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Thursday, July 26, 2018.

28,585 miles

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Today was the first time in weeks that I've stayed in one place. Both physically, and probably somewhat mentally.

 

Even though I had to work, there was no getting up at 5am to drive 3 hours (although I did get up at 5a to take that picture of Main Street below, which I believe is actually called Superior Street in Cambridge. But I really wanted to know what a town of 318 people looked like before people started to wake up.), I rolled out of bed and took a shower like a normal person. Lu and Jarrett have a mother in law suite outside their house, that I'm so incredibly grateful to be staying in. It allows all 3 of us to have a bit of normalcy, while having/being a houseguest.

 

After work today, we went to a hot spring in Fruitvale, which I believe was called Starkey Hot Spring. It was pretty freaking amazing, and has obviously been around for a really long time. Visiting is on the honor system, and you sign a sheet of paper, saying that you were there; as I was signing, I felt like I was making some unnecessarily important mark on history or something. It's such an insignificant sign, but an actual, tangible mark that I left in this random corner of Idaho.

 

And the other people that had signed? Why were they were?

 

We swam and drank beers and swam some more, until well after 8pm and we realized how hungry we were getting.

 

It's crazy how late the sun sets, when you're so far west. But somehow, like the picture below (which was taken at 5:42a MST), the sun still rises at relatively the same time.

 

Another crazy thing about the west, that I know I've already mentioned - are the fires. Social activities actually have to be planned around where the fires are, how well they're contained, and how they started (don't worry, there's an app for that!). As we were driving to the hot spring, the skies were clear. Driving home?

 

A HUGE fire had started - scary close to home - and the craziest part? Is that you could see exactly where it started because the dry brush was all ash. The tire tracks around someone's mailbox where someone likely pulled into their driveway too fast, and started a spark, were all too visible.

 

Can you imagine? Checking your mail, and all of a sudden your house, land, animals - everything - is in danger. Planes were dumping fire retardant at strategic spots over the ridge so that it didn't spread in certain directions, and other planes were dumping water. It really gives you an appreciation for the scale of these fires and the operation it takes to get them under control. We pulled over - along with other passersby - to watch for a bit; it's kind of mesmerizing and hard to tear yourself away.

 

But, we had kielbasa for dinner that we had to tend to. So, that want eventually got the best of us...

Done