Judd finally gets to "do" the Oregon Trail

hazy Grand Tetons

8/10/17 

Thursday After seeing great sights in Yellowstone we drove south to the Grand Tetons. Unfortunately the spectacular mountains were shrouded in a thick haze.  We learned later that there have been many fires this summer, mostly from lightening strikes and it takes a while for the smoke to clear.  We still pulled off at nearly every vantage point to gawk at the immensity of the snow-capped peaks. We drove about 160 miles that afternoon to spend the night in Pocatello, ID. Miles and miles of fields either yellow-white with dry foliage or emerald green because of the intense irrigation of some crop we couldn't identify. Three startling discoveries: No Gideon Bible at the Red Lion hotel; after 9 days of living out of the car, laundry seems irrelevant despite access to a laundromat; and the hotel horrible pillows the size of a VW, unsurpassed discomfiture for sleep, and then the gaul to offer to sell the pillows to us after our stay. Inconceivable!

Judd's view of scenery

Judd examining wagon construction

8/11/17
599 miles
3 Island Crossing Oregon Trail in Idaho-- nice exhibit; movie starts with what the Native Americans were thinking when they saw thousands of strangers and stage carts coming at them. We followed the Snake River for many miles and continually remarked out loud, "Look at this terrain!  Where would a wagon cross?  How would they know to go over a mountain or look for a way around it?"  We highly recommend the book: The Oregon Trail by Rinker Buck

Free coffee and maps in the welcome to Oregon center
Mapquest routes you through Bend, OR to get to southern OR, but we did Bend on our last trip so decided to go diagonally through the desert.  We took hard left at the town of Riley and took the 395 to cross the Oregon Outback
We came by huge Lake Albert  traversing the Albert rim and couldn't figure out why there were  no people/houses/boats when a lake appeared amidst the rocky/sandy/barren landscape. ....It looked like the Rift Valley. We looked up that it was an alkali lake and hazardous to humans.  The only thing around were the brine shrimp and some birds.

During our drive, I received a phone call of my "firm job offer" from HR VA and start date (2 weeks sooner than anticipated--on the auspicious eclipse day) (yes, it takes that long (since April interview) for the VA credentialing and pre-employment /drug screen process.) Judd is very relieved that I have a job.

When I drive, Judd looks up rest stops or hotels. When Judd was driving I booked us at Base Camp RV park for our last travel night (first real camping night.) It was famed for being within sight of the perpetual geyser  (I keep mispronouncing it as geezer.) The
campground keeper seemed highly suspicious that we were traveling with just a tent (no RV) and no pets.... We had the entire lawn  under a giant willow tree to ourselves, only the cows across the fence bellyaching.  It even looked like half the RVs were empty overnight.
P.S. we never saw the geyser erupt.

8/12/17
We had breakfast at the Black Bear Diner in Klamath Falls and pressed on only a couple hours, arriving in Jacksonville at noon.  The bowl of mountains surrounding us which had been so clear and close just last month, were also covered the the haze of smoke.  In a way I was happy to hear it was just smoke and not smog because it looked very similar to the "invisible" San Bernadino mountains we used to not-see from Pasadena.

Our landlord gave us a quick tour of appliances and handed us the keys and we re-surveyed our domicile.  I couldn't sit very long (in our camp chairs, the only furniture we have with us.  I was SUPER sad (read mad) that our check-in with U-Haul continues to say "guaranteed delivery of your box by 9/22."  I've called 3 times in the last 3 weeks to say someone typed that wrong-- it should be 8/22.  So, there is a slight chance my work clothes and shoes will not be here next Monday when I start work. That might require some emergency shopping much to Judd's chagrin.

We went on a shopping frenzy for household/kitchen gear--re-stocking an entire pantry/groceries :  Sears, Goodwilll, Albertson's, Target........

We didn't even have the energy to do Trader Joes's for real essentials... But then there's tomorrow....

our back yard -- needs watering, I mean the grass

resupplying the kitchen

longest shopping receipt evah!