Some Airplanes Then To Kennewick

“No, sleep, ’til bedtime!” *

After dinner on the plane I slept for a while. The crew actively encourage this because whilst we are flying west into the sun, into more daylight hours, they turn off the cabin lights and at one point – in the middle of the day US time – the cabin was completely dark. Outside it was bright blue skies and sunshine. I saw it when I went to pee…

I suspect the mix of alcohol fuelled dinner and returning Yanks trying to re-adjust to their timezone aids and abets the crew’s desire to calm – nay, sedate – everyone by turning the lights off.

Whatever, I must have slept too much on the flight because even though I was feeling knackered at 10 pm last night, I was still awake in bed at 12.30 am. I just couldn’t sleep. I feel I looked at the clock – which I know I shouldn’t do – every hour until 6 am.

So I got up then. I’m aided by my desire to avoid – hopefully – last year’s carnage at the Seattle Airport Car Rental facility. I did however feel completely tired out as I went down for a very poor breakfast at 6.45 am. I could just about salvage a yoghurt, sugary cereal and orange juice for sustenance. It might be a cause for reconsideration on a airport hotel if I do this again, despite the bar being good.

At reception last night I had to book myself onto a return shuttle to the terminal. After breakfast, I ascertained that the earlier shuttles had space and I could come down when ready and get on an earlier one, moving from my original later time slot. I’m back down in reception to catch the 7.40 am shuttle to the terminal.

Picking up a Malibu again

I’d asked around about getting the shuttle to take me to the car rental place “for a $5 gratuity” but I was met with a resounding ‘no’ on every occasion. Later, when on the rental shuttle, the rental facility is a lot further away from the terminal than I recalled from last year, so it’s not a surprise I was refused.

At 8 am on this Saturday morning however there is thankfully no queue for the rental shuttle, unlike having to wait about 20 minutes last year. And a bus turns up quite quickly, after having just missed one pulling away as I arrived on the sidewalk outside the terminal.

When I get to the rental facility, the difference from last year is just unbelievable. It’s empty. There are almost no customers in there. Every rental company has just one desk open. Including mine this year, Hertz. So I get to go straight up to the desk.

The rental assistant suggests the car I’ve booked is a little small for my upcoming journey. I don’t disagree when she suggests an upgrade to a Chevrolet Malibu, my car of choice for the last few trips. It’s the one criticism I have of RentalCars.com that the grades of cars they offer don’t match what I need. There was no mention of a Malibu when I booked, otherwise I’d have chosen it. But from the grade I chose, the next level up seemed excessive and expensive. The same thing happened on the Route 66 trip.

Whatever road trip I do next year, I need to interrogate RentalCars more as I’m sure an upgrade at the airport will cost me more than if I could book it in advance. Of course the rental car rep is looking to increase sales – and I make a mistake here I will elaborate on later – but for a 3 week drive, a Malibu is the size of car required. Plus I quite like it and it does drive well. I was very surprised to read that Chevy apparently stopped production earlier in 2024.

Check it out…

My rental lady promised me a “brand new Malibu”. Well, it wasn’t. It had over 7000 miles on the clock for a start. It was in good condition though but then I don’t think I’ve ever picked up a car in bad nick that I’ve had to reject. Rental companies seem pretty good at not putting bad cars back out for customers – which, when you think about it, is their job… 😉

I have learnt over the years to check a car thoroughly before leaving the airport garage. And I mean thoroughly… This year’s check reveals no spare tire. WTF? There’s a bag in its place, which I open but can’t make much sense of. The woman in the downstairs garage where I am is clueless but calls a colleague to come out and take a look.

A cool black dude ambles across shortly after when I’m back at the car. It’s clear he initially doesn’t understand what I’m questioning – the lack of a spare wheel – but after a while, some long lost training course filters up into his brain. “It’s an electric pump and tub of sealant”, he says.

If my puncture is “small” – quite how I’m supposed to determine this, I don’t know – I should pump the sealant into the tire then drive to the nearest tire depot, where the tire will be replaced or repaired. If the sealant doesn’t work, and here I assume my efforts to re-inflate my flat tire will result in sealant spewing out of the tire onto the roadway, then I have to call for a tow truck. It all seems a complete mess to me, and I think – “Let’s just hope this trip I don’t have to use it.”

The Museum of Flight

I leave the rental garage at 9.15 am. In the garage I have fired up my route guide Google Maps and his accomplice Android Auto without problems. It even guides me out of the garage on my way to the Museum of Flight. I arrive there at 9.30 am but it doesn’t open until 10. I just hang around in the lot until then.

On the way there, I addressed a tire problem I found in the rental garage. One tire was over-inflated by 2 psi, another deflated by 1 psi, from the recommended pressures. Regular readers of past trips will recall my troubles with rental companies regularly releasing cars with the incorrect pressures. I decided here that I could solve the over-pressure myself – by letting air out in increments, and checking the car’s computer display – and would fill up the under-inflated one at a gas station on the way.

So I fix the over-inflation as described. But, as per previous visits to gas stations, none of the air pumps work, or they require 10 US dollar quarter coins to activate, which I don’t have. But then, as I’m driving between two stations, the under-inflated tire pressure increases to match all the other tires. So I don’t need to bother? But then it drops again. I decide that it must be so borderline that I’m going to ignore it: I’ll drive today and see what it is tomorrow. After all, it’s not as if I’ve got a problem like previous years where there was 3 or 4 psi difference and the car felt unstable. It was initially only 1 psi and again later it had come back to normal.

