 |
This is going to be a bit different from my usual blog posts. I do mention the bras I packed and my thoughts on them for the day, but it will be heavily focused on our trip. I hope you enjoy reading this, and let me know your thoughts. This is a 2 part series, click here for Part 2.
So my boyfriend and I live in Ohio and they salt the roads like crazy during the winter, this causes tons of rust especially on older vehicles. Both of us being car enthusiasts,we tend to have a fondness for older cars. My boyfriend had owned 29 cars (all used and usually a purchase price under $1000 or he made trades), for vehicle number 30 he wanted to get something he really wanted. However what he wanted was an early 80's Toyota Pickup, most of which in our area have horrible frame rust (so if not currently structurally unsafe could happen) in addition to body rust. He scoured craigslist all over the country in regions that don't salt their roads. He found one in Washington state, despite all their rain, the vehicles there tend to be in good condition. We planned to fly there and drive the truck home (extensive photos, videos and questions were taken and answered about the truck before purchasing plane tickets).
We both work as independent contractors and didn't have any jobs lined up anytime too soon, so we would be making a vacation out of road trip home. I wasn't sure how long we would be gone, but I wanted to bring a few bra options. We were traveling light since we didn't want to deal with any checked bags (I always fear something will get lost and can't justify the cost nor do either of us need that much). We were able to bring a personal item and carry on bag (we both chose back packs for the personal item). I chose to bring 6 bras with me 3 padded and 3 unlined (unlined are great for not taking up space).
Day 1:
I've been loving my newly acquired Cleo Mimi recently and decided to give it a try for our flight from Ohio to Seattle with a connection in Chicago. I was very pleased with my decision on that one, it remained comfortable the whole time. I also partially chose this one for the flight since the band is a bit on the looser side, although I chose not to pack any of my tighter fitting bras that would require an extender. I was very pleased with the Mimi, it remained comfortable all day and didn't get irritating while being cooped up on the flight (some bras get a bit uncomfortable while sitting especially if you you sitting backwardly). I put Mimi on at 4am EST and didn't take it off until probably 8pm PST (11pm EST), so that was a long day. If you haven't read my review on the Cleo Mimi be sure to check it out, I found it to be a good alternative to a Polish half cup and did a comparison.
 |
| Sunrise in flight to Seattle |
 |
| I chose Mimi for the flight. |
We found a nice Mediterranean restaurant nearby so we stopped there and figured out what our plans for the day would be. After lunch we went to into downtown Seattle to grab some pics of the truck with the Space Needle (we had been to Seattle for work in November so we had already done quite a bit in the area), after that we hit the road to start our journey back towards home. Being quite jet lagged and functioning on only a few hours sleep we grabbed a room for the night not far from Seattle. We were so worn out that we didn't even stop at the Nordstrom Rack near where we grabbed dinner for the evening (if I remember correctly Seattle is supposed to have a very large Nordstrom store so the Rack location may have been quite promising).
 |
| Here's the 1982 Toyota Pickup with the Space Needle in Seattle. |
Day 2:
The first day of our journey back towards home I chose to wear my Comexim Irish Coffee. I absolutely love the aesthetics of this bra, and tend to wear it frequently. We spent a good amount of time driving along while making a few stops for various sight seeing. I normally love the Irish Coffee, but on this day, it was bothering me some while we were driving. If we were out of the truck hiking or anything it was fine, sitting it felt like the underwires were on my ribs (although upon removing the bra marks were in my IMF). I did adjust the band to the middle hook at some point since I've had this bra awhile now and wear it regularly, this seemed to help, but it did feel like the wires might be being pulled a bit.
We tried to take a scenic route on our way out of Washington, but due to the time year the road was closed at a certain point. This delayed us a bit since we had to back track some, but we got to see some beautiful scenery.
 |
| Waterfall near Mt Ranier (I can't recall the name). |
Once we got turned around we grabbed lunch (we don't have Taco Time in our region and were intrigued so we stopped there), before getting back on track towards Idaho. We stopped at a few other roadside sights as well including a petrified forest (not really a forest, just some labeled stumps of prettified trees). Then we found a scenic overlook to stop and enjoy, and as we were getting ready to leave we noticed a Wild Horses Monument and decided to hike up to the top (it's quite a treacherous hike both up and down, it's very loose dirt).
 |
| The scenic overlook. |
 |
| Wild Horses monument, it's very steep and the dirt is loose, be very careful if you try to go up.
After our quick stop we continued on down the road. We made a fuel (speaking of fuel, the little truck is doing better than expected getting about 20mpg) stop near Snoqualmie Pass which is a ski town. After stopping we could tell why it was a ski town, there is snow taller than cars and some buildings. I'm honestly not sure how the roofs on buildings don't cave in there.
|
We went a bit further and stopped for rest for the evening. We found a unique little motel (Stardust Motel) in Wallace Idaho which is a on the National Register of Historic Places. When the highway was being built they wanted to run it through the town, but the town resisted and manged to get it to be built above the town.
 |
| The main sign for the Stardust Inn |
Day:3
The town is very quiet and seems like there are some interesting things to do, but most of it didn't open until later in the day, and we didn't have time to hang around. A lot of vintage cars in various parking lots in the are as well. We did grab breakfast at the Red Light Garage, it was excellent. There was also a big group of older gentlemen that were regulars. They chatted with us a bit and it seemed each of them were from a different place. They told us if they were being too loud to let them know, apparently someone had complained in a Yelp review about the old guys being too loud and ruining the ambiance (I'm not sure if they were joking or not). We were quite amused by them and enjoyed hearing their stories. (Bra of the day is Cleo Hettie, scroll down for details)
 |
| Red Light Garage, it's a restaurant in an old service station. |
 |
| Here you can see the many of the automotive nostagia (some for sale), and part of the group of older gentlemen. |
After my ordeal with my Irish Coffee the previous day I decided to try one of my unlined options, especially since my other unworn padded option was another (spoiler alert) Comexim 3HC. I chose to wear my Cleo Hettie (review of Hettie coming soon), which was also gifted to me by Cleo, and I had worn in a couple times and seemed to enjoy it. Hettie was wonderful and didn't bother my ribs one bit. I do think the band might ride up a smidge, but when I try tightening the band the gore gets a bit stabby, with the band on the loosest setting the gore doesn't bother me.
 |
| Cleo Hettie in 32DD |
 |
| The Entrance to the Berkeley Pt |
 |
| The Berkeley pit from the viewing deck. |
Continue Reading, Part 2
Part 2 of the trip has a lot more stops, some highlights, Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, and more... including 3 more bras, click to continue reading.
