Jam Packed Day
I should have known this would be a different day when we started out. We were doing all the stuff to get ready to leave (someday I'll make a list) and when we brought the slide in...chugga, chugga...the chassis battery was dead. Seems we forgot to throw the switch to cut off that battery and it died. Fortunately there's a switch to use the house battery to start the chassis. So we did that and, voila, all is well.
I do have to note here that we woke up laughing because it was jujst like "My Cousin Vinny". 4 AM the train whistle blasts and goes off every 20 minutes or so after that. We looked down in the valley and there was nothing there needing a horn blast at 4 AM. I really think conductors do that just for the hell of it :)
Anyway, we took US 93 north out of Wells, NV and it's a really good road (more on that later). Our lunch stop was at Twin Falls, ID where we saw the Snake River in one of its many guises. The Great Bonneville Flood blasted through here causing this gorge. Now there's a golf course beside the river in the bottom of the gorge.
We continued north on 93 through beautiful farmland feeding off the waters of the Snake. Soon we began to see the lava beds of Craters of the Moon National Monument. Jim was getting sleepy so I volunteered to drive. (I usually drive long freeway stretches but this was two lane.) No sooner did I take the wheel than we hit a construction zone. No one does construction like Idaho. They tear up the whole dang road. So I drove 10 miles at 20 mph through this kind of stuff.
But I got through it and decided to finish up the trip. We stopped for gas in Mackay and proceeded to our destination....Mackay Reservoir BLM Campground. Ok...it's not really boondocking since they've remodeled and added water and electric. It is a great spot! With our Golden Passport it's $9 per night.
THIS IS WHY WE DO THIS! All the rest of the day paled in comparison to our evening light show. We've been here before and we've seen lots of sunsets but this was a 360 degree light spectacular. Afternoon mountain rainclouds had gathered and we'd had a shower then about 8:30 the clouds began to break a bit and the sun settled below the clouds. So on the western horizon we had this....
...and on the east side of the reservoir we had this! Golden hills and water!
The sky was literally dripping with color. We had to keep turning around to see what new eye candy was being created by this glorious light.
At 10 PM the last rays of sun were fading and the show ended. Pictures don't do justice to this humbling display. Every now and then it all clicks and we reaffim why we're on the road :).