It's been fun exploring Oregon! It feels like it was a year ago that we arrived in the Columbia River Gorge! But really it was under a month ago! We explored almost every part of the state and found something special and unique in each spot! My favorites were the coast and Crater Lake, but the Gorge and all the volcanos were cool too! Usually I plan to be home by August 1 so I can do stuff at home and prepare for the next school year, but in order to have time to get all the way to the West Coast and do stuff here I had to extend my trip and now it's Aug 1 and I'm only beginning my 3,000 mile journey home. I plan to take at least a week, maybe 10 days. I will be home by August 10.
I left Sisters a little before 8, stopping in Bend for fuel at Fred Meyer and finally getting my own Fred Meyer card! Saved me 3 cents a gallon! Then I took US20 east from Bend toward I84. It was 260 miles through the high desert! The first 120 or so miles were flat sagebrush. Just sagebrush as far as the eye can see. After Burns it got hillier, but they were rocky scrubby barren hills. I didn't find it very interesting and it seemed to on forever. Eventually it became more farmland as we approach Ontario where I got on I84 south.
Almost as soon as I got on 84 I crossed over into Idaho. There weren't any places to stop along US20 and we crossed over into Mountain Time, as a result it was almost 2:00 and I hadn't eaten lunch! I pulled off into the first rest stop for some snacks. While I was stopped I left the iPod playing and it played the B-52s "Private Idaho"! LOL! Well played iPod!
The scenery in Idaho wasn't much better. Lots of desert here too! Even the town of Mountain Home is surrounded by desert! Crazy! And, it was hot! Between 100 and 106 all day! As soon as I'd stop the van would get super hot very quickly. Because of this I decided to keep driving after my usual stop time. I planning on going to Wal-Mart, and sitting in the Wal-Mart parking lot when it's crazy hot just isn't fun, I'd rather keep driving and get in later, hopefully after its starts to cool off.
I pulled into the WalMart in Burley, ID a little before 7. It wasn't appealing to sit in the parking lot so I decided to explore a bit. Less than a mile from the WalMart I found a lovely park right on the Snake River! It had plenty of parking and boat docks floating on the water that you could sit on! I heated a frozen dinner in the microwave and went and sat on the dock and had dinner down by the river! It was much cooler down here and I could watch the boaters and jet skiers on the river, until the mosquitoes started biting! If the Sea Eagle didn't leak I could take it out, lots of folks in every kind of boat!
While in the park I discovered a dumpster. And unsecured dumpster! This was exciting because the van needed DEF and I had two 2.5 gallon boxes that I'd got a Wal-Mart but I was planning to wait until morning to put it in since everything was hot and would been cool then. But, the lure of having someplace to dispose of the empty boxes made me want to go ahead and do it. I needed to use my oven mitt to open the hood and the DEF filler, but I got it done!
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