Trippin in St Pete

[2tallbill]

Knowing that she was a hardened professional shopper who seeks out bargains
with the nose of a blood hound I took her to Ross Dress for less and announced
that I would listen to music in the car and she should send me an sms if she
needed anything.

[2tallbill]

Note: this coat was at one of the stores. She announced that she would look
great in it and snapped a photo of it, then went back to hunting bargains
methodically looking at an touching every item in the store. Little did I know that
on the trip back I was expected to remember which store she could find the coat
in.    I have a photographic memory however I ran out of film sometime in the
1980's

[2tallbill]

Only a half hour past the strict shopping curfew we got back on the road
once again to drive like escaping felons tearing across the state.

[2tallbill]

I continue on driving like a madman killing bugs with reckless abandon
and getting sweet kisses every time we cross a river, life is great 

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[2tallbill]

We finally cross the huge state of Montana and cross through the pan handle
of Idaho.



Angel Eyes pronounces Idaho so poorly that she had to say it a
half dozen times for me to understand what she was saying.

So I did the little rhyme, who da ho? NO! I da ho, you da ho? No I da ho
We da ho? No! I da ho! and pretty soon she was saying it pretty well. 

Then of course we switched over to I scream, you scream we all scream for
ice cream!

[2tallbill]

There is a Moscow Idaho much to Angel Eyes excitement and surprise
she takes quite a number of photos to the signs to Moscow. However
we are headed to Spokane Washington

[2tallbill]

Can one only see so much beautiful nature? Is there a threshold where it doesn't
ever get more beautiful than that? If so then Coeur d'Alene might be one of
those places. I can't find my photos (these were taken by others)

[2tallbill]

We cross into Washington but didn't have time and take a photo of the
sign because there was no place to even dream of stopping and we weren't
ready for it.

I tried to double back but Angel Eyes vetoed the idea once she figured out
what I was doing. I wanted to have a photo of her in front of each State sign.
Maybe even USCIS would believe she was there.

So we continued on through Washington.

[2tallbill]

I finally found a Washington State park sign so I photographed Angel Eyes with
the sign (she is edited out here)

[2tallbill]

More Washington State, unfortunately we drive through a lot of the State in the
Dark.






Aleenee ! Aleenee ! Aleenee ! Aleenee ! Aleenee !  (deer) but Angel Eyes was
just a tad too slow to catch one on film. Here is where he would have been
if he just stayed where he was.

[jone]

Not true.  I see her arm. 

[2tallbill]

Not true.  I see her arm.

It was a stunt double

[2tallbill]

One thing about traveling with Angel Eyes is that she has a sixth
sense if I am hungry or should pull over and call it a day.

We loaded an ice chest with various things to eat that AE had prepared for the trip.
I also bought a couple of things like trail mix, smoked almonds and some various nuts,
and raisins etc.

Whenever I started feeling hungry AE would put together something for us to eat.
I always stopped for whoever's bladder called first (usually mine since I drink Gallons
of iced tea each day). If I selected a bush for relief, AE had no qualms using a bush.
Going on a road trip with AE is a joy.

However, one thing that really worried her was the poor starving squirrels at the
rest stops. He insisted that they would die painful deaths if she didn't feed them
a lot of my trail mix.

Here is a photo of one of the unfortunate starving rascals.

[2tallbill]

So we continue racing on through the night to Oregon. The Oregon/Washington
border is the Columbia River which has a bridge across it and somewhere in the
middle of the bridge was a sign Welcoming us to Oregon. Angel Eyes wasn't
quick enough on the draw with the camera. My sister had invited us to stay
with her (she lives in Oregon) and we decide to take her up on it.



My nieces and nephews are all there to quiz Angel eyes who feels like she is
in the land of the giants. My sister 6 ft, Nephew 6' 5" Niece 6' 3" and Nephew
6' 1" (he is only 13) but Angel Eyes wins them all over and they like her. I think
my sister has adopted her  :chuckle:

Pendleton Oregon is a cowboy town and Angel Eyes is intrigued and snaps photos
at everything. I don't think they have cowboys in Russia.

[2tallbill]

Paper companies have tree farms like this with trees that grow super fast.




The Columbia river gorge is always windy and home to world class
windsurfing and wind farms. Fossil Oregon is the tiny little village
where I graduated from High school back when we drove covered
wagons to school.

[2tallbill]

My sister got up at the crack of dawn and cooked us breakfast.
We drained the water out of the ice chest, replaced the ice, added
provisions, filled up with gas and washed the windshield for only
the 10,000th time and off we go flying down the highway again.

Angel Eyes snaps a photo every 100 meters or so


Angel Eyes is still in charge of navigation and does a remarkable job of it.

[2tallbill]

Mt Hood is in the distance, they are closing for skiing during the weekend we
are there. I have skied there in July before but apparently they don't have as
much snow this year. I would have loved to go up there. The views are incredible,
you can go up the ski lifts nearly to the top of the 11,250 ft (3,429 meters) Mountain

They have the lifts operating in the summer too for site seeing.



Fishing in Oregon is very popular especially salmon fishing

[2tallbill]

The Eastern part of Oregon is High Desert separated by the
Cascade Mt Range and the Western part of the state is lush
and green. The Mountains keep the rain to the Western part.



We are approaching the Western part and things become
much greener.

[2tallbill]

As we travel west the land becomes more lush and green with every mile.

[2tallbill]

Angel Eyes is a very happy girl snapping photos, taking videos and
filling her half dozen memory cards with everything she sees.