Day 37 (Friday 7/27/12)- Yellowstone, WY

After enjoying yesterday thoroughly enough to be exhausted, we needed a down day. We therefore spent the day at the campground, luxuriating in the sun on our skin, the freedom from the van, and the lack of demands on our feet. We read and we relaxed. We further exploited the sun to heat soup on the dash, which turned out to be quite a treat, as we added to it various vegetable and an assortment of spices.
In the afternoon the thunder started (from Teton canyon, WY to Bozeman, MT there was maybe one lightning/thunder free day). A light thunder at first, which soon grew bolder. We saught shelter in the van and tried to guess when the rain would descend-Isaiah was closest. It didn't last long and we were soon back outside. (We've enjoyed the sky shows but it's kind of a hassle to know at somepoint in the 90 degree day, you're going to get rained on. It makes packing for a hike a bit more cumbersome).

During the storm two mysterious guys pulled up on motorcycles. Both camping sites were already occupied so we found it odd that that were hanging around, unlike all the other people who had come and gone finding the campsites full. We also found it a little unnerving that they were brave enough to be biking around in a thunder storm, mistaking their bravery for unsavoriness. As the evening went on Isaiah got a chance to talk to them and all our initial impressions were shamed. We were to get further schooled on the unreliability of fear.

Not only were these two guys incredibly nice but extremely generous as well. They invited us over for marshmellows on tea biscuits (no chocoloate between either tent) and we gladly excepted. We learned that Miles was taking his brother Frankie on a 12 day trip (delayed due to a broken bike part and cut short due to a scheduled visit to Jersey) to celebrate his graduation from high school. In talking with them over the next few hours we learned that Miles has been leading a very adventurous life as a traveler, most recently spending 6 months in Guatamala. His passion about traveling and his generosity in sharing every bit of their motorcycle space restricted two day food supply (Seriously a 3 course meal-spagetti that thoroughly crushed my soup, dessert, and refreshments)(An offering of smores is all the more kind when a bag of marshmallows sets you back 6 bucks. Damn you Jackson Albertsons) was very inspiring.

We had a great time hanging out around the campfire. We watched the video they had recorded following the storm as a resulting double rainbow emerged and their emotional commentary on its cosmic significance. We shared stories, opinions and spirit. As Miles said there is a commonality in travelers and we formed a bond quickly. Traveling has given Miles much wisdom. He talked about fear being a form of bondage and, generally, a bad forecaster for reality. He shared about enjoying what you have as others have less but a better appreciation and perspective and (with a few exceptions) there being no excuses for not being where you want to be. Miles and Frankie were our double rainbow.

Miles, Isaiah and Frankie

(Sorry for the shirt internet creepers. 

I didn't want to cause Frankie any body image issues. 

Plus my abs were sore from grating cheese for our soup)

 

Day 36 (Thursday 7/26/12)- Yellowstone, WY

Yellowstone is amazingly home to 2/3 of the worlds geysers. Today we hiked the Biscuit Basin trail in Yellowstone which takes you along many of the park's geysers and at the end Old Faithful awaits. Trying to time things perfectly and see all of the geysers erupting (with vague clues like "may erupt between 2p and 6p) is near impossible but we still saw some breathtaking sites along the way.

One of my favorites was the Morning Glory geyser pool that had a distinctive green tint to it. As Isaiah explained (from the sign he read) the pool is green because idiotic tourists throw things in there. Though it makes for a cool color it is also frustrating how some people have to ruin things. We did see a couple of the geysers erupt along the path and of course the mother of all eruptions was Old Faithful. Around 2:50p she erupted,spraying water high enough into the sky that it looked like it touched the clouds.

After getting back to our campsite we settled in for the evening.

One of the geyser pools (not the sky)

One of the geyser pools

A geyser pool with a tree growing out of it

One of the geyser pools

Old Faithful

Morning Glory geyser pool

Day 35 (Wednesday 7/25/12)- Yellowstone, WY

We woke up early this morning and drove from one free campsite to another, this one actually within the Grand Tetons National Park. The free campground is made up of 14 "primitive" sites (I use quotations as the only thing primitive about them was a lack of a water spout, otherwise it was the cleanest smelling National Park toilet yet) that are fiercely competitive, but we had the good fortune to find a great spot.

