Operation Fat Elk

08 · 23

Our trip in numbers – part I

Can't believe our trip is over and it's time for summaries already. Here goes:

73 – days of road trip
(June 1st -- August 13th)
2 – countries visited
(USA, Canada)
10 – states/provinces visited
(California, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Alberta, British Columbia, Washington, Oregon)
15 – National parks visited
(Joshua Tree, Grand Canyon, Zion, Bryce Canyon, Canyonlands, Arches, Grand Tetons, Yellowstone, Glacier, Waterton, Banff, Jasper, Olympic, Crater Lake, Redwoods)
1 – National Volcanic Monument visited
(Mount St. Helens)
7 – Major cities visited
(Los Angeles, Pheonix, Salt Lake City, Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco)

>7500 – miles driven
(that's about the distance from Tel Aviv to Los Angeles)
25.8 – MPG we achieved
(we were driving a rented Ford Escape 2010)
4 – hours/day was our self-imposed driving limit
(in most days we drove for less than 3 hours)
4 – the number of days we drove for more than 4 hours
(mostly in the last part of the trip, driving south along the Pacific coast)
1 – number of times we were pulled over by police
(Aviad was driving 35 mph in a 25 zone, in this tiny town)
4 – number of serious accident sites we passed by
(in two of them we got there before any rescue forces)
0 – number of accidents we were involved in
1 – number of times we saw someone driving out of a gas station with the nozzle still in the tank
(just outside of LA. The cable detaches from the pump in these cases)

49 – different hotels/motels we stayed in
(in some cases we stayed at more than one place in the same town according to room availability)
1 – night free we got from all the points we accumulated
(through the Choice Hotels brand)
43 – the price in dollars we payed for the cheapest room
(a motel near Crater Lake, where there aren't many options. Wouldn't recommend)
3 – times we had to move to a different hotel in the same town
(as we usually reserved a room every evening for the next day)

Thousands of photos (no time to curate) from days 1-42 are available @ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aviad/collections/72157627485028804/

08 · 13

Seventy four days later (and exactly 7 years since it all started), home sweet home.

07 · 26

Leaving Seattle (via ferry)

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> The space needle should be visible in the 3rd picture!
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07 · 18

Day #47 - Jasper, Alberta, Canada

The town of Jasper is the most northern place we're going to visit in our trip (52°

N. Boston at 42°, Tel Aviv at 32°). It's located in Jasper National Park which is to the north of Banff National Park that we previously visited. Our next major stop would be in Vancouver, 10+ hours to the southwest.

Some facts about Canada: Population of only 35M (less than California...), but has the same area of the US. Everything is much more expensive in Canada, at least in the touristic regions that we travel in. Also, as we are outside of the US we can't really use our cell phones without taking a loan first and we don't have cellular internet connection. For us this means ending up eating at lousy restaurants and wasting time when we could have planned our next stops (while waiting for the food to arrive e.g.). I also don't like how Canadians drive but Avigail enjoys laughing at their accents.

Okay, enough with the babbling. I know you're here only for the pictures. Here are some from our days in Canada (Banff, Lake Louise, the Icefields Parkway and Jasper areas):