On Mar 14, 2020, I left home on Vancouver Island to start a 5½ month trip through the eastern half of the USA to complete all 48 states, the Greater Antilles in the Caribbean, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. I am driving my Chevy truck and Bigfoot camper.
My immediate goal is to acquire as many Nomad Mania regions as possible (49 are available) and four new countries (Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Jamaica) to bring my total to 132 UN and 136 total. I also want to add significantly to my Nomad Mania Series total, which should approach 10,000 by the end.
However, some or most of the above may not be possible due to COVID-19 —museum closures, border closures, etc.
Coronavirus – COVID-19. After starting in Wuhan, China, in early January, it has become a global pandemic with daily and hourly changes. The world has shut down – almost everywhere has closed its borders (the US with Europe and Canada, for example). There is an endless stream of suggestions on preventing the spread – frequent hand washing and not touching your face are the leading suggestions. Everyone is self-distancing and simply staying home, going out to buy groceries and for emergencies. Every school, sports activity, including sports leagues (NBA, MLB, NHL) and the Olympics scheduled for July worldwide have been cancelled. All museums, libraries, cultural centers, sports complexes, restaurants, and non-essential venues are closed. Almost everything open is gas stations, grocery stores, pharmacies, and some businesses. California announced a state lockdown on March 20, and I worry that interstate travel will be eliminated.
After staying with a friend in Vancouver, I met Tom Wong, a Facebook Every Passport Stamp (EPS) friend. We have made plans to travel together through North Africa next year. I went to MEC with a long list of purchases and for the first time in recorded memory, I left buying nothing.
US/Canada border. I had heard stories of a nightmare border crossing – complete searches, difficult questions like “have you ever smoked marijuana”, and a search of computers for “damaging” material. None of that happened. It was a very routine crossing, and they didn’t even check the back of the camper. It helps to provide the addresses and phone numbers of Americans you visit.
Diesel prices: Canada – $CAD1.20/l
USA – $2.09.9 – 3.00/gallon (the price has been dropping as I continue, as the price of a barrel of oil has dropped to $22. 1 US gallon = ($CAD = €
Driving in the US. Almost all my driving is on the American Interstate Highway system. One significant difference, in contrast to the rest of the world, is that large trucks have no reduced speed compared to smaller vehicles. They are constantly passing.
I have travelled extensively in these five states in the past. I plan on seeing as many NM sights as possible. The drive was I-5, I-90, I-82, I-84 and I-15 to Salt Lake City.
I normally visit many museums, but they are all closed. As a result, the sights in my Nomad Mania series that can be visited are very limited: modern architecture, pedestrian bridges, churches, religious monuments, and towns and cities.
WASHINGTON STATE
SEATTLE (pop 745,000, metropolitan 3.84 million)
Seattle is the largest city in Washington and the Pacific Northwest region, and the 15th-largest in the United States. It is one of the fastest-growing major cities in the United States In the top 5.
The city is situated on an isthmus between Puget Sound (an inlet of the Pacific Ocean) and Lake Washington, about 100 miles (160 km) south of the Canada–United States border. A primary gateway for trade with Asia, Seattle is the fourth-largest port in North America in terms of container handling as of 2015.
Native Americans inhabited Seattle for at least 4,000 years before the first permanent European settlers. Arthur A. Denny and his group arrived from Illinois via Portland on the schooner Exact at Alki Point on November 13, 1851. The settlement was moved to the eastern shore of Elliott Bay and named “Seattle” in 1852, in honour of Chief Si’ahl of the local Duwamish and Suquamish tribes. Today, Seattle has a high population of Native, Scandinavian, Asian American, and African American, as well as a thriving LGBT community that ranks 6th in the United States for population.
Logging was Seattle’s first primary industry, but by the late 19th century, the city had become a commercial and shipbuilding centre as a gateway to Alaska during the Klondike Gold Rush. Growth after World War II was partially due to the local Boeing company, which established Seattle as a centre for aircraft manufacturing. The Seattle area developed into a technology centre from the 1980s onwards, with companies like Microsoft becoming established in the region; Microsoft founder Bill Gates is a Seattleite by birth. Internet retailer Amazon was founded in Seattle in 1994, and major airline Alaska Airlines is based in SeaTac, Washington, serving Seattle’s international airport, Seattle–Tacoma International Airport. The stream of new software, biotechnology, and Internet companies led to an economic revival, which increased the city’s population by almost 50,000 between 1990 and 2000. Owing mainly to its rapidly growing population in the 21st century, Seattle and the state of Washington have some of the highest minimum wages in the country, at $15 per hour for smaller businesses and $16 for the city’s largest employers.