Jumbos and a Concorde

Museum of Flight entry wristband

Back to the Museum…. this place did not appear on any research I did for last year’s trip. I only heard about it from Chris Martin’s Dad at the pre-concert hospitality. He’d been there earlier in the day and said it was very good.

And it is. It contains a vast array of restored aircraft, all in amazing condition. From some of the earliest flying machines, through both World Wars, one each of the first Boeing 737 and 747s – plus a Concorde!

There are loads of information boards and pictures by each exhibit. I’m sure you could spend days in the place if you read all of these in full. I mainly just gazed at the planes and marvelled at how immaculate the restorations were. I picked out a few boards to read here and there when my interest was piqued.

It really was a fascinating museum. For an aircraft fanatic it would be a must-see destination – just make sure to plan enough time there! Even for a morning-only visitor like me, I’d certainly recommend going to visit it.

Museum of Flight map

To Kennewick over the Snoqualmie Pass

I’m back on the road around 11.45 am. I’d planned a stop at a Walmart a few miles down the road to pick up supplies for the days ahead. This included a sandwich for lunch, after which I’m heading off to Kennewick for tonight’s stop.

I travel on some state highways at first before reaching I-90 E. There is no alternative to get the distance I need to drive today and to get across the Cascades mountain range. I soon reach the Snoqualmie Pass, elevation 3022 ft, but there’s no noticeable marker beforehand, just East and West Summit.

In fact I’m driving downhill before I realised I’d driven over the Pass. I saw some higher mountains coming up and thought that was the Pass, as there hadn’t been much of note before. It almost seemed to creep up without warning. Hence no photos.

The road itself was very scenic, with tree-lined mountain sides, as the road winds through the rocks. As I descend further, the forest start to peter out and soon the road is mostly flat. It’s not quite arrow straight but there’s not a lot of scenery to look at.

A few miles on and towns and farms start to dot the landscape. It appears there’s a lot of fruit farming here plus a few herds of cows every now and then. A bit later on ‘Tourist Attraction’ roadside signs indicate there are lots of wineries in the area as well.

I-82 E near Benton City

It’s not a completely boring drive to get the road trip underway, but in truth there’s not a great deal to see. I stay on the Interstate until about 10 miles from Kennewick. Being an Interstate it is of course fast with no sharp corners and long shallow inclines and descents where it goes over hills.

Kennewick, part of the Tri-Cities is much bigger than I envisaged. I arrive at the Springhill Suites by Marriot at 5 pm. The hotel is located in a business and commercial area of the city.

Texas Roadhouse

I settle in for a couple of hours before walking to the Texas Roadhouse about 10 minutes away, for dinner. I get a seat at the bar in a very busy and lively restaurant. After sampling a couple of IPAs, I choose the Ice Harbor IPA and also select a half rack of ribs to eat. Both beer and food are very good. There’s not a lot of chat at the bar though, with either staff or punters. I try to engage with a couple of guys who sat down on my left about a college football game on TV, but after a couple of discussions, they just talk to each other.

Around 9.20 pm I walk back to the hotel. The receptionist had told me earlier that there was a bar and restaurant in the hotel. The bar was open until 10 pm, so as the Roadhouse was dead, I thought I’d take a chance in the hotel bar for a nightcap.

“There’s whiskey in the jar-o” **

When I arrive, the bar is empty, including lack of a bartender. Elise, however, soon appears by magic, having presumably seen me on CCTV or heard me pulling up a bar stool. I splash out on my first night on the road with a Knob Creek. Elise and I then have a very wide-ranging and interesting discussion about whisky, mainly bourbon.

As there’s no-one else around, she then gives me some samples of flavoured bourbons. I told her I didn’t like them but she insisted I try again. Oh, twist my arm… But this yet again just proves why I – and she – don’t like them, and they should be banished from the Earth like some child-abomination.

She did say however that she had found a use for an orange-flavoured whisky – which dumb fuckwit invented this horror show? It was horrible… But she was now using it in a cocktail. It enabled her to get two flavours from one bottle and it worked in the cocktail. But no-one ever bought it as a stand-alone drink. Apparently her boss had ordered the bottle and Elise had to use it somehow or she got docked wages. But once used, she could make sure it was never ordered again. I know, it didn’t make sense to me at the time either, but such is the way certain establishments operate I guess.

I told her about my visits to Jack Daniels and Jim Beam distilleries, and showed her a few photos. She’s really into whisky and she said I’d inspired her to go visit at some point in the future.

I should mention that Elise is a young whippersnapper, probably only mid-20s. She was however very knowledgeable, clearly very well trained and also enthusiastic. I wish her well. She was a pleasure to talk to. She started to close up as 10 pm approached and I did my good guest bit by bidding her goodnight, she returned the comment, and I left to go back to my room.

The weather today was good. Mainly blue skies and scattered white clouds. It’s warm as well, 72º F / 22º C. An OK start to my trip, the drive wasn’t up to much but then I wasn’t expecting much after the museum. It was about getting near to US-395 S. At least I’m back on the road again.

* Stutter Rap (No Sleep Til Bedtime) by Morris Minor and the Majors

** Whiskey in the Jar by Thin Lizzy