We spent the morning and some of the afternoon relaxing, eventually setting up our tent and then deciding to head out into Yellowstone. I should mention that the Grand Tetons National Park boarders Yellowstone National Park and the campground is pretty close to the border between both. We first drove to the Grant Village Visitor's Center and saw a ranger talk regarding the park's wildlife like bull moose and elk, pronghorns, big horned sheep etc. We drove a little further along and then decided to do something spontaneous.

Justin Townes Earle, the son of legend Steve Earle was playing a free concert in Jackson that night. Around 3:30p we got a wild hair and drove the 77 miles to Jackson to see the concert and also do a much needed stocking up of supplies. The opening band played for an obnoxiously long 2 hours before Justin finally came to the stage, but it was well worth the wait. Justin is an incredibly talented musician, with a funny and unique stage presence and was a great joy to watch perform. (Though it was odd to watch basically a small club acoustic show outdoors before a large and drunk and vocal Jackson crowd).  We regrettably had to leave before the concert finished and still didn't make it back to the campground until 11:30p.

Justin
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vf9lvU8_JUo


If you have any interest in folk country check out
Steve Earle
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Rlskql46Tg

and Justin's namesake- Townes Van Zandt
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JGc2CvM0EQ

Justin Townes Earle

View at dusk

Day 34 (Tuesday 7/24/12)- The Grand Tetons, WY

On Tuesday mornings the Jackson Historical Society offers a free guided tour of downtown at 10:30a. We joined our local tour guide and listened to story after story about the town's fascinating history. One that was particularly amusing dealt with the town's origin when it consisted mostly of rowdy cowboys. Rowdy despite prohibition. Drunk despite prohibition, having stashed whiskey in their post office boxes. The cowboys would sneak down and take their swigs before returning upstairs to the well attended dance party. The townsfolk would come to dance too and would lay their children in baskets under tables so they could, as they said back then, "bust a move." Gambling being also illegal, the cowboys rather than shuffling cards shuffled the babies around. These days people come to town square for the tour, in the early days people came to figure out where their baby went and who's baby it was they had taken home.

Another noteworthy story was how in 1920 the city of Jackson elected an all female city council. This was of course a first for it's time. Even more interestingly the top vote getters were the wives of prominent businessmen who were also running...against them, their own wives. In the end the people elected the women because of their community oriented ideas and care about social issues whereas the men were concerned mostly with business.

We spent the rest of the day driving through Grand Tetons National Park. The Grand Tetons is so named because of crass French explorers who came upon the area and declared that it looked like three breasts and so "Tetons" was born. The park boasts several historic sites, consistently beautiful views and, most of all, a plethora of wildlife. Stopping at Cathedral of the Heart, we came upon two elk grazing nearby. Seeing this, after visiting the elk free elk refuge, we were sure that this would be the peak of wildlife viewing. We were wrong...

In the afternoon we drove past a ranger with a mega phone and a determined look. As we got closer we realized that we were first on scene to view a black bear roaming in the hills. We were able to get some pictures from a far (legally you cannot be within 100 yards of a bear at any time) before the swarms of fellow onlookers arrived. (The look of determination proved to be the ranger's determination to yell at every moron, who seeing the crowd and being curious decided it was a good idea to put their car in park in the middle of the highway).

Now certainly this has to have been the highest point in wildlife sightings today, right? Wrong again...

As we drove back down the highway we saw a huge herd of buffalo right along the road. Stopping to take photos we got some great shots of these majestic creatures and considered ourselves very lucky to have gotten so close to them. At the time we didn't have any idea that the best would be within the hour. As we drove back down Antelope Flatz to our campsite there were more buffalo. In the middle of the road! We had to park (you are not a moron if you park your car in the middle of the road under these conditions) and wait over 20 minutes before they mosied back into the field. In the mean time we got some really excellent shots. Along the drive back down the long road we also got pictures of  Pika and spotted some quickly moving grouse.

View from Cathedral of the heart church

View in Grand Tetons

Elk Grazing

Black Bear roaming in the woods

View from historic cabin

Buffalo in the road

Buffalo next to our van

Pika

Day 33 (Monday 7/23/12)- Jackson, WY

I slept in really late again, apparently I am making a habit of it. Since we started off so late we didn't hike up the full extent of the Teton Canyon trail as the mid day sun was fierce. Our other incentive for ending the hike early was to make it to Jackson, WY in time to catch the show at the town square.

