The trip has begun

Right now I'm sitting in a hotel in Missoula, Montana. It's a little after 10pm, and we spent a good 10 hours on the road today. Car's doing just fine, and getting better than expected fuel economy. We stopped in Yakima today to visit Nicole's parents and then hauled ass here. I didn't think we'd get this far, but the real test comes tomorrow. We have Montana and North Dakota to negotiate, and if we can get to the far side of North Dakota (or at least through half of it), I'll be very pleased.

Getting this hotel room was a bit of a challenge... when we called, the concierge said this room had just opened up. We got lucky - most of the other ones we looked for were all smoking rooms. Not good.

Observations so far:

- Miner's in Yakima makes very good burgers. I always try to go there whenever I'm in the Yak.
- Ellensburg to Spokane is really boring, but the rolling wheat fields are very pretty.
- Lake Coeur d'Alene is unbelievably beautiful. Like, wow.
- I-90 in Idaho sucks, and is very rough. There's quite a bit of work being done in the Idaho panhandle and western Montana. Never before have I seen an entire side of a freeway closed while the other was turned into a two-lane highway. It certainly worked, although it slowed us down a little bit.
- Nicole noticed this, and I agree - people here in Montana are very very nice. Even with all of Nicole's piercings, my "No, I will not fix your computer." t-shirt, and Nicole's "RTFM" t-shirt, people here have been incredibly nice to us so far.

So, more to come as soon as I get more Internet access. Connecticut here we come!