In Willie Nelson’s song “On the Road Again” is the line: “going places we’ve never been.” We’re on the road again, but we’re going only a few places we’ve never been. This is our fourth day out and it’s taken this long to get our traveling shoes on. For Andrea, I think part of it is that she was so heavily involved in a project back home that she has had trouble disengaging. And for me part of the problem is that I’ve been on these particular roads so many times that it didn’t feel like getting away until yesterday.
We drove out through the Columbia Gorge on a beautiful day in fairly light traffic. Eastern Oregon was nice until we got south of Baker City, where we encountered wildfire smoke. But by the time we got to Ontario, the air had cleared again. Driving across southern Idaho was all right, but I had scheduled too long of a day. We were really tired by the time we got to Burley. As we turned off the highway, we were enveloped in a huge dust cloud, perhaps generated by the road construction outside town.
On day three we crossed into Utah through land that I have crossed probably more than a dozen times in all seasons of the year. Even with the familiarity, it always pulls at my heart, and perhaps at my soul, too.
Years ago I was stationed on ships for five years, half of that homeported in New York and half out of Seattle. Both ships were 378 feet long – not small but not huge. Out of New York we spent a lot of time in the Caribbean and the Bermuda Triangle, but we also went to the Azores once and one time we just sat out in the middle of the North Atlantic for a month doing oceanographic work. Out of Seattle we spent most of our time in Alaskan waters – the Gulf of Alaska and out the Aleutian Chain.
I remember one of the times when we’d been out of sight of land for about a week and the seas began kicking up, I realized that the ocean didn’t care whether I was on top of it or sunk to the bottom. It gave me a different perspective. I may get all tied up with my day-to-day concerns and worrying about many of the things going on in the world, but there is something larger than that, something unconcerned with that. It steadied me somehow.
I know that some people get that feeling in the mountains or perhaps in the woods, but for me the other place I get it is in the enormous open spaces, where as far as I can see there is just unaltered land with no sign of human habitation other than the road I’m on and perhaps the fence along the edge of the right-of-way. Southeastern Idaho has an area like that. I love it.
Once in Utah, we spent most of the day in and around Salt Lake City. Today we crossed over the Wasatch Range at Soldier Summit. Going north from Price to Vernal, we finally got onto a road I’d never driven before – US 191. It’s a high, curvy road through the mountains. I’m sorry I didn’t know about it when I still rode motorcycles.
This has been a strange trip so far for motels. In La Grande, Oregon we stayed in a familiar motel. It isn’t yet shabby, although it is very, very tired. They said they’re hoping to renovate it soon. We hope so, too, but in the meantime, the housekeeping isn’t keeping up. Once I took my shoes off, I discovered things on the carpet that shouldn’t have been there. I went around and picked up what I could. Even so, we slept well.
The motel in Burley, Idaho was in good shape. We hit the town during the county fair, so the town was very busy. Our room was near the motel entrance, so as people came to check in, leaving their diesel pickups idling out front, it was a little noisy. And then our neighbor in the next room was watching TV loudly at 3 AM. We didn’t sleep as well there.
Then we got to Provo, Utah and found the motel is doing a full exterior renovation. The only entrance was through a side door. I wondered if the fire marshal knew about it – a pretty full hotel with only one small exit. The interior was very tired, but it is scheduled for interior renovation after the exterior. Despite it all, we slept very well.
Then tonight in Vernal, Utah we arrived to a motel also under renovation. Our room is nice, though, and the ongoing work doesn’t seem to be a problem.
Here in Vernal, we went out to dinner. It was very nice and the food was good. Their rotating tap is named He’s a She. We asked about it. The server called it a “queer beer” and is a raspberry beer. She said it’s very sweet. (We didn’t try it.) We asked about the name. She said that when they first came out with it there was some pushback, but the brewery’s attitude was “Well, then just don’t come in.” The young people give me hope.
Travels with Kate 