BACK INTO THE HEAT

The terrain is changing dramatically from tall ponderosa pines and dense growth to lava piles and cliffs, then soft hills.  We drive past two beautiful reservoirs that look inviting. The first one has a number of boats pulling skiers or tubers. 

We arrive in the Boise Valley on Hwy 21 and merge right onto the interstate. Interstates are great roadways except when driving a VW BUS! So much traffic – a real change from the peaceful drive over the mountains! And Boise is, well, Boise – a city. We need to refuel but keep driving on a little way before determining when to get off the interstate. A Cracker Barrel billboard helps us decide this is a good time to exit the freeway and a great time for lunch!  We eagerly pull into the restaurant parking lot in anticipation of eating our favorite catfish platter.  We don’t want to go overboard on eating, but we are really hungry, especially since postponing lunch from Idaho City. We determine that if we each order the larger platter with two fillets, we get extra veggies, AND a salad AND the extra catfish for tomorrow’s dinner. A good plan–our appetite is satisfied and we have something yummy for tomorrow! The original icebox in our ’61 Westy Camper has been efficient, especially in the heat and it has just enough room to keep our extra catfish nicely chilled until dinnertime tomorrow.

The Boise valley is warming up, especially in contrast to the cool mountain drive we’ve just had and we are feeling the heat again in our ‘non-air conditioned’ Volkswagen camper as we drive through western Idaho and on into Oregon. Just inside the border at Ontario, we stop at a visitor center for an Oregon map, camping directories, and other interesting visitor guides. There aren’t many options for campgrounds on this side of Oregon. We only have a couple of choices – stop early or drive late. The one option for stopping early is only a short distance up the road. From the map and the directory description, it appears to be on the edge of a reservoir, or at least close; but since we don’t know for sure, and the country we are driving through is quite barren of trees or shrubs or much of anything, we decide it really wouldn’t be much fun if the campground isn’t close to the water, especially with the heat and the wind. Besides, it is really too early to stop.