BJ Nemeth's Blog

Photos: My odometer flips to 150,000, my car parked on Exit 180 (where I slept most of the night), and the morning weather report

Day 7 was hopefully the coldest leg of this 80-day road trip, as I started in Iowa, went up through Minnesota, over to North Dakota, and down into South Dakota. As I write this, the sun is starting to rise at 7:30 am, and it's -9^F.

There was a big milestone for my car on Day 7, and this is the tweet I sent out to commemorate the moment:

"My car just flipped over to 150,000 miles on the odometer at 9:05 pm CT on Exit #24 of I-94 West in Minnesota: http://twitpic.com/10mcly "

You may have already noticed the flaw. Many of my Twitter followers read the first five words and thought I had crashed. (My iPhone's Twitter app, Tweetie 2, put only those five words on the first line, highlighting them even more.)

So I got more than a few messages from friends who briefly thought I had crashed, and they asked me to avoid accident-sounding tweets while I'm on a cross-country road trip. Noted.

A poker blogger named Tim (@OhCaptain on Twitter) noticed I was heading toward his home in Minnesota, and offered me a place to rest and relax if I wanted it. What I really needed was a shower after two days in the car. So he graciously offered the guest bathroom to me while his two adorable daughters played with Rhapsody. Tim is a photographer and both of his girls have cameras of their own to learn with. His youngest probably took more than 50 photos of Rhapsody. She won't be forgetting our visit anytime soon.

While I had never met or spoken to Tim before, we had mutual friends in the poker media, because he was a regular at the WPBT (World Poker Bloggers Tournament) in Las Vegas. Me? I've never been. I promised Tim I would try to make it to WPBT this December.

It was -2^F as I was driving through Fargo, North Dakota around 11:00 pm CT, and I thought that might be the coldest point of my trip. Nope.

I drove down into South Dakota before stopping at a rest stop to get some sleep. I got fully bundled up in my winter clothes (jacket, hat that covers my ears) and got under my comforter in the back seat with Rhapsody. I set my alarm for two hours so I could make sure it wasn't getting too cold.

It got too cold.

I woke up around 2:30 am and it was -3^F -- and I was shivering. (Rhapsody seemed fine under the comforter in her natural fur coat.) I started the car to get the heater going, and decided to drive further south. I was still sleepy, so I stopped at Exit 180 near Watertown, South Dakota. (Where I am now.)

I went back to sleep, this time doing it in one-hour shifts. I'd sleep for one hour with the engine/heater running (with windows cracked an inch for oxygen), and another hour with the engine off and windows rolled up. Back and forth, switching every hour.

I woke up for good around 7:00 am, with the temperature at -9^F. Thankfully it hasn't been too windy (wind chill seems to be the biggest problem at these temperatures), but exposed skin starts to hurt in just a minute or two. I've been taking some cool sunrise photos this morning (which will be posted in tomorrow's blog), and I'll go outside, shoot for two minutes, and rush back to the car to warm up. I have gloves, of course, but the iPhone's touchscreen is capacitive, so it doesn't react to pressure -- it needs contact with the skin.

Well, Rhapsody and I survived the night, and our goal for today is Denver. Follow me on Twitter for updates during the day, and I promise not to post anything that sounds like an accident. (Unless I actually get into an accident, of course.)