The playlist for today’s drive:
-”Born and Raised” -John Mayer
It has been kind of crazy to wake up every morning on this trip because we’re constantly surrounded by awesome things that we’ve never seen before. This morning was no different, as for the first time, we watched the sunrise over the Rocky Mountains in Park City, Utah. Goodness. It’s hard to even comprehend views so amazing. After we picked our jaws up off the floor, we hit the road again.
With a recommendation from the family we stayed with, we went to Kneader’s for breakfast, which reminded me of a mix of Panera Bread and Great Harvest. We got to eat unlimited french toast (although, how much french toast can one really eat?) while staring at the mountains. Not a bad morning.
Then we hit the road on our way to Idaho (another new state for the both of us). There are several wildfires burning in Idaho, and from what I could tell from the map, the interstate drove through the middle of two fires. As soon as we crossed into Idaho, the view got really hazy and it smelled like smoke. I would assume that at other times, there would be a pretty good view of the mountains, but it was so hazy that we couldn’t see a thing. We could occasionally make out a faint mountain shape in the distance, but it never lasted long.
For those of you who are as geographically challenged as I am, Idaho is essentially a giant desert (not to be confused with a giant dessert, which would have been far more exciting and delicious). So everything is brown. And flat. Except for the parts that are black from fires. And apparently Idaho is a pretty crazy weather state. We saw all kinds of warnings along the interstate, from wildfire warnings, dust storm areas, blizzard areas, high wind warnings, and severe thunderstorm areas.
Crazy. Props to any of you who live along the route between Park City and Nampa. You guys are living life on the edge.
We opted to stop for lunch in Twin Falls, Idaho, which was the first city that had any restaurants on the sign for its exit. Once we drove down the road a little ways, we saw a scenic overlook with a few cars stopped. Being the good tourists that we are, we also stopped and got out to take a look. And suddenly we were staring into an enormous canyon! After miles and miles of nothing, here was Snake River Canyon, which even has waterfalls! Very cool.
We ate lunch at Shari’s, a Northwestern favorite of ours (me for sentimentality reasons, Eric because a piece of pie comes with your lunch). This was our first interaction with Idahoians. Idahoers? Idahoites? No idea. Anywho, neither of us had ever heard an Idaho accent before. Man, were we missing out. It’s like the nicest people in the world are offering you everything you could ever want, saying things like “Hi folks, what can I get started fer ya?” Imagine Marshall’s mom from How I Met Your Mother, combined with Sarah Palin. Somewhere in there, you have an Idahoan.
We drove to Boise to see the big city (and get some coffee, as we’re getting pretty tired at this point in our journey). There’s not a lot to report from this part of the day, except that the capitol building looks a lot like Kentucky’s capitol building.
We stayed in Nampa with one of our friend’s parents, who fed us an awesome home-cooked meal and spent the evening playing Ticket to Ride (a.k.a. the train game) with us. We have been so blessed to have strangers welcome us into their homes during this trip! I only hope we can be equally generous when we find a place to live in Oregon.
Speaking of Oregon, we’ll get there tomorrow.
-Ally
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