On the 84 - Idaho to Oregon

Spatters of rain on
the windshield remind us that
spring is uncertain

~ carliewired

We set the GPS for Baker City, Oregon and drove out of the campground. “Suzie Q”, as I call our GPS, announced “Take a right onto Highway 84 West and drive 294 miles.” We laughed, knowing that meant we wouldn't be hearing from her again for a long while.

All my shots today, save one, were taken from the front seat of the pickup. Several clusters of wind turbines were visible from the highway. Rain curtains hovered on the horizon all along our route today. We did get a little splash now and then on the windshield, but nothing much overall.

Mid morning a semi truck with a trailer passed us. Once ahead of us on the highway we noticed he was weaving over the rumble strip on the side of the highway and then moving back across the center line. He did this several times. We kept our distance, not wanting to be involved in a crash. D commented that the driver should probably pull over to get some sleep. Soon, we pulled off at Mountain Home for lunch and a shopping trip.

We stopped in the local WalMart to find a small space heater for our travel trailer. We are a bit concerned about cold weather damaging our plumbing system. While in the store I heard a familiar chirping sound. I moved towards the sound as I rounded the end of an aisle. There in the sporting goods department were a stack of containers holding live crickets. The clerk explained that they were used as pet food (for feeding lizards, etc.) and as live bait when fishing. I was quite surprised.

Back on the highway, we soon encountered temporary road signs warning of a wreck ahead. It was not the vehicle we'd met before, but another semi truck and trailer that had crossed the highway from the opposite direction, come across the median and the westbound lanes, through the guardrail, then flipped on its side. Emergency crews were cleaning up. A semi and trailer (shown in my photo) was retrieving the contents of the wrecked trailer. I pondered if we might have been involved in this accident ourselves had we not stopped for lunch and shopping.

We zoomed by Boise, Idaho without incident. Hwy 84 there is 4 lanes in each direction.

My last photo shows the Snake River, once again. This river is a significant tributary of the Columbia River which flows into the Pacific Ocean. The Snake starts in Wyoming, flows west through the bottom half of Idaho, moves north along the border between Idaho and Oregon and finally turns west to join the Columbia in Washington state.