After our Walmart parking lot adventures in Omak, WA for night number 1, it was blissfully quiet at the KOA in Meridian, Idaho.
I woke to the honk of a beloved Canada Goose and chirping birds.
After breakfast the little bit of packing up got underway. When Alexandre was discovered nicely seated in the truck his sheepish defence was, "Well, I didn't want to get in the way, Mama!"
Nice try, Alex.
We made good time heading east to Twin Falls, Idaho where we had our lunch at Shoshone Park overlooking the actual water falls. The road approaching this park reminded us of Zero Avenue near Abbotsford. The twisty, narrow road into the park was an adventure where our radios came in very handy! Unfortunately, the flow over the falls was very minimal but a good rest stop none-the-less.
Our second leg of the day had us heading south. The terrain changed significantly to flat, barren lands. We stopped in Wells, Nevada at a junction of two main highways in the middle of nowhere. The boys were intrigued by the travel plaza which boasted a McDonald's joined to a convenience store by a casino.
It was a demoralizing stop in that the service staff lacked any sense of joy in their occupation. This is not hard to understand given the remoteness of the location and the transient nature of a travel stop. The casino smelled stale. There were a few listless souls slouched at the lottery machines with vacant stares. . . .
Leaving Wells, NV we had a long, long stretch of what Alexandre called the never ending valley. This was a flat, single-lane highway, bisecting a wide valley with minor mountains on each side. On the horizon are mountains but somehow we seem to mysteriously pass through them only to be face with another set of mountains in the distance. We feel like we have driven this 20 mile stretch a few times.
We pass through small habitations every hour or so. These patches of humanity are littered with old cars and machinery. For every occupied house there are 2-3 neglected or abandoned homes. We see a woman on her leaning porch, eyes fastened on her iPad, not bothering to notice the endless stream of semis and travel trailers passing through. No one is interested in this place, we are all trying to get somewhere else.
Dinner time brings us to Ely (said Elly) Nevada. What a welcome site. We are checked-in to the KOA by friendly staff and soon my defrosted soup is bubbling on the stove. The boys roam the half-full campground and have fun checking out holes in the desert scrub. By the time dinner is cleared and my marking is done, I am completely done and thus the blog will have to wait.
Curiosities sighted along the way:
- A truck will large 5th wheel trailer also pulling a hefty fishing boat.
- A second day of wind turbines.
- Many spring calves resting in the fields with their Mamas.
- The 'bomb' truck. Semi loaded with old propane tanks.
- Dead things: deer, marmot
- The big red splat...not so nice.
Click on any image to enlarge.
 |
| Squint to see wind turbines in the distance. |
 |
| Truck pulling a 5th-wheel and a fishing boat. |
Before leaving we watched The Big Burn, a documentary on the Great Fire of 1910 in Idaho.
In Omak, Dominic bought honey in a Smoky the Bear bottle.
 |
| Twin Falls, bridge pull-out overlooking the Snake River. |
 |
| Heading down into Shoshone park. Interesting! |
 |
| Things that go down must come up again. . . .. |
 |
| The 'bomb' truck. |
 |
| Wells, Nevada. A casino joins McDonald's to the convenience store. |
 |
| Perfecting my 'Eating a McFlurry-whilst-driving' technique. |
 |
| The never ending valley. |
 |
| Oh happy day, there's the campsite. |
 |
| Work for Mama, Corner Gas for the wildlife. |
No comments:
Post a Comment