Day Two - Baker City Or to Evanston Wy

Day Two!

Baker City, Or to Evanston, Wy

Yesterday was difficult.

We woke up early. We rearranged some things in the back of the truck and the cab. We had to put away the tent. We had more bento for breakfast. Then we needed to get a coffee and use some wifi to upload photos. We have been using Tanner’s phone to take photos, so we had to get them off his phone, on to my computer, and then in to this blog. Had to get gas too. So by the time we left it was 10:00.

We drove past the wildfire. It really did come right up to the highway. Tanner felt like it looked like Mars. No shrubs or plants, just black dirt and black rocks, then more black dirt and more black rocks. We have both been thinking a lot about the dry summer we had in western Washington too. I am not sure that we have anything philosophical to say about it. 

Leaving late did not seem like too big a deal at the time. But the day just dragged on and on. I do like to stop at rest areas often. There were also a few stretches when they had us down to one lane eastbound. So for some reason everything took longer than it was supposed to yesterday. 

Idaho had some impressive wind farms

We decided to stop at what is left of Minidoka Internment Camp anyways. It was only 15 miles off the highway, even though by then it was almost four. Tanner is really glad they are working on restoring it. Even so, it is difficult to imagine how horrible it must have been to come from a place like Seattle, to be forced to live in the windy, arid, hot scrubland. It has been a challenging drive just for us, and the families that were interned were forced to abandon everything and were sent out there.

We didn't take very many photos, I think because we were so tired and grumpy to begin with. Walking around we read the signs and tried to empathize. We talked about Tanner's family. But we didn't really take photos, which bothers me now, I know we have relatives who would have wanted to see at least our photos, since they may never stop here. 

 

We were also at our lowest point, and weren’t sure we wanted to keep going all the way to Evanston. We had lunch/dinner and walked the 1.6 miles interpretative trail around the camp to try to wake up some and feel better. I drove for an hour. Then I also drove for over an hour later in Utah. 

After that we had to get gas, we stopped at a tiny town in southern Idaho called Wendell. The gas station was also a store like Ace. They had tiny bales of hay for sale, between the gas pumps, which seemed like a terrible idea. I also saw a woman paying for gas with a personal check, which was amazing.

We missed the photo of the “Welcome to Utah” sign. Utah looked a lot like southern Idaho.

Once we got past Ogden, the speed limit went up, and it was getting dark. We made better time, and decided to go all the way to Evanston after all. I also decided we couldn’t sleep in the Subaru, so we called ahead and got a room at a Motel 6. 

Golden hour, above a very golden crop, not sure what it was 

Then later we missed the “Welcome to Wyoming” sign, because it was dark. The drive out of Utah and into Wyoming looked like it would have been pretty, but we couldn’t tell, it was really dark. Tanner got a second wind, and even offered to keep driving past Evanston. We got to our motel. Finally went to bed after 11pm Mountain time. 

I am sure I missed some things. But it is already after 7 am Mountain Time, and we have to get going again.

Oh the hermit crabs. I will make a post about how they are doing later.