Heading East

Monday, Labor Day, 9:30 PM
This was mostly a travel day. I took I-80 back over my previous route until I got to Wells, NV and then headed straight north into south central Idaho. Endless rangeland and sage covered mountains, passes and green valleys in between under sunny skies made a perfect day to take it all in. I crossed a path we made as a family through Twin Falls some 17 years ago. My daughters’ may recall this as the town where fed-up Dad went out and bought squirt guns to fire into the back seat in an attempt to control endless bickering… I drove further north to Sun Valley and Ketchum which are very ‘tidy’ towns filling well manicured valleys. There is obviously a ton to do there in all seasons. I missed the Labor Day festival each town had put on earlier in the day arriving just in time to see everyone rolling up the sidewalks. The Sawtooth Nat. Rec.Area and the one road through it offered a challenging ride but the sun was going to set before I could complete it and I really didn’t want to be doing mountain passes with the T@B in the dark- especially since I had no set destination for camping. I back-tracked and made the Craters of the Moon National Monument just as the sun set and had enough light to set up camp without backing the T@B into some rocks and tripping over black on black lava that serves as ‘earth’ here. I’ll do some serious exploring in the morning before driving on. Even up here some 300+ miles away and way off the beaten path I’m seeing dust covered ‘burner mobiles’ on the way to their ‘default homes’. I saw a guy come out of a gas station, cleaned up except for his playa encrusted shoes. “Have a good burn?” I asked. “Can’t wait to go back.” he says. “I’m already spending light and putting change in an empty water bottle for next year”
Dinner is done and since Nat. Park Service campgrounds have no hookups I’m going to settle in for a cold (30’s) night with no heater. Ah, nature!