Seattle has a noteworthy musical history. From 1918 to 1951, nearly two dozen jazz nightclubs nurtured the early careers of Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, and Ernestine Anderson. Seattle is also the birthplace of rock musician Jimi Hendrix and the origin of the bands Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters and the alternative rock movement grunge.
Freemont Troll. This public sculpture is in the Fremont neighbourhood. The idea of a troll living under a bridge is derived from Scandinavian (Norwegian) folklore. A partial goal was to rehabilitate the area under the bridge, which was becoming a dumping ground and haven for drug dealers and was built in 1990.
The Troll is a mixed-media colossal statue located on N. 36th Street at Troll Avenue N., under the north end of the George Washington Memorial Bridge (also known as the Aurora Bridge). It clutches an actual Volkswagen Beetle, as if it had just swiped it from the above roadway. The vehicle has a California license plate. The Troll is 5.5 m (18 ft) high, weighs 6,000 kg (13,000 lb), and is made of steel rebar, wire, and concrete.
Freemont Olympic Hotel. Originally the Olympic Hotel, this historic hotel in downtown Seattle was built on the original site of the University of Washington’s first campus. The hotel opened in 1924, and in 1979, it was added to the National Register of Historic Places. It has had many owners but is now owned by Fairmont Hotels & Resorts.
Seattle Public Library. The Seattle Central Library opened in 2004 and received a 2005 national AIA Honour Award for Architecture. It is a wonderful steel girder/glass facade.
I visited Carol Glass, another Facebook EPS friend, and stayed overnight. In November 2020, we plan on travelling together on a tour of South Sudan, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Libya.
SNOQUALMIE
Snoqualmie Falls. On the Snoqualmie River, it falls 390 feet over a dramatic lip into an amphitheatre. Average annual flow is 2,965 ft3/second. Hydroelectric power was installed in 1899 as a power source for Seattle. It was the world’s first underground power plant and the first to transmit electricity over long distances.
Northwest Railway Museum. The South Depot was built in 1890. Three cars, including an army medical car, could be entered. It is a very small museum.
OREGON
Oregon is in the Pacific Northwest region, with the Columbia River forming much of Oregon’s northern boundary with Washington. At the same time, the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. The parallel 42° north delineates the southern boundary with California and Nevada.
Oregon was inhabited by many indigenous tribes before European traders, explorers, and settlers arrived. The Oregon Territory was created in 1848 and became the 33rd state on February 14, 1859. Today, at 98,000 square miles (250,000 km2), Oregon is the ninth largest, with a population of 4 million, the 27th most populous U.S. state. The capital, Salem, is the second most populated city in Oregon, with 169,798 residents. Portland, with 647,805, ranks as the 26th among U.S. cities. The Portland metropolitan area, which also includes the city of Vancouver, Washington, to the north, ranks as the 25th largest metro area in the nation, with a population of 2,453,168.
Oregon is one of the most geographically diverse states in the U.S., marked by volcanoes, abundant bodies of water, dense evergreen and mixed forests, high deserts and semi-arid shrublands. At 11,249 feet (3,429 m), Mount Hood, a stratovolcano, is the state’s highest point. Oregon’s only national park, Crater Lake National Park, comprises the caldera surrounding Crater Lake, the deepest lake in the United States. The state is also home to the single largest organism in the world, Armillaria ostoyae, a fungus that runs beneath 2,200 acres (8.9 km2) of the Malheur National Forest.
Because of its diverse landscapes and waterways, Oregon’s economy is largely powered by various forms of agriculture, fishing, and hydroelectric power. Oregon is also the top timber producer of the contiguous United States, and the timber industry dominated the state’s economy in the 20th century. Technology is another of Oregon’s major economic forces, beginning in the 1970s with the establishment of the Silicon Forest and the expansion of Tektronix and Intel. Sportswear company Nike, Inc., headquartered in Beaverton, is the state’s largest public corporation with an annual revenue of $30.6 billion.
Tamastslikt Cultural Centre is a museum and research institute on the Umatilla Indian Reservation near Pendleton in eastern Oregon. It is the only Native American museum along the Oregon Trail. The institute is dedicated to the culture of the Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla tribes of Native Americans. The leading permanent exhibition of the museum provides a history of the culture of three tribes, and of the reservation itself. The museum also has a second hall for temporary exhibitions of specific types of Native American art, craftwork, history, and folklore related to the tribes.
IDAHO
Idaho is in the Pacific Northwest, bordering the state of Montana to the east and northeast, Wyoming to the east, Nevada and Utah to the south, and Washington and Oregon to the west. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canadian border with the province of British Columbia. With a population of approximately 1.7 million and an area of 83,569 square miles (216,440 km2), Idaho is the 14th largest, the 12th least populous and the 7th least densely populated of the 50 U.S. states. The state’s capital and largest city is Boise.
