You May All Go to Hell and I Will Go to Kirkland

We blew through Idaho's panhandle and before we knew it we were in our new home state of Washington.

I bought Lydia a Moon Pie because I thought she might appreciate a reminder of her southern roots in this strange new land.

Washington's mountains were quite a shock after the punishing flatness of the plains.

I was shocked at how much fast food workers make around here.

This city looked amazing and it isn't even Seattle! It's the suburb of Bellevue. I was very confused.

Kirkland is our new hood. I think it's biggest claim to fame is that Costco used to be headquartered here and so has the Kirkland Signature private label brand all over the place. The headquarters has since moved to Issaquah, but that name doesn't exactly roll off the tongue so they kept it original.

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In a very creepy turn, there was a package at our new apartment's door for the previous tenant: and it was from NEOSHO. Do not like. Return to sender!! Missouri? Never heard of her.

We have a nice little pool and even a hot tub. I will say that the view from the rooftop pool at our place in St. Louis cannot be beat. This place will do in a pinch, though.

New apartment, who dis?

So compared to St. Louis, and maybe most places on earth, Kirkland is pretty much heaven. We took the 15 minute walk from our place to Lake Washington and oh what sights we saw. Here is an entire store devoted to fancy frozen meals.

They block off a whole street full of restaurants and there's people dining outdoors all over the place.

I couldn't stop laughing at how nice this place was. We got to the lake in time to watch the sun set. There's a little park/beach area next to a little marina. There were kids playing all over the place. If you saw a child in downtown St. Louis you should pretty much just call the police immediately because a kidnapping may be in progress. There was a musician playing soft tunes to complement the images of nirvana my brain was still having trouble trying to comprehend.

You can see the University of Washington area of town across the lake.

The local grocery store was also stupidly nice. There was a little dog house locker thing to put your pup in while you shop.

They were growing their own herbs in here!! The Culinaria grocery store in downtown St. Louis used to have this little area with tables and chairs for people to eat the ready to eat food they bought. Well the area became a hobo camp so they had to get rid of it.

Oh yes, I think I'll buy a woodfired pizza at the grocery store right before I go to the top hat shop.

And that, friends, is the story of how we visited Seattle for the first time in May and were living there by August.

Calamity John and the Midnight Star

Our drive across the nation to escape Missouri at any cost continued. 

We've been staying at some very classy hotels that have signs about very specific offenses posted.

Taking a peek at Deadwood is probably what I was most looking forward to on this trip. Whether historical or fictional I can't really say, but due to HBO's fantastic show Deadwood I have some familiarity with people and places here.

Our first order of business was to check in with "Wild Bill" Hickok and "Calamity" Jane.

Downtown Deadwood was crawling with motorcycles and their unfortunate riders due to the nearby Sturgis superspreader event.

The strip was pretty westerny and had a lot of casinos.

We popped into a couple but they weren't that big or that impressive.

We poked around the Midnight Star which was owned by Kevin Costner for 28 years. I think he became interested in the area after starring in 1990's Dances with Wolves.

I thought the place was a classier version of the others.

I was very amused to see one of these dingus cowboy cosplayers fall over in the middle of the street and a bunch of people had to help get his bike back upright.

The Gem was a whorehouse in the Deadwood show. There was a disappointing lack of prostitutes around.

We continued our journey. You can probably tell from the quality of the windshield pictures but I'm murdering my own weight in bugs driving this giant vehicle so far.

I was especially proud of the epic ruined day I laid on this grasshopper.

There was no chance I was going to pass by any establishment named Taco John's without paying tribute.

Mexican food out here involves a lot of tater tots.

Some leg stretching took place in Missoula, Montana, home of the University of Montana. It was a fun little college town.