This was my third trip to Seattle, second time to Vancouver and first time to Alaska. I covered much of the northwestern quadrant of the continental 48 states to get to/from Seattle. The goals were to stop at national park facilities along the way, and, photograph a number of campus signs of universities. Some of the universities I had visited in the recent past but unable to locate the campus signs then. I now have all of them located by their GPS coordinates.

Also important for this trip was to visit one good friend, Sherry, in Idaho and two good friends in Seattle, including Jan, whom I consider to be the Best Friend I have ever had. We did SO much together when she lived in KC 2005 to 2010 before she moved to Tacoma and later into Seattle. My other friend, Lisa, the veterinarian, I have visited twice in the previous two visits. We met in 2005 at a week-long seminar on a ranch in the California Napa Valley. We met the first day and quickly discovered our mutual love of national parks. Lisa told me that week that when I get to Seattle to look her up and she would give me a tour of her very favorite national park: Olympic. It was eight years before I took her up on that offer. Lisa also helped Sherry and I determine why our cat Squeaker got sick so often -- we were giving Squeak food that contained fillers and vegetables, and not enough meat, the natural food for cats.

Jan went with me to Vancouver since we both loved that city when we were there a few years ago. If I make the effort to visit Jan, I want to spend quality time together without the other "life" distractions. Thus, Vancouver. Jan and I have made a number of trips together over the years: Branson, Topeka, Sedalia, Portland and Vancouver-1. As I explained in a recent speech I gave in Toastmasters about relationships, there can be, if a person is very fortunate, a person who is in some unnamed class that is beyond family and friend and significant other. For me, Jan is in that special class. :>)

After Seattle I flew to Juneau. First time to the state plus, per tradition, wanted to wake up somewhere new on my birthday.

Nine days I spent in Washington, British Columbia, Alaska, northern Idaho and western Montana. It rained or snowed the entire time except for Missoula which is where I saw my only sunshine in those nine days, In the higher elevations of Montana, it snowed although little stuck to the highways since it had been warm.

