Well, I knew it had to happen and it did.  Jack has been like a grouchy old bear for days now - since we left Victoria actually.  He was obviously trying to be nice until today.  If I could have found an airport I would have put him on a plane anywhere.

Truth is he is sick.  Really sick.  Its all been exaggerated by long hard days.  He keeps pushing till he breaks - the usual story with Jack.  He has now crashed.  Its is 7pm.  We are in a tiny place called Bellevue in rural Idaho at a camp ground that can only be called rustic-with-full-services.  I got him to give in by picking up the phone to call 911.  If you get this you know everything is all right and he is alive and well.  If he isn’t - well I won’t be sending it will I.

Anyway, back to our day.  We stayed the night at a Good Sam Burns RV Park.  Nice enough with shady trees and very clean. $27 a night.  I woke up at 6:20 after an almost sleepless night.  Don’t you hate it when you don’t seem to fall asleep until an hour of so before you have to get up.  Didn’t have to but Mother nature called - loudly.  Jack was having a rough morning so when Carol and Russ were packed up and sitting in the rig with the engine running before 7:30 it started things off wrong!!!  I finally had to say something about it. Poor Jack didn’t even have time to go to the bathroom!

Anyway we breakfasted out then hit the road.  Once more we were running through countryside that is very different.  They call it dessert.  It is covered with sage brush, some scrubby weedy things with yellow flowes and the occasional stunted tree.  Buttes, messas, mountains softened by time so they have rounded sandy looking tops, often with a “collar” of rock part way down.  Fascinating.  I took 257 pictures today of the countryside.  Today was different in that we quite often ran beside a small river which created a green zone in amongst all of the dessert.  We would top a mountain, begin the run down the otherside, then start to pick up signs of green.  Finally in a gulch or pass there would be lush green trees, bluish toned cotton-woods, grasses and even some bullrushes.  The rivers were never big, but in some areas had been utilized for irrigation so there would be productive ranches growing acre after acre of crops. As we left Oregon we went through an area where they were growing corn (as high as an elephant’s eye I swear), and other vegetable crops. We decided some of it was navy beans or something similar.  But the most fun was the onions.  Field after field after field.  The air smelled of onions.  And a sign on one farm’s barn claimed to ship 22,000 loads of onions a year.  

In the more arid areas the crop is hay.  They grow more hay here than I have ever seen in my life.  It is piled in blocks in fields that are bigger than buildings.  These big blocks (of huge rectangle bales) are dated and numbered so are obviously to be shipped.  All of the hay is irrigated with huge sprayers.

The cole crops are also irrigated, but by using a network of channels and ditches. Again fascinating to see how industrious people are making this arid land work for them.  There are huge land-holdings, cattle ranches, horses - all of it spread out over miles and miles of rolling land, stunted mountains and valleys.

When we entered Idaho we did about a hundred miles on Interstate 84.  Hateful experience.  We headed north on a secondary road as soon as we could.  I was fascinated to pass over the old Oregon Trail and a couple of the other wagon train routes, as well as old stagecoach routes.  One could spend weeks exploring and experiencing what is in these two states.  So our trek ended up here, in the only RV park for miles around.  We have about 400 miles to go to Yellow Stone and two days to do it in so we can relax more.  Hopefully Jack is feeling better.  I don’t mind driving these roads, but won’t make the time he does. 

Our route takes us through the Grand Teton National Park, where the mountain driving will be a challenge.  We had to change our plans a bit because the west gate into Yellow Stone I partially closed for construction, so we opted for the south gate.  It will be good to stop for a few days

Julie