We Didn't Start the Fire

Day 21:

The whole area around Twin Falls, Idaho is ablaze. As we traveled through southern Idaho in the 100-degree heat, we saw a handful of smoke plumes along the way. As we neared our campground in Twin Falls, I spied four small ones and two really large ones with a quick scan of the horizon. The largest one, to our right (north) as we traveled along the freeway, sported a tall thick column that looked half angry thunderhead and half nuclear fallout. My son reminded me that if it were a nuke we would have rolled quietly to a stop as the electro-magnetic pulse fried all our electronics. Lucky for you blog readers it wasn't a nuke.

The other large one was right in front of us. We joked that it might be our KOA Campground and that we would be spending the night in an air-conditioned hotel room. It wasn't the campground, but it was very close. In fact, we were forced off the freeway (luckily on the exit we needed to take) when the Idaho State Police closed it due to the fire.

I've decided that anyone growing up in California has been seriously deprived when it comes to clouds. We just don't get them. Everywhere we've been on this trip, big white fluffy clouds have been part of the sky, providing intermittent shade, the hope of some rain, and some really spectacular formations. The person who first coined the the phrase "not a cloud in the sky" didn't come from California. It's just not an interesting statement out here because it's *always* like that. Chalk one up for the rest of the nation.

We started the day by driving through Grand Tetons. We didn't stop, so all of my shots were from a moving car. I've come to realize that I love mountains the best of all natural features. I just don't think I can get enough of them. That's a good thing, too, because our driving route later took us up and down 10% (I kid you not) grades as we crossed the Teton pass. We even managed to do another pass, whose name I forget, with a measly 7% grade. For the 10% grade, I put the pedal on the floor on the way up and the van only hit 35 mph.

The big news for today is that we're headed home. Not in the "in-the-general-direction" sense, but truly driving home. The trip will be about 10.5 hours on the road and should get us home around 8pm. I can't wait to get back to unconfined spaces and a comfy couch. Hopefully the cats haven't torn up the place too much.

Highlights:
1. Some pretty cool unsettled weather. First, it was just plain hot (100 degrees), then it was hot with a wind so strong that it was pushing me off the freeway. Within a half mile, the wind turned 180 degrees and was now trying to push me off in the opposite direction.
2. The Kabin is pretty nice. Lights, air conditioning, ceiling fan and power.
3. We ate at Chilis last night. Seems like we're almost home.

Quirks
1. The Idaho State Police have mostly black cars with a swoosh of white painted on the side. I think of skunks when I see them.