Goodbye, Oregon. What a day. We had a blast visiting with my folks and family in Bend and spent the night with our good friends Scott and Jane before hitting the road Friday morning. We sauntered through our old stomping grounds of Prineville and saw our old house before putting the Cascade Mountains in the rear view mirror and skedaddling across my favorite stretch of Oregon road: Highway 26 from Prineville to Vale. It's such a gorgeous drive. Piney forests with mountain streams, lush valleys, little hamlets like Dayville and Monument and Mitchell...we had a great stop at the city park in John Day and played in the sprinklers. Great memories.
We drove to Fruitland, Idaho, and had dinner with our friends the McKinneys. We also gained our first Wiffle ball converts. We busted out the Wiffle ball and bat and threw some batting practice. When we left Curt said he was going to buy some Wiffle balls and bats for his family get-together this Sunday. We left their casa about 7 o'clock and made hay for Utah. I have a few observations. First of all, I hereby proclaim metropolitan Jerome, Idaho, as the "I-84 Odor Capital of the Universe." Poor Ezra. He got blamed for more "personal hygiene issues" in his diaper than what should be legally allowed. I do believe that the number of cattle feedlots and dairy farms in metro Jerome exceed the allowable limit. My next observation has to do with roadkill. Let me put this out to the deer in Utah: Stay off the freeway. The speed limit in Utah is 75 mph. You should see what happens to a deer when it gets hit at 75-80 mph. It's not pretty. On the other hand, the practical side of me says it might be good to pick up the shredded venison off the highway shoulder and put it in a crock pot with some seasoning and barbecue sauce. I bet in 6-8 hours Bambi would be a wonderful "pulled venison" type of meal.
Anyways, we snuck into Utah in the dark of night and laid low in a hotel in Ogden, finally arriving at 12:30 a.m. on Friday. I just have to watch myself in Utah. You make yourself seen in Utah with 11 kids and you're liable to be known as a Mormon. All in all we covered about 640 miles or so. Not too shabby.
No comments:
Post a Comment