drivetofive

Odometer (ILX):  52,155

Leg Distance:  1,200 Miles

If my passport hadn’t expired, I would’ve visited Canada in the ILX this past weekend.  At the northernmost destination on my road trip, I was only about 40 miles from the border!  This time, unlike on most of my trips, I had multiple passengers along for the ride.  Our destination:  Moses Lake, Washington for a family reunion.

I departed on the 3,300-mile journey last Thursday afternoon and headed out of Phoenix.  Smoke from nearby wildfires created an amber hue in the Las Vegas sunset.  I wouldn’t be stopping on the Strip, though.

When I arrived in St. George, Utah to pick up my grandma, we pulled out the 2014 Rand McNally atlas and grandpa pointed out some trip highlights that we would experience on the drive to the Pacific Northwest.

From gma’s house, my iPhone’s map application said it was 1,000 miles exactly to where the reunion would be held.

But, we had to pick up two other important passengers in Logan, Utah along the way.  My mom and my aunt Jodi were waiting anxiously for the ILX taxi to pick them up.  This picture was taken in Sardine Canyon, approaching Cache Valley where Logan is located.

“Let’s get this show on the road!” says grandma.

Here is our pre-departure picture, featuring me, my grandma, and Jodi.  Grandma and Jodi ended up staking out their domains in the back seat while my mom rode shotgun.  It was a tight squeeze to fit all of our luggage into the trunk, but we did it!

It should come as no mystery that there was no shortage of conversation with all these passengers in the car.  For once, I gave my audio system a break and enjoyed chatting with my family members.  Our first pit stop was in Deweyville, Utah.

The home pictured above is where my grandma lived during her high school years during the 1940s.  Deweyville today is probably about the same as it was back then.  As of the 2010 census, there were only about 330 people living there.

Grandma’s old home is up for sale with a price tag of $134,900.  She shared with us some memories of what it was like inside those upstairs bedrooms.  Interesting note:  This home was featured in the 1998 Vince Vaughn / Joaquin Phoenix film called “Clay Pigeons.”  Here’s a video clip from the movie that clearly shows the Wellsville Mountains in the background.

Our next stop was about 2.5 hours later in Burley, Idaho off Interstate 84.  My grandma lived in this home when she was about 8 years old.  We had an old black & white picture from 1940 featuring my great-grandma and her 3 kids on a bicycle in front of the house.  Sure enough, the home today looks almost the same as it did back then.

Below is our re-creation of the original picture.

The current owner of the home happened to get home just as we were looking it over.  She was caught a little offguard that there were strangers in her yard taking pictures of her home, but when we showed her the 73 year old black & white picture, it all made sense.

I gave up the reins to my mom for the next segment of the drive from Burley to Boise.

And thus I had a little bit of time to snag some pictures and actually goof off for awhile instead of watching the road.

Are we there yet?

Look at that driving technique!  10:00 and 2:00 demonstrated to the fullest extent.  I hope she got an “A” in Driver’s Ed.

We spent the night in Boise, Idaho.  At 210,000 residents, it’s Idaho’s largest city but it still had a small-town feel as far as I was concerned.  It was that evening when I met up with Josh who drives the 370,000 mile 2005 Acura TSX.

The following day, we’d cross an important milestone in the ILX and take it into 2 states that it hadn’t yet seen before.  More on that tomorrow!  A 4-part roadtrip write-up awaits you.

This entry was posted on August 14, 2013 at 5:18 pm and is filed under ILX, Road Trip. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.