Kadoka, SD

The scenery in late morning and the early afternoon sun is not as scintillating: the high sun makes everything flat. The clear sky with overcast horizon did not help the matter.  Our journey along I-90 resumed as such this morning.

The scenery looked like a continuation of what we saw yesterday till we got close to the  Missouri River. The land turned drier and cornfield thinned out as we crossed it. Soon sunflower fields appeared and they too thinned out when sage brushes appeared. Then the cattle farms as the grass turned brown. By now, it decidedly looked West. You couldn't have told it from the Central Valley if the land were a bit more parched. Missouri River, so it seems, is the starting line of the West.

Here in Kadoka, there is no grass to be found. It is all parched gravel. Terribly hot too. The coolness of Sioux Falls is nowhere to be found.

I didn't sleep well last night despite whirlwind activities 4 days in a row. Yesterday I was pretty high.  Today I'm pooped out. It was just like June last year when my activities suddenly picked up and I was unable to sleep more than 6 hours.  Not sleeping well and not getting sick. These are the signs that I'm improving. And I'm getting a bit more confident everyday that I am recovering.

Sioux Falls, SD

The endless corn fields undulates gently, throwing shadows and lights in turn on the corn canopy. The reddish brown and yellow hue of corn husks on the deep green stalks and leaves. This sea of cornfield stretched out along I-90 all the way to Sioux Falls. Incredible pictures came and went, and I couldn't back up to capture them on the freeway that flew by at 75 mph. A real artist may have. I instead put the car on autopilot and shot while driving.

A dead wolf on the roadside shortly after Albert Lea, MN. This is the home of Timber Wolves. There are quite a few grey wolves in this part of the country since the reintroduction.

It showered shortly after we left Madison. The road got washed clean and fresh. The afternoon light poured in at an angle and the after-storm cloud floated all around. They all added to the sense of vastness. We drove on into that vast space called mid-west chasing the sun till it finally set at 9:01 PM in Worthington where we pulled in for the final charging. This town is at the edge of the Central time zone -- it changes to Mountain time after Sioux Falls. Then we drove into the night with bugs pelting the windshield just like in Texas. The humid night was palpably cooler than Texas though.

After 13 hours of drive, we were at Holiday Inn in Sioux Falls. And I wasn't too tired. Not nearly as much as I was after the drive in Texas from Albuquerque to Austin. Maybe because this one was shorter. Or maybe because I have improved since. We went for the hot tub and swimming after the check in. And I have enough energy left to write a blog. That's enough for me to believe more than ever that I am recovering.

Chicago, Day 2

Something exploded and then a burning smell ensued. The blue line train we were on then got stuck in the dark for 30 minutes. Good thing that happened shortly after we left the station. The train eventually rolled back about a hundred yard to the station and we made a mad dash to the train on the next platform. Then we got on the #65 bus in the wrong direction when we got off the train. I thought it was running a circular route to Navy Pier from the Grand station of the blue line, but it went across the town in the other direction. It took me about 10 minutes before I realized my mistake and we got off the bus. In all, it took us 3 hours to get to Navy Pier from the hotel.

The Architectural Cruise was worth the trouble though. It went down Chicago river from Navy Pier  and then back, for the total of 75 minutes. Along the way were numerous buildings of architectural significance of Chicago school and others. It's the best way to see the Chicago downtown, hands down.

We were going to hang out in Magnificent Mile in the afternoon after the cruise, but it was late, thanks to all the snafu in the morning. We left it for tomorrow and returned to catch 5:15 shuttle back to hotel.

After 12,000 steps yesterday at a decent pace, I was pretty tired this morning. But I managed OK with another 10,000 steps. And that's 3 days of nonstop activities.I'll sleep in tomorrow and start the commute at 11AM.

Chicago, IL

Tailgaters and lane weavers. The drivers got more aggressive as we got closer to Chicago. They started to appear in Gary IN, well before Chicago. They are practically driving like Californians. I wonder why people here are more aggressive than New Yorkers -- I rarely saw them in or around NYC. (The real question, I suppose, is why New Yorkers are so tamed these days).

We checked out of Days Inn in Whitehall around 11 AM and drove straight to Chicago after a fueling stop in Country Club Hill, a misnamed working class neighborhood with a large Black population. A grocery stop in Walmart near the charging station, and we were at Extended Stay in Des Plaines at around 4 PM. We'll commute to Chicago for a few days from here.

