Boise was fun and uneventful. We hit a few favorite places to eat, got the car tended to & washed, and saw a movie. Ocean’s 8 is entertaining. Not great, but fun enough. Boise was also the coolest, temperature-wise, place we’ve been on the whole trip. Only one of our four days in town hit more than 90 degrees.
Upper-left (part of the country)
Today we made the drive from Boise to Spokane. There are two main routes. The longer of the two takes less time because it’s Interstates all the way. The short way takes longer because it’s more fun. Ok, it’s more fun because it’s more of a back road way to go and thus slower. We averaged 52 MPH over almost 400 miles. We averaged over 70 on other long drives. We also got pulled over for the first time. Fortunately the cute one was driving and we got a warning. And not even a written warning. Whew!
The route today took us through four distinct geographies. From not-far-outside-of-Boise to McCall (ID) you follow the Payette River through forested lands. Very pretty. The road rises and falls, but mostly rises, with lots of twists and turns. Boise is at around 2,500 feet of elevation, McCall is around 5,000 feet.
From McCall to White Bird the trees fall away and the terrain become more mountainous or at least more hilly. You descend to around 1,500 by White Bird. And then it gets FUN. Over six or seven miles you climb an average 7% grade until you reach 4,200 feet. The road twists and turns and the drop-offs are steep. This is the kind of road our car was made for. We passed everything.
From there the terrain becomes high prairie and you enter the Nez Perce Reservation. We had our traffic stop on this stretch. Eventually you drop down to something like 700 feet of elevation and into Lewiston (ID). By now you’ve left MDT and entered PDT. Our fourth time zone.
Leaving Lewiston you climb quite quickly and enter The Palouse. The Palouse is mile
after mile, after mile, of rolling, green hills. They look like sand dunes. In fact, they were formed by the same sort of forces that form sand dunes. They are tall enough to impress but small enough to plant wheat from top to bottom. At this time of year you see three shades; green, dark green and yellow. We’re not sure what the yellow crop is. We forget that whole crop-rotation section from grade school. In a few weeks the hills will turn brown as the wheat matures. The photo here is from the famed photographer Nancy Palouse-y. Hey, the jokes are free. You get what you paid for.
We’ll stay in Spokane for a few days and hang with the grandkids. And their parents. And maybe get the car washed again. And then one last drive, on this trip, to home. It’s unlikely we’ll blog for the next few days.