Very rarely does a ‘travel day’ get its own post – even though most provide new, interesting, beautiful – if not stunning – sights and sometimes unique experiences.   It is always a marvel to us when the landscape is just not what was expected.   And, often we don’t know what the expectation was – but, it wasn’t what was seen?!?!

Idaho – thinking Sun Valley ski area.  So mountains with pine trees – the Sawtooth Mountains – lots of green and cool maybe.  Driving down that panhandle on 95 we got – KANSAS!  Or maybe Oklahoma, Nebraska or Iowa.  But, not Idaho.  Miles and miles of crops – Soft White Winter Wheat, Spring Canola, Spring Green Beans, hay (baled and freshly cut unbaled) – and who knows what else in all those miles of crops.  (How in the world did we know all of these crops you ask?  One kind farmer ‘signed’ his fields!  We aren’t THAT good!)

Wheat fields as far as we could see.

And, just as we were getting used to planted fields instead of pines and mountains – there was a MOOSE munching his way through the wheat field;-)   But than the crop duster buzzed us just a we crested a hill.

Crop duster at work. Missed the better shot of the plane at eye level directly in front of us.

This was one difference from the mid-West – it was hilly.  Which required lots of neat old train trestles – –

Yellow flowered canola crop in the background bordered by Spring Wheat.

Then – BAM – there was the Lewiston Hill.  Thank goodness Magic did not have to take the original road built in 1917 with its steep grade.  But, we still had to get down the 2,000 feet with 20% grades into the Clearwater and Snake River Valley.  Another surprise!   In the valley below lay Lewiston – a steamboat landing and primary commercial center for Idaho miners during their hectic gold rush in the spring of 1861.  Steamboats continued to dock there until 1940 after Columbia (which the Snake flows into)  and Snake river channel improvements made navigation practical in 1914.  And finally a series of locks and dams made Lewiston a seaport, and large scale river shipping resumed in 1975.  YES – a seaport in the middle of Idaho!

Lewiston, ID and Clarkston, WA at the joining of the Snake and Clearwater Rivers.

Driving through the Snake River Valley had its beauty.  (E loves driving beside rivers and mountain streams.)  Our next overnight stop was to be Riggins – on the Salmon River and at the entrance to Hells Canyon, which would be explored EARLY the next morning before it got toooo hot.  HOWEVER – this is what was registered at Riggins – –

So that’s where the Hell’s Canyon area got its name.

What are we back in Phoenix???  I don’t think so.  Not stopping here – Hells Canyon will have to wait!!  Next on the map is McCall.  We know there IS a ski area there and several lakes (not to mention several nice golf courses) – so it must be cooler than this.  Let’s go.  So – McCall it is for a few nights, a round of golf, some down time AND – our reward – ice cream, which is not a unique idea in warm weather.

Long line at Ice Cream Alley.  YES – it was worth it;-)

So – travel days are not just 4 to 8 hours on the road.  They are experiences of new and sometimes unexpected sights that are talked about for years.  (The genesis of this posting is our very first trip in the ‘little’ Navion thru Alabama.  Don’t know what was expected – but it was definitely NOT what we saw.  We loved the tree lined highways – and since it was Spring the trees were all in bloom with beautiful pink, purple, orange and white flowers;-)  Simply beautiful.  Now when there is a travel day like experienced above – even years later our discussion is always – “Just like Alabama – NOT what we expected”.)

Elizabeth & Gary happily reporting from a little bit cooler McCall, ID