My pace picked up quite a bit for a few days since the outing in Mackinac Island. The resistance in the form of constant fatigue has disappeared and it wasn't easy to restrain myself.  It was enough for me to think maybe I recovered from CFS. It was just like last June when the sudden improvement appeared. Then the fatigue returned in full force yesterday. I couldn't keep my eyes open while driving despite a full day's rest and 8 hours of sleep. And my legs got heavy and achy again this morning. The faster pace must have taken the toll. I'll have to slow down again. Not all the way back to 90 steps/min, but 94 steps may be safe enough.

Mackinow City, MI

The day is getting shorter. The sun now rises after 7 PM and the car is soaked with the morning dew. We'll have to hurry; we need to get the Yellow Stone before it gets cold.

We checked out of Gratiot View motel in Saginow yesterday and drove to Roberts Landing campground in Cheboygan yesterday, following the lakefront Hwy 23. All along the route was the beaches and marsh lands. They were mostly deserted too, especially ones around Rogers City that were totally vacant.

Today I aborted the plan to camp in Munising. Not because we wanted to speed up the trip, but I'm dead tired from camping last night and charging wasn't too convenient on the Munising route. From Munising to the next supercharger is 250 miles, and there isn't a good place to charge in between.

And I'm damn glad we changed the plan. we took a rest at Waterfront Motel till 2 PM and went to Mackinac Island on Shepler ferry -- the solar eclipse was at the peak of the solar eclipse by the time we got on board. It's almost like the ferry to Angel Island in the San Francisco Bay, complete with the suspension bridge to the left and all. Huron Lake is not a bay, however. It is an ocean.

It is about the size of Angel Island too. We wanted to go the Arch Rock, but it was 2 miles away. We rented a tandem bike and ended up riding it all the way around the island. Yes, I'm instinctively feeling that confident these days. I haven't had any post-exertional sickness since June and have been regularly taking 50,000 steps per week. And I'm pretty sure I'm not going to crash from this bike ride. (Wife did most pedaling, to be honest, though I took over whenever she was losing the balance.)

This road-side motel had both the beach and spa. We soaked in the hot tub, swam a couple of lap and I feel like a million bucks now. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Saginaw, MI

The plan to rest in Auburn Hill didn't work out. The price of Extended Stay shot up to $110 overnight and we moved to Saginaw.  That's OK as long as we are moving along our route: the Saginaw Bay is the jump off point for the Sunrise trail to Cheboygan. We'll rest here today. It's actually good to hang out in a small town see how locals live.

The problem though, is packing and unpacking takes quite a bit of energy and that undoes the plan for the rest. I'll have to remind myself, once again, to book 2 nights when planning for the rest. I'm still doing OK, however. And my walking pace is still up, faster than I would like, so I have to consciously slow down. The next 2 days will be a challenge though. If I'm still doing OK afterward, I'll be tempted to declare a recovery. It will be a recovery enough if I can do everything except strenuous exercise.

Detroit, MI

No question other than where we live and where we have been. The scary looking guy at the border was more interested in my car than checking out our paper works. He was fairly knowledgeable too. He knew that 30 minute charging for 150 miles is enough because you have to rest anyway after 2 hours of driving. And like that, we were back in the US soil again.

This is the town where Vincent Chin was murdered with baseball bat by two laid off Chrysler workers in the 80s. They ended up with suspended sentenced by a racist judge who later said "These weren't the kind of men you send to jail". Maybe teaching everybody in China this will stop them from practicing white supremacy over there.

We ended up in another flea motel in the form of Days Inn. a couple of hours of nap, and wife ended up with multiple bedbug bites all over  her body. We switched the room and we ended up with a dump in an open corridor. I had my doubt, but I booked it anyway because of the pool. Now I redouble my resolve to avoid flea motels.

Niagara Falls, Toronto and then drive to Detroit. It's been 4 days of nonstop activities. And yet I'm still up and running. My pace has been picking up too. That's enough for me to start imagining the recovery once again. I should experiment with a new pace while I'm still travelling despite the risk of getting sick, to see if the pace, as well as the amount of activities, are better tolerated while travelling. I need a day of rest for now though make sure that I don't get sick. Maybe I'll jack up the pace after that. We are going to camp out for 2-3 days, so that could be a good opportunity.

Toronoto, ON

Mississauga and Oakville, actually. It's cheaper here and the "gas" is free, so we decided to lodge here. We stayed one night in home stay in Mississauga and then came to a Residence and Conference center in Oakville yesterday. They gave us two bedroom suit in what appears to be part of Sheridan college.

Toronto is more Vancouver than Montreal. No industrial complexes, no historical towns. It is full of blue condo buildings spread over a vast area, just like Vancouver. It seems the only difference is the lake Ontario instead of the Vancouver bay. Winter will be much harsher though, I suppose. And house prices are proportionally cheaper, though it is still substantially more expensive than Montreal.

