Where Were You When You Heard...

Comfort Inn sent us off with a good breakfast under our expanding belts. We hit some gravel road along Route 15, and saw a sign, "Avoid windshield damage 35 mph", and another, "75 mph, 1 mile = 48 seconds". We appreciated being kept informed. We saw Massacre Rocks, an area caused by a great flood 16,000 years ago that filled the whole place with a lake that covered Utah. There were very high rock walls. We also saw the first of Snake River, which was to follow us into Oregon or vice verse.


Then we came upon Shoshone Falls, and although we had seen nearly enough of Idaho's water falls, we decided to check these out. The access road was winding and we followed it slowly, down, down, down. There was a very small admission fee, then we headed further down to the parking lot. The falls were absolutely beautiful, and we thought they looked like a smaller version of Niagara. Plus there was a rainbow. Or two, and a splash of photo ops.


We ran into a pronghorn herd on Route 84, but not literally. They were still difficult to catch with a camera. Time for lunch! We found a Marie Callender's in Boise, highly recommended by family, and here the dessert was the star. I can still taste that Blueberry Cream pie. Boise had loads of restaurants to choose from, but we made the right choice.






We crossed into Oregon at 2:30, and immediately learned that the state rock is the Thunder Egg. Another state that keeps us informed! Vale, OR, was charming, with murals depicting the Oregon Trail pioneers painted on many of its downtown buildings.


The down side of the desert hills of Oregon was the lack of cell service. I received a text from one of our ducklings saying she had narrowly escaped being rear-ended on her way home from work, but I could not respond then. Route 20 through southern Oregon was lonely and desolate, and we saw very few vehicles or even houses. Even the sagebrush that was with us through Wyoming and Montana seemed to have left the building. Then around 3:00 MT on 6/25/09, we received another text from our duckling saying that Farrah Fawcett, Ed McMahon, and Michael Jackson had all died. We were on the road between Juntura and Drinkwater Pass.


Farm lands eventually took over from the hills, thankfully, but somehow we missed seeing the sign for Stinking Water. What imaginative town names. They make Massachusetts' towns like Stow and Concord seem so plain.


We reached Burns, OR, at 4:15. Yay! It was a long day of traveling, seven hours, and it was good to reach our hotel where the nice desk clerk gave us a discount. She also mentioned that they had just had a two week spell of rain that ended only three days ago. Then we were off to supper at the Meat Hook, which looked like the only place in town. It was a nice little family-run place with a life-sized replica of the family's prize-winning bull near the front door. The walls were literally covered with ribbons from state and country fairs dating from 1947 to the present. We didn't ask how many bulls were involved.

We had been getting daily TWC weather updates for weather at home, and found it amazing that it had rained there every day that we had been on vacation. This rain would continue for three weeks, basically until we got home bringing the good weather with us.