Before European settlement, Idaho was inhabited by Native American peoples, some of whom still live in the area. In the early 19th century, Idaho was considered part of the Oregon Country, an area disputed between the U.S. and the United Kingdom. It officially became U.S. territory after the Oregon Treaty of 1846 was signed. Still, a separate Idaho Territory was not organized until 1863; it was included for periods in Oregon Territory and Washington Territory. Idaho was eventually admitted to the Union on July 3, 1890, becoming the 43rd state.
Idaho is divided into several distinct geographic and climatic regions. The state’s north, the relatively isolated Idaho Panhandle, is closely linked with Eastern Washington, with which it shares the Pacific Time Zone—the rest of the state uses the Mountain Time Zone. The state’s south includes the Snake River Plain (which has most of the population and agricultural land). The state’s southeast incorporates part of the Great Basin. Idaho is quite mountainous and contains several stretches of the Rocky Mountains. The United States Forest Service holds about 38% of Idaho’s land, the highest proportion of any state.
Industries significant for the state economy include manufacturing, agriculture, mining, forestry, and tourism. Several science and technology firms are either headquartered in Idaho or have factories there, and the state also contains the Idaho National Laboratory, the country’s largest Department of Energy facility. Idaho’s agricultural sector supplies many products, but the state is best known for its potato crop, which comprises around one-third of the nationwide yield. The official state nickname is the “Gem State”, which references Idaho’s natural beauty.
BOISE (pop 229,000)
Boise is the capital and most populous city of Idaho. Located on the Boise River in southwestern Idaho, it is 41 miles (66 km) east of the Oregon border, and 110 miles (177 km) north of the Nevada border. The downtown area’s elevation is 2,704 feet (824 m) above sea level. The Boise-Nampa metropolitan area, also known as the Treasure Valley, includes five counties with a combined population of 709,845, Idaho’s most populous metro area. It contains the state’s three largest cities: Boise, Nampa, and Meridian.
Downtown Boise is the cultural center and home to many small businesses and a few mid-rises. 8th Street has a pedestrian zone with sidewalk cafes and restaurants, supporting a vibrant nightlife. The area contains the Basque Block, which showcases Boise’s Basque heritage. Downtown Boise’s main attractions include the Idaho State Capitol, the classic Egyptian Theatre on the corner of Capitol Boulevard and Main Street, the Boise Art Museum on Capitol Boulevard in front of Julia Davis Park, and Zoo Boise on the grounds of Julia Davis Park.
Boise is also the site of the only human rights memorial in the U.S., the Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial, located next to its main library.
Old Idaho State Penitentiary.
UTAH
Utah is in the western United States, bordered by Colorado to the east, Wyoming to the northeast, Idaho to the north, Arizona to the south, and Nevada to the west. It also touches a corner of New Mexico in the southeast. Of the fifty U.S. states, Utah is the 13th-largest by area, and with a population of over three million, the 30th-most-populous and 11th-least-densely populated. Urban development is mainly concentrated in two areas: the Wasatch Front in the north-central part of the state, home to roughly two-thirds of the population, and Washington County in the south, with more than 170,000 residents.
Various indigenous groups inhabited the territory of modern Utah for thousands of years, including the ancient Puebloans, the Navajo, and the Ute. The Spanish were the first to arrive in the mid-16th century, though the region’s complex geography and climate made it a peripheral part of New Spain and later Mexico. Even while it was part of Mexico, many of Utah’s earliest settlers were American, particularly Mormons fleeing marginalization and persecution from the United States. Following the Mexican-American War, it became part of the Utah Territory, which included what are now Colorado and Nevada. Disputes between the dominant Mormon community and the federal government delayed Utah’s admission as a state; only after the outlawing of polygamy was it admitted as the 45th state in 1896.
A little more than half of all Utahns are “Mormons”, identifying as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), which has its world headquarters in Salt Lake City; Utah is the only state where most of the population belongs to a single church. This greatly influences Utahn culture, politics, and daily life,[12] though since the 1990s, the state has become more religiously diverse and secular.
The state has a highly diversified economy, with major sectors including transportation, education, information technology and research, government services, and mining. It is also a major tourist destination for outdoor recreation. In 2013, the U.S. Census Bureau estimated that Utah had the second-fastest-growing population of any state. St. George was the fastest-growing metropolitan area in the United States from 2000 to 2005.
Utah also has the 14th-highest median average income and the least income inequality of any U.S. state. A 2012 Gallup national survey found Utah the “best state to live in the future” based on 13 forward-looking measurements, including various economic, lifestyle, and health-related outlook metrics.
