state, at one point an officer was off the road working with one rear end collision while about about 200 feet ahead another group was waiting for the same officer for the one they just got in.
I had no desire to end up a statistic in Texas so I just crawled along in my own time and my own space.

I had no problem driving in California, Arizona or New Mexico but Texas was a challenge.
Leaving here soon to make my way toward New Orleans...

2221 miles...

Sitting in a Denny's on the border of New Mexico and Texas with Margie at the table.

Drive through Arizona was uneventful as was the drive through New Mexico, I did not really stop to sight see mostly because of how hot it was and my time frame to make it to the East Coast before I have to return home, so I stopped for gas, ice and a drink when needed.

The one thing I did find amusing was the signs in the dust bowl areas they said, "Caution Dust storms may exist", I found that very existential as in they may or may not exist, and unless your watching do they exist at all, sorry just a twisted sense of humor.

I will say one thing for this area the cloud formations are really amazing, I have seen many weather channels shows depicting this type of weather but seeing it up close is quite a treat, I am hoping for a storm I have always wanted to see a storm on the desert.

I decided I want to do some night driving having not seen a sunset or the stars since this started so I will rest up here for awhile then set out again until I settle for the night.

When Margie and I traveled we loved to go at night it was peaceful and we liked to travel under the stars.

Talking to a waitress about her situation of losing her mom recently, she went through a similar thing and had to be an advocate like Margie was about her medications, it is sad when a country so well off can treat people like numbers and statistics instead of human beings so we have been consoling each other and sharing stories, it helps to talk about it and so far people I have met are very kind...

1878 miles...are you still with me

I am staying at the Best Western in Chandler Arizona and the outside temperature is 114 degrees inside temp, nice...

Where I left off I came out of Mount Shasta on 8/1 and drove down to Sacramento to stay with friends since I arrived so late I decided to stay an extra night so I could rest up for my long journey down the coast.

I left early 8/3 and started my journey to the California coast, I did see California cows on my way but they did not look like they were that happy to be there.
Once I got off I-5 and headed over the hills (they are not mountains) to the coast the temperature dropped to about 68, I stopped at Seaside to get gas and a coffee then continued down the coast line, for anyone who has not been there it's beautiful, the further down you go from Seaside the more amazing it is.

I stopped at a Greek restaurant called Nepenthe and the pictures included are my view.
When I left the restaurant I walked into a gift shop called Phoenix and in the back on their patio were 2 gongs and I rang them for Margie.

As I traveled further down the coast line I took some more pictures, it's very expensive to live there but enticing.
I drove on down through several small towns and decided to stay in Pismo Beach, I ended up at the Quality Inn around 8:30 pm exhausted so I rested up for the next leg of my journey.

Left Pismo Beach at 7:30 am continued down to Malibu. I have seen most of the places I traveled through in movies but driving there was a different experience, there were no actors to be seen which is fine so I proceeded to get lost instead.

After getting my bearings I headed to my next destination Huntington Beach to stay with my friend Shane, I arrived on the day of the US Open Surfing Competition so while waiting for Shane to get off work I wandered down to the pier to check out the activities.

I only had one night there and I was not able to stay for the competition the next day but I told Shane I would come next year for the whole week.

I left a comfortable 71 degrees to land here with 114, I stopped at a nice Italian restaurant and had a wonderful pizza called Norma's special.

Of all the places in California I loved Huntington Beach the most and I plan on moving there to be a surfer dude when I retire.
I have met many people on my journey who are curious why I carry a glass jar with me, when I tell them they are kind and respectful, some relate stories of personal loss and it helps them to see what I am doing.
Well that is all for now tomorrow I am headed to Texas.

794 Miles... Part 3 & the GPS

This part will be quick, I left Klamath planning on heading to the interior of California so loading the GPS with my next address I started out, now word of warning on a GPS if it ask you what route do you want to take and whether you want to use best use of roads or freeways and your on the coast say roads.
I said freeways thinking it would get me there after I got out of the area unbeknownst to me before I knew it I was headed back to Grants Pass in Oregon to catch the freeway, the only advantage that came out of it was I went past Mount Shasta where I took her before I proposed a year later.


For those of you wondering where I have been posting this from I stayed with some friends in Sacramento.

I'm leaving tomorrow to head down the coast of California to my next destination see you on the road...