Hidey Hidey Howdy Ho … from Idaho!

5 Sept. 2010

(Click on the thumbnails to view a larger image.)

We're on the moon about our trip so far … Craters of the Moon, that is … a national monument in Southern Idaho on the way to the Grand Tetons and then north to Yellowstone. The landscape in this area has been shaped by at least 8 major volcanoes (and they are awaiting the next one any century now). Here is some "information" about our trip to date (after one whole week)…

FACTS:

• Cheapest gas $2.89/gal (translates as $0.76/litre); most expensive $3.69; Bigfoot is slurping gas eagerly so any price under $3/gal. is greeted with a swift screeching turn off the road
• Latest departure ever = +6 days, leaving at 5:37 p.m. … and camping at my mom's house in White Rock; earliest departure on the trip = 8:59 a.m. (today as a matter of fact – we were camped in a parking lot at Bald Mtn, Sun Valley, ID where the US National hang-gliding championships were being held … and there was an antique car auction just down the road where poor Ted became seriously dehydrated from drooling over a cherry-red 1962 Corvette convertible)
• Average mileage per day is ˜200 km/day
• Best campsite – on our second night out along Baker Lake Road – lakefront site just being vacated – the guy had already paid for the site and bought a load of wood – he wouldn't accept any money (by the way, the stars in all our sites are magnificent; the NW US must be one of the world's greatest dark zones for gazing)
• Saddest experience – a deer with a broken back legs dragging herself across the road, bumping into us, dragging herself into a field; we were able to find a sheriff within a mile and he was going to "dispatch" her; I asked a forest ranger later what we should do (I had visions of compassionately smothering her or cutting her carotid artery but he said there is nothing you can do since they panic when you approach and it would be too dangerous …. Very very tragic … but happens so much in this area)
• BEST experience – seeing 8 pronghorn antelope fairly close-up – beautiful beautiful creatures with their cream-colored stripes;
  Here's your science lesson:
  1. Can run at 45 mph and higher; run with their mouths open to supply oxygen to their unusually large heart and lungs
  2. Jump poorly and need fence-free habitat (after crossing the highway in front of us, they ducked under the fence on the other side)
  3. Have wide-set eyes to see both in front and behind them
  4. Depend on sage brush as a major source of food in winter
  5. Are the sole surviving species of their family and only distantly related to deer
• Most sensible way to manage traffic and pedestrians – have orange flags available on both sides of the street for pedestrians to wave as they cross and then replace in the flag holders on the other side

Travel Goals so far:

• A place for everything – accomplished!
• Everything in its place – scheduled for 2012
• See 10 new bird species to highlight in my National Geographic Book – have seen one so far – the white throated swift

Signs Of The Times:

As we travel, we keep ourselves amused by watching for billboards, store names, etc. Here are some that made us smile…

• Crossing the border from Canada into the US – "You are entering a high cost medical zone"
• "Flick it – A ticket ($950)”"
• "Weeds are a pain in the grass"
Baby sleepers in a tourist gift shop – Pinch your own damn cheeks; I don’t do naps
• For the unattractive and lonely, a hair salon called "Wak & Yak"
• For fisher people – "Reel People"
• Our favorite ranch name – "Meanwhile back at the ranch" (what would their brand look like … poor cows)
• Baseball hat – "Life is simple. Sleep. Camp."
• Church – "Life has many choices; eternity has 2"
• Reward - "$5000 reward for information leading to seizure of marijuana"
• While passing through the Sawtooth Mtns and craving, craving, craving a burger, we found the perfect place with char-broiled beef, round fries, great beer … appropriately called "Lardo's" (I had "3 blind moose" wine; they were playing "Proud Mary" when we walked in; there were lots of dead animals on the walls; the waitress wore short short jean shorts and cowboy boots … couldn't have been better in any way)
• Unfortunately, we were too full to go to the place next door – "Buffalo Gals" … advertising world class sushi
• Dentist advertising their special on a huge billboard with SMILING HAPPY faces – "Wisdom Tooth Fridays!"
• "Jim’s Fertilizer" – right next to the town cemetery
• Most appealing motel – offered free WiFi and FREE BEER (it was a major struggle to keep Ted from turning in)
• Church in the Sun Valley ski area – "Our Lady of the Snow"
• POW - MIA flags – we didn't know what this signified but have seen these black and white flags often - just looked it up and it stands for "Prisoners of War - Missing in Action"
• Most shocking sign – "Impeach Obama" …no, the sign wasn't shocking and we respect the right to have that opinion; what was shocking was the accompanying poster of Obama with a Hitler moustache! … yoo hoo – no comparison!

WE STOP FOR: …

Remember seeing bumper stickers that read "We stop for…" things like garage sales, quilt shops, rodeos, etc. When we travel, we have our own special things that we stop for as well… but a bumper stick just would not do – we would need to cover the entire side of the camper … maybe even both sides. Here are some of the things we've been stopping for:

• Baby animals, especially 2 month old alpacas
• Bulls that are horny
• Bulls that are red
• Falls – dry
• Falls – wet
• Hot dams (Chief Joseph Dam – 2nd largest power producing dam in the US … and probably nobody has ever heard of it
• Mechano bridges
• Motorcycle trailers with unique contents (from Edmonton, Alberta)
• RVs with unique features

POINTS TO PONDER:

• What if people were forbidden to talk about the weather… you would not be allowed to say things like "hot/cold/dry/wet/windy/ … enough for ya?" … What would you say to strangers instead? How would human interaction be changed?
• What if The Serenity Prayer were changed so that instead of "God grant me…", it was rewritten as an affirmation and read:

  I HAVE the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

• 80-20 rule strikes again – actually, in our case we think it's 90-10 – why are we in a headwind/crosswind 80-90% of the time, no matter whether we're going NSE or W??? This is not good for our mileage. Today, there was a high wind warning and, miracle of miracles, it came from behind us (I'll bet we broke our record of 10.3 mpg (that's US gallon)

That's it for now - here's hoping the wind blows us to the Grand Tetons this morning.
love E&T

Self-image with short arms