Before it got started we explored the Jackson Hole visitor's center which had some exhibits and a movie about the area. It also serves as a huge Elk Refuge. We were told the elk come to the refuge in the winter and we wouldn't be seeing any in the summer season. We then walked around the small, charming tourist town ending up in the towne square. There, with the exception of Sundays, the local playhouse hosts a shootout at 6p. We watched a crook mayor kill the sheriff. Then outlaws attempted a coup. After the dead had been counted and the children in the audience wiped the fear from their faces  while we headed to check out a possible lead for the night.

Any time you hear the word "free" it is always wise to use caution and so we drove to the "free" campground with hesitation. On Antelope Flatz road outside of Jackson there are several things to see. Lucky for us this was also the location of the campground. We drove by Mormon Row which was home to a community of Mormon settlers in the later part of the 1800's and is now home to a large collection of free roaming bison as well as many friendly little pika's (groundhog-esque). There are several houses still standing and is definitely a place to see. As you continue on the pavement turns to gravel but does indeed lead to a free campground as promised. Though by campground we mean unmarked field with no water, fire, or bathrooms. It did, however, have some of the best views in the whole park. After apparently annoying the entire campground as I, with all the windows down, loudly relished having a phone again, we tried to drift off to sleep. Unfortunately between the mosquitoes that had gotten trapped in the van and the dash at midnight to find an appropriate place to unburden our bladders it was a restless night.

Shoot out in Jackson

Shoot out in Jackson

Sunset in the Tetons from our campground

Day 31 (Saturday 7/21/12)- Arco, ID + Idaho Falls, ID

After a restful night's sleep (I don't know why the lack of a police presence at the rest stop reassured us, having first tried to insinuate ourselves into the town of Ketchum at night on a back road behind a theatre only to have a cop circle around. Come to think of it, a teenager or two must have stopped there) I took the liberty of taking my time in the family bathroom at the rest stop as this allows privacy for washing hair. We then headed out to see the coolest thing in Idaho (in our humble opinion, of course). The Craters of the Moon National Park is a very special place and a definite must see. Though in Hawaii you can view many spectacular lava fields, this one is unique. All of the volcanic activity at Craters of the Moon happens underground where it oozes to the surface through the "Great Rift," a ridiculously long fissure where the lava escapes. The last eruption happened over 2,000 years ago and they are due anytime for another occurrence. A ranger explained how Craters of the Moon was created and had me almost peeing my pants as I helped demonstrate what underground pressure build up would look like when it explodes to the surface (Thus, were it not for her impressive self control, demonstrating twice what underground pressure build up would look like when it explodes to the surface)  (To clarify: I was holding a canister full of liquid that exploded unexpectedly).

Our next stop was more a cultural experience than a sight worth seeing. Arco was hosting it's Atomic Days and the whole little town was out in full force, though that amounted to three coed softball teams, a grease pit on wheels, and some sort of wizardry school fronting as a dessert booth. Though the horse shoe pits were packed. I enjoyed a strawberry cheesecake/cake batter snow cone (that's right) and Isaiah choked down a burrito (I determined they have a preformed food sphere that they scoop from their garbage disposal that can be placed, your choice, on either tater tots, tortilla chips, or wrapped in a "breakfast" burrito-like all culinary and digestive rules are void during breakfast time) before we left the town of Arco behind. Once the bad karaoke started we had had our fill. An interesting side note is that Atomic days is a celebration of Arco being the first town where atomic energy was used for electrical power and not bombs (they celebrate by eating potentially radioactive slushies).

Rounding out our busy day we ended up in Idaho Falls. We found three things exceptional about Idaho Falls. The first is that a free golf cart service actually drives you to and from the library parking lot to it's front doors (we couldn't help but laugh about how close the library and it's parking lot are from one another but we rode the cart anyway).

The second is it's incredible falls are right in the middle of town. I know what you are thinking: thank god Idaho Falls actually has falls, right? The third is a family we met from Idaho Falls who will be mentioned in tomorrow's blog.

Safe for the night at the Idaho Falls Walmart.

