The Long Road Home - Day Two

Morning breaks in Springville...we open the side doors, step out to greet the day, take a deep breath and...what the...?! What is that smell?! Last night it was a little bit like septic tank or feed lot, today it is more like paint factory, latex to be more precise.

Now, we should disclose that during our drive to dinner and back last night, we got a clearer picture of the neighborhood surrounding this RV park and what makes its location a particularly choice piece of real estate. Surrounding this place are: a Stouffer's prepared foods plant, some sort of farming operation, a chemical plant, a train yard and the expressway. So all of those variables may play a role in the particularly pungent morning scent here at the RV park.


But we don't let an odiferous and potentially life-shortening morning breeze deter us from trying out the comfort station. Once behind the closed door of our own clean little bathrooms, and with the eye-watering aroma of morning in Springville safely locked out, we enjoy nice hot, long showers and boy that felt good!

Today's planned segment from here to La Grande, Oregon, is supposed to take a little more than 8 hours. Since our drive is longer today, and to try to avoid any health impacts of breathing air in Springville any more than absolutely necessary, we eat, pack up and get on the road by about 8:30am MDT. Later today we will cross over into PDT and gain an hour which is nice because that should put in La Grande by about 4:00pm.

Provo is the first city we pass through as we head north through Utah. From Springville, we enter the Provo-Salt Lake City-Ogden metroplex...there really is no break to the development through this whole corridor. So it seems like one large city. And one quick observation...these folks like their highways...you'd think this was LA with the 8-lane highway they're upgrading to... We drove this same stretch a little over a week ago, but again Patty is on the opposite side of the highway (now looking out to the East) so she was able to capture a lot of new views of Utah and it's beauty...

After a coupple of hours, we cross the border into Idaho, and, as it turns out, Idaho is prettier looking to the East too...!

While it is mostly sunny, it is much cooler and a little breezy...

About two miles into Idaho, we come around a long curve on Interstate 84 around milepost 109, and we see that the ground stretching out to the northeast is black, as is the ground in the island in the middle of the divided highway. We were surprised because we did not recall seeing this on our way South. Patty rolled down the window to take a few pictures of the blackened earth and we could really smell the freshly charred range. After taking these photos, Patty tapped on that new iPhone she loves so much, and after a quick search we learned that this range fire occurred yesterday at about 11:30 AM. It burned approximately 250 acres, and the highway was shut down from noon to 12:30 while the BLM crews battled the blaze. Eventually the fire was contained by 6:30PM and destroyed one outbuilding on the adjacent farm. Isn't it nice to have the Internet at your fingertips?!

As the miles rolled on, Idaho continued to provide vistas worth capturing in megapixels...off in the distance over the small mountains, you can just see a snowcapped peak which is near Sun Valley...

At about 1:45pm we drive through Boise....unfortunately for Boise, we felt that it was really only worth one photo for documentation purposes...

Another hour and we're into Oregon...and it too provides some great scenery...! This is just outside of Ontario, OR...

The weather is changing, it remIns cool and we see scattered showers all around. Eventually we drive through a shower and ruin our chances at an accurate bug mortality report for the day...

At almost 4:00pm we see La Grande in the distance...our legs (and our butts) begin to rejoice...

For our second night of our return trip, we have reservations at the Eagles Hot Lake RV Park...site 34...Unlike our accomodations last evening, this RV park is situated almost 5 miles from the interstate, a few miles from the nearest livestock yard, no food processing or chemical plants as far as the eye can see, and a good half mile from the train tracks. The scenery of the mountains around us is actually quite nice, and the breeeze carries the scent of freshly cut grass...ahhhh. The sun comes out and it warms up a bit as we get settled in...

Unlike the RV park in Utah, this park is populated by campers and RVers on the move...well, except for this guy who seems to be making this stop a bit more permanent...

Patty had again availed herself of 3G on the move and found a nice little Mexican restaurant in La Grande that good reviews, so we drove into town for dinner at Cinco de Mayo...

Fajitas...!

After dinner, we returned to site 34 and did our photo and blog work for the day. We then took a short walk to check out the RV park which is supposedly situated adjacent to the old Oregon Trail...but when we walked to where the trail is shown on the RV park map we were met by a barbed wire fence with a No Trespassing sign on it...hmmm. So, back to the RoadTrek for a cup of tea, and then we turn in to get ready for our final leg on this journey.

Miles driven: 553.71 (plus a 14 mile round trip for Mexican dinner). Travel time: 9 hours. Bugs killed: not many, though even an estimate Is impossible because a rain shower erased much of the remains...