We went to CN tower yesterday, but the line was impossibly long. So we went to St Lawrence Market after taking some pictures and hanging around the tower. Today we tried CN tower again. I meant to go before 9AM to avoid the line, but we overslept and we got there at 10 instead. No matter, there was no line and we went right up.

Toronto Island was the next destination. It's must like the ferry ride to Staten Island.  You jump off from Jack Layton terminal in the thick of the downtown, just as you would from Whiteall terminal in Manhattan downtown.  Then you click away at the downtown skyline as you sail away.

Rochester, NY

Sacket's Harbor, Southwick Beach, Fair Haven past Oswego, Sodus Point Lighthouse. The drive along Rt 3 and then 104 was today's route,a continuation on the Great Lakes Seaway Trail. I thought we left Sodus Bay behind when we left Fair Haven, only to find another Sodus Bay at Sodus Point. It turns out there are multiple Sodus bays with different names. This one was the real Sodus Bay and Fair Haven was on Little Sodus. There is Blind Sodus as well.

Sackett's Harbor

Fair Haven

Sodus Point

A terrible looking storm brewed when we stopped for lunch at McDonald between Fair Haven and Sodus Point. By the time we got out, I could smell that indelible scent of rain. It barely wetted the pavement where we were, but it must dumped a shower further down. Fog was rising from the asphalt and warm humidity permeated the air. I was back in NC again. Only with achy and sickly body in an electric rather than 16 year old in 68 Rambler.

We arrived Rochester Extended Stay before 4 PM. The original plan was to make it to Toronto after stopping at Niagara, but that was too ambitious. Hotels were cheaper in Rochester too, so we decided to rest here. It was too early to bed down for the night though. We took some rest and drove to High Fall and then Eastman Museum of Photography and Film. Museum closed at 5, so we were out of luck. We charged up the car and came back at 7PM.

Yesterday was a struggle for some reason, despite the rest day before. Then I recovered today. It's as if the effect of the rest was delayed 48 hours rather than 24. Likewise the effect of activities of 8/8-8/9 taking effect yesterday after 48 hours. Not sure if the lingering effect of cold has anything to do with it. There are so many unknown variables that effects the conditions, I only can get 25-50% correlation between the activities and fatigue the next day. The signal to noise ratio is not high enough to make a good prediction.

Watertown, NY

We made a full circle back to NY. Half circle, actually. It's been almost 2 weeks and we still haven't escaped the North East. But we'll be past Buffalo tomorrow, so we'll be in the Midwest in no time.

We checked out of Motel du Paysan this morning. After about 10 minutes of charging the car in Montreal station, we were off to Cornwall for full charging and lunch at Tim Horton's. Tim Horton's is fast becoming wife's favorite. Cornwall was the jump off point for the Great Lakes Seaway Trail drive and the Tesla station was conveniently located on the route.

Wellesley Island

This drive took us along the St Lawrence river. I was planning to make it to Cape Vincent before detouring to Watertown for charging and lodging. But the car ran out of juice after Wellesley Island. I still could've made it with a few miles to spare, but I didn't want to risk getting stranded and it was past 6 PM. So we went to charging station and had dinner at Flaming Wok at the mall while charging the car. We got the Motel 6 in Calcium after 8 PM.

Montreal, QC

On the surface, it seemed like any other big North American city if it weren't for French speaking. And Old Montreal, the Montreal version of French Quarter that is only more upscale -- no seedy Bourbon street. Industrial buildings and Valero refineries dotted the outskirt of the city. Then we went to Jean Talon Market that looked more like a traditional Korean outdoor market than North American. And the mannerisms and attitude of people are definitely more French than American.

The phone stopped working as soon as we crossed the border. I postponed booking a room just to make sure that we don't run into a problem at the border and we had to scramble to find a public wi-fi. We were going to Universite Shebrooke dorm, but it was 20 miles out of the way. So we settled for Motel du Paysan, a cheap roadside motel. No roaches, but it had refrige and microwave making it easier to cook.

2 days of whirlwind coming up from White River Junction along "Quiet Corners of Vermont" followed by an Montreal tour, and I was pretty tired this morning. So we are staying here for one more day to rest. Two days of activities followed by one day rest seems to work well these days. And that is an improvement from the original plan of one day activity and one day rest.

White River Junction, VT

Boston was anticlimactic. I suppose any city would be after NYC. The Freedom Trail was the main attraction and I can't walk 2 miles. But I've done it decades ago, so I haven't missed it much. So we drove to a few spots instead -- Bunker Hill, Boston Common, etc -- after visiting Harvard Square and then called it a day. Then we visited MIT and Boston Harbor the next day before heading north to White Water Junction bypassing New Hampshire.

