Dave-a Montana

Day 1 is complete!  I left Seattle around 10 a.m. Pacific and got to Missoula, Montana, at 7 p.m. Mountain, so about 8 hours of driving.  I stopped on average every 112 miles for gas, paying on average $4.12 (for premium), and getting on average 36 mpg.

I usually can count on going 120 miles before I run out of main-tank gas and have to switch to reserve.  But once today, I lost main fuel at 104 miles during on part of the ride, which I think was due to climbing the mountains.  Fortunately, I had enough reserves to get to the next station.  Another time, I pulled into a station just as main fuel ran out, literally at the pump.  It's a good thing I didn't keep pushing, because the next station was definitely out of range.

I'm at the Super 8 now, which has free wifi and a free breakfast in the morning, before I head out to stop #2, Sheridan, Wyoming.

Yearly motorcycle trip starts tomorrow!

I'm heading out tomorrow morning for Mt. Rushmore. Click here for an overview of the planned trip. Last year about this time, I went to the Grand Canyon. This ride will be a similar length, about 2800 miles round-trip. I hope I have as much luck with the weather and my bike as I did on that trip! I'll try to blog nightly, if the internet connections in the small-town hotels are good enough.

Race to the theater!

We got to see Speed Racer tonight, for free, thanks to our credit card company (I'm sure it is a coincidence that we received our monthly bill via email right after the movie ended).  Anyway, my immediate review:  I wish it was a good movie, because I loved it.  If you are between 35 and 45, drop everything right now and head to the theater.  If not, probably don't bother.  There was WAY too much talking and slow parts, but I was thankful for that because the race scenes left me drained; I was a crying mess at the end of each.

34 years of stamp collecting for this?

My Mum recently sent me my old stamp collection, which judging from the number of stamps from 1974, I must have been really into when I was 6 -- which seems like too young to be so incredibly boring, but such is my life, I guess. Anyway, I decided to look up some prices, and I had a fond memory of a fully mint collection of stamps that had something to do with Skylab. Sure enough, I found it! A folder of mint commemorative stamps from 1974 ... 29 unused 10-cent stamps, a $2.90 value in 1974. I typed it into Google with glee -- certainly, my 6-year-old self was about to "pay it forward" to my present-day self in a big way! Turns out, that set today is worth up to $9.95! Of course, $9.95 today, in 1974 dollars, is ... $2.90. So, the moral of the story is, I was about as good of an investor at 6 as I am today. I've got a ton more stamps that I could look up -- who knows, there is probably one of them worth something; unfortunately, most online stamp-price lookup services want to charge $20 a month ... and I'll just bet that I don't have $20 worth of stamps.