SALT LAKE CITY (pop 201,000, 1,223,000 metropolitan area)
Salt Lake City is the capital and most populous municipality in Utah. Salt Lake City is further situated within a larger metropolis known as the Salt Lake City–Ogden–Provo Combined Statistical Area, a corridor of contiguous urban and suburban development stretched along a 120-mile (190 km) segment of the Wasatch Front, comprising a population of 2,606,548 It is one of only two major urban areas in the Great Basin.
Salt Lake City is the world headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The city was founded in 1847 by church followers, led by Brigham Young, who sought to escape persecution they had experienced while living farther east. As they would come to be known, the Mormon pioneers entered an arid valley. They immediately began building, planning, and extending an extensive irrigation network that could feed the population and foster future growth. Due to its proximity to the Great Salt Lake, the city was named Great Salt Lake City in 1868.
Immigration of international church members, mining booms, and the construction of the first transcontinental railroad initially brought economic growth, and the city was nicknamed the Crossroads of the West. The Lincoln Highway traversed it, the first transcontinental highway, in 1913. Two major cross-country freeways, I-15 and I-80, now intersect in the city. Salt Lake City has developed a strong outdoor recreation tourist industry based primarily on skiing. Salt Lake City hosted the 2002 Winter Olympics. It is the industrial banking centre of the United States.
Mormon Battalion Monument. This monument commemorates the sacrifices made by 500 Mormon pioneer volunteers who joined the U.S. Army during the Mexican War. The 100-foot rose pink granite and bronze monument was sculpted by Gilbert Riswold and dedicated in 1927. Figures appear on all sides of the memorial, chronicling different periods of the Battalion’s history: the Enlistment, the March, the Discovery of Gold in California, and the Arrival of the Pueblo Detachment at the Capitol.
After leaving Salt Lake City on March 18th, I learned of a 5.7 earthquake that I did not feel, even though I slept in Salt Lake City on I-80 east, I encountered snow, slush on the road and temperatures of -1°C.
WYOMING
Wyoming is in the mountain region of the Western United States. The state is the 10th largest by area, the least populous, and the second most sparsely populated state in the country. Wyoming is bordered on the north by Montana, on the east by South Dakota and Nebraska, on the south by Colorado, on the southwest by Utah, and the west by Idaho and Montana. The state population was 578,759 in 2019, less than 31 of the most populous U.S. cities, including Denver in neighbouring Colorado. Cheyenne is the state capital and the most populous city, with an estimated population of 63,957 in 2018.
The western two-thirds of the state is covered mostly by the mountain ranges and rangelands of the Rocky Mountains, while the eastern third of the state is high elevation prairie called the High Plains. Almost half of the land in Wyoming is owned by the U.S. government, leading Wyoming to rank sixth by area and fifth by proportion of a state’s land owned by the federal government. Federal lands include two national parks—Grand Teton and Yellowstone—two national recreation areas, two national monuments, several national forests, historic sites, fish hatcheries, and wildlife refuges.
The region’s original inhabitants include the Crow, Arapaho, Lakota, and Shoshone. Southwestern Wyoming was claimed by the Spanish Empire and then Mexican territory until it was ceded to the United States in 1848 at the end of the Mexican–American War. The name was used earlier for the Wyoming Valley in Pennsylvania and is derived from the Munsee word xwé:wamənk, meaning “at the big river flat.”
The main drivers of Wyoming’s economy are mineral extraction—mostly coal, oil, natural gas, and trona—and tourism. Agricultural commodities include livestock (beef), hay, sugar beets, grain (wheat and barley), and wool. The climate is semi-arid and continental, drier and windier than the rest of the U.S., with greater temperature extremes.
Wyoming has been politically conservative since the 1950s, with the Republican Party candidate winning every presidential election except 1964.
One crosses the continental divide (elevations 6990 and 7000 feet twice with barely any indication of elevation change. Throughout Wyoming, there were weather warnings of a blizzard lasting 36 hours, starting on the 18th at 6 p.m. and lasting until the 20th. I continued driving, and the warnings continued for south Nebraska, with an onset on the morning of the 19th.
CHEYENNE (pop 68,000). Cheyenne is the capital and most populous city of Wyoming. Cheyenne is the northern terminus of the extensive Southern Rocky Mountain Front, which extends southward to Albuquerque, New Mexico and includes the fast-growing Front Range Urban Corridor. Cheyenne is situated on Crow Creek and Dry Creek. The Cheyenne metropolitan area had a 2010 population of 91,738, making it the 354th-most populous metro area in the United States.