It actually was cold when we arrived last night. We must be quite a ways up north. We settled in Super 8 motel in White Water Junction for a couple of nights to rest. It's rather airy motel in an airy place. A bit of road noise when you leave the door open, but it feels rather home.

We rolled around all morning and then visited Quechee Gorge in the afternoon. We'll rest the rest of the day and then head up north along the RD drive #93, Quaint Corners of Vermont. We'll charge up the car in Magog QC and then bed down somewhere near Montreal.

Waltham, MA

The trip along the RI coastline costed me 11,000 steps and I was back to my normal CFS self today. That plus the lingering cold. Still, it's an amazing feat not to be bed-bound with all those maladies. I definitely recovered from NYC lull since we started out on the return journey.

I sure would've liked to have rested one day in Wickford but the price at Extended Stay shot up for the weekend. So we packed up and headed to Cape Cod as planned.  The first stop was Tesla Supercharger at Sagamore at the mouth of Cape Cod. I plugged car in, ordered food at Dunkin Dounut, stopped at the bathroom, and the car was all charged up. Super fast for some reason. Same thing repeated in Dedham. The charging speed must went up since the last update. Or it could be a coincidence.

From Sagamore, we followed the RD drive #99. We skept several between Sandwich and Dennis. It was already past 1 PM and we still had a long way to go.

I'm glad we didn't skip Orleans though. We arrived during the low tide and the water at Rock Harbor was way out over the horizon. The tidal pools and sand stretched out as far as eye can see. I couldn't walk all the way out of course, but I managed to take some spectacular pictures.

From there we went up as far as Wellfeet before turning around. By the time we got to Waltham Extended Stay, it was past 9PM.

Warwick, RI

A swing of one end to the other today. Morning started out sickly with the cold worse than yesterday. It was a complete exhaustion that made just holding arms up difficult. It was just like, well, CFS. By the time we got Westerly, I started to improve. And by the time we left Napa Tree Point, I'm almost as good as a CFS patient could ever be. No idea if the activity helped or it's just that the cold was waning. It improved yesterday after the outing  to New London, only to get worse this morning, so it could be the latter. We'll find out tomorrow morning. Today's outing plays out that registered 10,000 steps.


The weather started out cloudy too and then turned sunny. The sun was too hot in Napa Tree Point, I gave up on the idea of laying around on the beach. We came back to the bay side, rested for a while, took some more pics and then went into the town. An ice cream break and  we were on our way to Ninigret Nature Preserve. There wasn't much of bird there -- it's too early for bird migration. We moved on to Galilee.

Lobster role lunch in Galilee. Then we swept along Sand Hill Cove Road, stopped at Salty Brine Beach. There must be a retirement community near by. Lots of old people with sagging lumps were lounging there. After that was the Judith Hill light house. It looked just like Santa Cruz, I swear, complete with surfers. And drive from there to Narangasett was just like Pacific Grove.

We closed out they day in Wickford, another  quaint town along the RI coastline. We took a few pics around the Wickford Cove, hung out in the town for a while and then arrived at Extended Stay in Warwick in the evening.

Groton, CT

It's filthy as hell, but it's big and has a long picture window looking out to greenery. Decent continental breakfast too.  All for $42. It has kitchenette, compete with everything except for a cooktop, so we'll cook for lunch and dinner today. Good thing we are carrying a portable stove.

We are stuck here in Econo Lodge for a couple of days. I contracted a cold while moving out of NYC and it has already moved from my nose half way down to my throat. I'll have to rest and stop the progression. Else it'll move to my lung and I'll be coughing for 2 months. And I left Bronchaid at home -- I wasn't counting on getting sick.

We left NYC on 7/31. We drove north after charging the car in Tarrytown, along the Hudson river following the Reader's Digest drive #99 to Beacon. Then we drove East to Hartford. It was getting late by the time we left Kent, so we just drove through Litchfield and other towns without stopping.  I would've liked to stop and take pics in those picturesque New England towns. I was going to go as far as Warwick following the RD drive #101 along the RI coastline, but it was after 8PM by the time we were done with the dinner and charging the car. So slept in Holiday Inn in East Hartford, a 3.5 star hotel which was about 2 stars in reality. The next day we drove here to rest and get ready to tackle RI coastline and Cape Cod.

I felt fine yesterday despite the beginning of cold and after registering 12,000 steps while moving. Today, I'm sickly. Not sure if it is the effect of moving out after 48 hour delay, or the cold. It's hard to tell when you are constantly sickly.