Tag Archives: road trip

Fifteen Hours? Both Ways?!

“You guys drive FIFTEEN hours in one day to get back and forth between Teton Vally, Idaho, and Half Moon Bay, California?! Who DOES that?!”

Well, for starters, it’s probably people who really love both places. And each other. And in their better moments, they probably remember and remind each other that every day is a gift not to be wasted, so wherever you find yourself, be there.

They have to be willing to soak in that last sunset, then go straight to bed. O’dark:30 a.m. comes sooner than one even expects it might.

And they have play “team driving” well as they push through the black night for a couple of hours, all four eyes straining forward into the dark, searching just beyond the high beams for seriously stupid deer who decide that a highway is a better place to look for grass than, say, the field they were just in.

But once the sun starts to come up…

… and the alien beauty of the generally disdained scrub between Twin Falls and Wells reveals itself…

… you start to settle in and leave the deer to their own stupidity and let your mind and the conversation wander.

Unexpected opportunities for reflection appear through the mist. Sacred moments that ask “what?” and “why?” and “for whom?” of your singular and collective life.

And then the heat burns off the moment, and the light shifts, and you wonder if anyone’s going to believe that you didn’t futz with the saturation of the photo.

And then you’re pretty sure they won’t.

And then you’re certain.

And once you’ve chatted about how to think about new carpeting for the condo, and what gives rise to spontaneous democratic movements, and, do you remember which exit in Elko has the best grassy patch for the dog?… It’s about then that you notice the mid-day clouds clamoring for their turn in front of the lens.

We’ve done the drive dozens of times now, and last week was the first time we’ve ever seen the Hogwarts’ Sorting Hat descend on the mountains, leading naturally to a discussion about which house best suits the various individuals in our wide range of friends and acquaintances. Threads of this type are good for at least 12 minutes, and can be a surprisingly confirming and aligning team-building exercise. (While we had some variety of opinion on the candidates for Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw, we were totally in synch on those we assumed would be sorted to Slytherin.)

And now we’re fully half way there, which is a good thing, since not everybody totally enjoys spending one of their precious days on a road trip. There’s always someone in the back seat asking…

… “Are we there yet?”

Rick and Kathy Visit The Open Road

The road between our two valleys is 900 miles long. This means we have spent a LOT of time on pavement in the last year or so. Yesterday’s post reminded me how many photos I’ve shot in the last year at 65 mph (give or take). so this morning I did a quick zip through the archives with that perspective in mind.

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Truly, there are some magnificent vistas along the way…

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… with sky and water and land that’s so beautiful and changes so quickly you can’t quite believe your eyes.

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But sometimes, it’s just hour after hour of this.

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There are places that are so far away from anywhere that, although the locator app gives assurance that you are, indeed, somewhere, it doesn’t want to speculate on the details.

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There are stretches where it’s mile after mile of these…

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… with a rare shift in artistic impression to relieve the tedium.

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It’s always a highlight when you catch a glimpse of a critter (coyote? wolf? Henny Penny?)…

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… and even cows can gjve you something to do with the camera.

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For instance, I was wild with excitement when we came across this herd next to an off-ramp on the way to a pit stop. For one invigorating moment, I thought they were really large ostriches. In formation. With their school letters proudly on display. In Idaho.

I still don’t know what they are (thrashers? threshers? thrushes?), but I’m pretty clear now they weren’t ostriches.

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In an upcoming post, remind me to tell you about my love/hate relationship with Flying J Travel Plazas. For now, let’s just agree that I took a photo of a sign that advertised bratwurst, and this has meaning.

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Eating is a great way to pass seven or eight minutes.

In the spirit of a public health bulletin, let me say here that attempting to eat a Carl’s Junior Low-Carb burger while driving is the equivalent of texting, flossing, and dropping a lit cigarette between the seats, all at the same time.

Not recommended, unless you’re the one with the camera and find that kind of thing really funny when it happens to someone else.

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Personally, I don’t enjoy having my picture taken after I’ve been on the road for 13 hours, but maybe that’s just me. Rick is a much better sport about that kind of thing.

Note the bare foot up on the dashboard. This is always a clear sign of the onset of NBS (Numb Butt Syndrome), and that I’m likely getting cranky.

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I sometimes wonder if these mark the spot where someone died of boredom.

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Generally, though, we really enjoy road trips and find them great fodder for our journals, blog, and memory bank.

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There’s a ton of good music to enjoy along the way, meandering conversations to start, stop, and rewind, and some stunning scenery to soak in. And at the end of a very long day, there is almost always somewhere to find a pot of gold.

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Or two.