Boise -Day 1

Black magpies abound in Wyoming, Utah and Idaho

We broke camp about 7:30 with Ann behind the wheel, as David was suffering from a Nyquil hangover.  He's been fighting a cold and nasty, persistent cough for several days and didn't get much sleep Saturday night listening to trains passing in the night.  So we purchased some Nyquil for last night and he slept very well, but has the druggy feeling those kinds of syrups give for someone not used to taking them.  We usually share the driving with David starting the day, but Ann ended up driving 2/3 of the 380+ miles of today to Boise, ID. 

Ann drives up I 84 passing by the Great Salt Lake, near Ogden, UT

                                               Trains still carry a lot of goods in the upper-tier Western states, at least the ones we've passed through.  The tracks run along I 80 in Wyoming and Utah's I 84.  The interstate passes through wide valleys with red ?sandstone mountains on both sides. As the sun rose above the mountains, the reflections and shadows were very reminiscent of Lesotho for us.  We saw a train in the distance which had four locomotives, one facing forward and the three behind it traveling in reverse pulling a very long train of cars carrying double-decker containers and many carrying coal.  (Sorry if our terminology is incorrect, but we are not railroaders and don't speak "railroad-ese".)  Speaking of carrying a lot of goods, trucks are triple affairs in Utah and Idaho, a truck towing three trailers.  The wide-open roadways in Utah have 80 mph speed limits on them, but we didn't observe trucks going that speed.  Thankfully, most of today was without much of a wind, too.  Idaho slowed the limit down to 75 mph and limited semis to 65.

Beware!!!

 Our campground for tonight and tomorrow is right beside the Boise Airport.  We chose it to be closer to the route to the Idaho Bird Conservatory's site.  After having dinner out, we stopped for groceries and then drove to where the directions lead us above the dam on the Boise River.  Ann already didn't like this drive because it skimmed steep dropoffs.  (She's acrophobic!) Then we found the dirt, bumpy, hillside-hugging (without guardrails) road to climb for six miles to the trees where owl banding was occurring.  We got to about three miles up in thirty minutes and decided the better part of valor is the wisdom to know when to stop.  We'd met a vehicle coming down and miraculously it was at a spot where there was room for two vehicles to pass.  (One of us has a very good guardian angel!!)  The major reason for this trip to Astoria, Oregon is to carry Mom Click's maple dining room set to our daughter and we have it packed in the bed and back seat of the truck. We could hear thunking as we drove over especially bad ruts.  So back to camp we went (slowly down the mountain road!) and we will have to just dream about the owls. 

We mentioned dinner out.  That was only our second meal out since leaving Knoxville on the 16th. Ann plans and prepares the meals ahead which enables us to maintain a low fat/low sugar diet.  David says it saves a lot on the cost of trips like this because we eat what we'd have eaten at home.

Tomorrow we'll have a day of relaxation.  It's supposed to rain throughout the area.  Hopefully it will help David to recover more from his cold, too.