KANSAS: The only stop in the state was to photograph Ft. Hays State University. That completes my photographing nearly every four-year-plus college in the state
COLORADO: All three major colleges in Colorado are in the northeast quadrant of the state. I photographed all three.
WYOMING: There is only one major college in Wyoming, in Laramie. I photographed it. I still need to visit Casper someday along with Fort Laramie National Historic Site (about 100 miles east-southest of Casper). The interstate through southern Wyoming that is west of Rock Springs was a brand new surface. Smooth and nice. In the past when I visited Rock Springs I liked the town. Same for this visit although I had forgotten how big (relative to other Wyoming towns) it is. Major city for its part of the state. Wyoming is also very considerate of truck drivers. There are numerous places along the interstate for them to pull over and sleep. When I looked on the Internet for interstate speed limits by state, it said Wyoming is 80 MPH. Weeeelllll, that is only half right. They have some sections that are 80 MPH but anything within 50 miles of a town is 75 MPH. I did not see 80 MPH until the western half of the state. Instead of taking the interstates through Utah to get to Logan UT I went north from Evanston WY to Bear Lake, then west.
UTAH: Only reason to visit this state was to photograph Utah State University. This completes the colleges in Utah. Utah is a beautiful state with lots of national parks in the south. The north is where most of the population and colleges are located. City streets in the north are mostly laid out in a north-south and east-west grid pattern and go all the way through. EVERY US town should have designed their streets this way. In the town of Laketown (a gorgeous place to live on the south end of Bear Lake), many people were out walking and jogging and biking. And all around them were hundreds of people coming into the area to boat and fish on the sunny and warm Saturday. Drivers in this area tend to take right curves wide (to the chagrin of people taking the curve left and probably narrow) and while going straight many keep their right tires just into the shoulder which puts the driver going down the center of the lane.
IDAHO: Several places to visit in this state, both in the south while headed towards Seattle and in the north after leaving Seattle. All three universities for their campus signs and four smaller national park facilities. I have determined that, along with Kentucky, Idaho is the worst at handling traffic while doing road construction. And to make matters worse, despite the interstate speed limit being 80 MPH, what is the point because there would be ten miles of construction, five miles of open road, eight miles on construction, six miles of open road, etc. In other words, we kept having to slow down and be in one lane. I did get to meet Sherry for lunch at Goodwoods BBQ in central Boise. As a surprise, I brought her several boxes of Russell Stovers candies. She loves that type of candy and it is not in Idaho. I found an old email in which she told me her preferred two types of candy: caramel and nuts. Northern Idaho has quite spectacular scenery but it was hard to see with it raining all the way,
OREGON: Four universities to visit in this state to photograph their campus signs. Lots of forest fires going on in the state which made for much smoke in the air. Fortunately, it was decent to the town of Bend but west of there was lots going on with fires and smoke. In the small town of Sisters OR just northwest of Bend I "stayed" about half an hour, delayed due to bridge work and forest fires workers doing their thing with smoke across the which closed the highway 242 I planned to take. Thus, had to go a longer detour. I ended up on highways 126 and 20 and had no one in front of me for about 60 miles. Sweet! Oregon's posted speed limit is 65 (and 60 for trucks) but we averaged 48 MPH across most of Oregon because of large vehicles and very curvy roads and less than 3 miles of Passing Lanes. Oregon needs an interstate from Ontario OR to Eugene OR. Between their highways and forest fires and no self-pump gas, after this trip, I hope I am NEVER in this state again. Cannot think of a scenario in which I would return. Whenever I judge a place -- a state or a city -- number 1 is "How easy/difficult is it to quickly get around in the place and is it easy to get lost". That is why Oregon and Santa Fe NM are among my very least favorite places in the U.S.
WASHINGTON: Along with visiting my two friends, there were five colleges to visit and one national park. Seattle was my "home base" (at Jan's) while in town, going to Vancouver, and, flying to Juneau. Driving towards Seattle from Oregon I noticed that the leaves had just begun changing to their fall colors.
BRITISH COLUMBIA: Jan and I drove to Vancouver because we both really like this town. We got a couple of recommendations to drive the 90 minutes north of Vancouver to the town of Whistler.
ALASKA: This was my first time ever to Alaska. With this, I got to check off several things on various TO-DO lists. First time to the state. Photograph the state capitol. Spend a night somewhere in the state. Photograph a college campus sign. And, woke up in another new place on my birthday. I was supposed to also cross off a Bucket List item -- helicopter ride. But poor planning on my part missed out on that. I thought I could take a helicopter ride to the Mendenhall Glacier on either Sunday afternoon or Monday morning. Nope. No flights on weekends. Weekday flights only in afternoons. This also was my first time to fly Alaska Airlines. The airline was on-time, but not early. Service was decent. Juneau has awesome scenery but lousy weather. It was about 95% cloud coverage the entire time I was in town.
MONTANA: Montana, a huge state, was a pass through for the most part. Had to revisit the two major universities, this time knowing where their campus signs are located. I also attempted to visit the Big Hole National Park. I left Missoula in time that I would have had about 15 minutes at Big Hole visitor center before it closed at 5:00 pm. However, the rain turned to snow as I reached higher elevations. That slowed me down quite a bit as visibility became short. I arrived there just after 5:00 pm. Plus, since it was still snowing, I photographed the sign then kept going, ready to get back to lower elevations with just rain.
SOUTH DAKOTA: Two national parks, both being caves, south of Mt. Rushmore. And just east of there is the Minute Man Missle National Historic Site. Last stop on my trip was South Dakota State University in Brookings. Some of my relatives lived in Brookings in the early 1900's.

MISSED VISITING:
--Central Washington University during daylight hours
--Hagerman Fossil Beds national monument - closed bridge thus unable to reach the park without spending nearly two more hours backtracking to the other side
--Big Hole National Park - the snow made me late getting there before the visitor center closed
--Minute Man Missle National Park - national park facilities normally close at 5:00 pm but this one closed at 4:00 pm and I arrived at 4:20 pm

OBSERVATIONS: Some observations made while traveling in this area:

• On Friday, thanks to the forest fires in the west, the sky was hazy with smoke everywhere from western Kansas on. Thankfully an afternoon rain cleared out much of it. Around 4:00 pm is when I finally first saw a small path of blue sky.
• Idaho, like Kentucky, is terrible at handling traffic while doing road rebuilding. Very frustrating, and what a time killer. Idaho has been that way each time I have visited.
• If planning to visit the northwest, go in April or May. That is when things are in bloom and the area has not begun the forest fire season. This is the same idea as do NOT visit the mid-Atlantic states April to September since it will likely be raining and certainly be cloudy.
• Although most people think of beautiful mountains when they think of Colorado, northeast Colorado is mostly wasteland with a few ranches scattered in there.
• Colorado and Idaho do have numerous sunflowers growing along the highways but they are quite small compared to the ones in Kansas, the Sunflower State.
• The highways in Colorado sure could use some TLC. The surfaces are really rough. Only other state I have seen with such bad road surfaces is Arkansas.
• colorado drivers, unlike Kansas City drivers, do use their turn signals, including for lane changes. However, they also love to often inexplicably hit their brakes.
• Colorado has to have THE WORST set of traffic lights in the country. Many cities seem to be that way. I learned that about Boulder back in 1984. Light at every intersection, each timed to turn red just after the one before it turned green. Thus, 10 MPH speed limits in practice.
• To Oregon drivers, a STOP sign means YIELD.
• Washington drivers rarely exceed speed limits.
• Seattle is THE WORST large city to drive in. Whenever planning to go anywhere in Seattle, plan on an average of 20 MPH if you get on ANY highway anytime between 6:00 am and 7:00 pm.
• All of the northwest states can have many days of total clouds and/or rain and even snow. In nine days of all northern Washington, southern British Columbia, southern Alaska, northern Idaho and western Montana were at least 95% clouds, usually accompanied by drizzling rain, and, in higher elevations, snow. Only Missoula had any sunshine.
• South Dakota drivers are the (too) very few drivers that know, and treat, the leftmost lane of a multi-lane highway as The Passing Lane thus they stay out of it.
• While I was wearing a short sleeve shirt around various places in the Northwest, I noticed most people on jackets, coats, even winter coats
• I think there should be signs along all coasts of the US that says "Deer, next 3000 miles" and be done with it. Hard to believe no one has come up with a way to keep deer and vehicles away from each other.

The Bests:

1. #1 Best HAS to be seeing my three friends that I see too rarely. Fun visiting with all of them, each separately
2. Scenery in the west -- the majestically tall mountains can, at times when the light and clouds are just right, look breathtakingly beautiful. Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Oregon and Washington all have them.
3. Juneau scenery -- I could easily get used to being around that all the time. But, oh, the number of rainy and cloudy days they have. And, the day before I arrived there was an earthquake north-northwest of Juneau but no damage/injuries
4. The sky and rainy clouds over the mountains as I was approaching Bozeman from west to east on I-90. Absolutely way cool beautiful. I tried taking photos but most turned out bad.
5. Sunshine after nine days of no sun!
6. Montana -- the more I visit this state, the more I am impressed with its scenery, and the diversity of the scenery. I still need to fully visit Glacier National Park although I heard that the recent forest fires decimated numerous acres in the park
7. Sunrise over South Dakota while driving down the highway
8. Montana moose on the highway just after I turned from highway 93 to highway 43. He was gone too fast before I could grab and ready my camera.

The Worsts:

1. Clouds, rain, snow for nine days in a row
2. Seattle highway traffic
3. Oregon (enough said!!!)
4. Road construction in abundance. Idaho has gone overboard with half the interstates in the state down to one lane and other two-lane highways down to one lane
5. Seattle highway traffic
6. Idaho highway construction
7. Colorado city traffic lights
8. Seattle highway traffic
9. Juneau clouds, rain, one-lane traffic thus wait 5 - 10 while other way goes
10. Rain turning to snow while slowly driving two hours in the mountains of Montana. Visibility was maybe 100-150 feet at times.
11. Did I mention Seattle highway traffic?

The Totals:

• Miles Driven: 5024
• Driving: 118 hours in 14 days (my car mostly but rental car in Alaska)
• States: 12+1 -- Kansas, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia (Canada), Alaska, Montana, South Dakota, Iowa (pass thru) and Missouri (pass thru)
• Major Universities: 20 -- Ft.Hays, Univ CO, Univ N CO, CO State, Univ WY, UT State, Univ OR, OR State, Univ Portland, Portland State, Univ WA, Univ SE AK, Central WA, Gonzaga, WA State, Univ ID, Univ MT
• Pictures Taken: 778 (and deleted 55 of them)
• National Parks: 9 new ones (to make 141 visited): City of Rocks, Minidoka, Hagerman Fossil (only the sign), Klondike Gold (WA version), Nez Perce, Big Hole (only the sign), Jewel Cave, Wind Cave, Minute Man Missle (only sign and exterior building)