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon

Idaho Falls

Idaho Falls

The bench says it all

Day 32 (Sunday 7/22/12)- Alta, WY

Today we crossed from Idaho Falls, ID into Alta, Wyoming. Teton Canyon and its campgrounds were our destination. The road into them is bumpy, but the campgrounds are nice, though primitive. The morning started out with sunshine flanked by blue sky. While I enjoyed scrapbooking, Isaiah took a swim in the creek.  Yet the fun did not last the day. Sometime after noon the sky took a turn towards dark gray and we scurried to save scrapbook pages and the Wyoming map from getting soaked. Another smart move was gathering up all the left over firewood from the campers before us and storing it safely under our tarp. Most of the day was spent hunkered down in the van listening to the menace of thunder and watching lightening streak the sky.

In the early evening the storm had passed and we able to venture out once again. Before the trip we had every intention of doing a campout with someone who could teach us some outdoor skills, namely how to start a fire. In our busy preparations and excitement to leave this never happened. We decided to attempt a campfire in the Tetons anyway just for the experience and the potential of real cooked food. 
When we determined the campsite next to us wasn't carrying a vendetta for our taking wood from their camp (they had a pickup bed full of wood, so our hoarded scrap wood was from the previous campers) we made friends of them and they made campers of us. While Isaiah was working on a boyscout twig tepee type system for the fire the neighbor, being, as we were to find out, a safety expert, ran over and doused the shy and small flame..with lighter fluid. That did the trick. We had thought that cheating, but he being also an ex military man and fire fighter, why question his methods.

He then not only lent us his axe but taught us proper form. It turns out that Isaiah and I did a decent job of chopping though we didn't end up making much more than kindling in the end. (If you scoff at the picture, the expert woodsman gave the log a dozen thwacks, and the equivalent of a wwf body slam, before advising us we should just throw the whole trunk in). The couple was lovely and from Idaho Falls. We were lucky and they were kind. In the end he gave us the gloves off his own fingers. It was a really great experience to be able to keep the fire burning on our own and cook noodles, hashbrowns and smores over the open fire. We had such a warm fire blazing that we were able to share embers with another camper who had forgotten his lighter.

If again you are scoffing at the pictures, I should clarify they were taking during the fire's infancy. It lived for 6 hours before we smothered it with water. In that time it ate up 4 logs of the size seen in the photos.
We enjoyed the rest of the evening in front of the fire and under the stars. Since the thunder and lightning storm had been so unpredictable we stayed in the van for the night.

Our first solo campfire

Isaiah cooking dinner

Isaiah chopping wood

A blur of wind aka Amanda chopping wood

Day 30 (Friday 7/20/12)- Boise, ID + Ketchum, ID

We thankfully left Boise on a high note. The morning was spent at the "Old Pen" also known as the Old Boise State Penitentiary. Our fantastic tour guide Bob had been the warden's son from the 1920's to the 1940's and had lots of first hand experience to add. We walked all around the large grounds and saw many different buildings including the maximum security cell block, the dining hall (before it was mostly lost to a fire set during a riot a year before the prison closed in the 1970's), the isolation cells, the courtyard where 6 hangings took place as well as the executioner room within the death row section and the laundry room to name a few. The tour lasted almost two hours and we learned so much that it's not possible to share it all therefore we must recommend you also take the tour...then get the hell out of Boise.

A fascinating side note that Isaiah brought to my attention is that the oldest prisoner (he died at age 88) was also the same one convicted to a life sentence for killing the Boise governor we mentioned on Wednesday. He became very religious and was mostly given free reign of the place.  He was offered release, but having spent his whole life inside, he decided to die there as well.  Our tour guide spent a lot of time with him as a child.  We also learned that the youngest prisoner housed there did so at the tender age of 10 years having been convicted of murder (not so tender after all). Kids were sent away, but, it turns out, only 2 or 3 out of 15 women who had committed murder received sentences over 3 years. Even though it's not part of the tour make sure to check out the women's building and the arms exhibit as well (the women's building has lots of information about the 22 women housed in the prison and the arms exhibit displays and provides information on weapons  throughout history). For a total of $5 you can see all that. With the exception of the free museum day in Seattle, that was the best museum deal we have found so far. 
(I've been dubious of "Scared Straight" programs and their efficacy, but after the tour and hearing of the prison's dungeon wherein prisoner's were locked up, underground, in 4x4x4 cages and, if they were good, given one meal of bread and water a day and sometimes were kept in this condition for years (or until they went crazy.  And they went crazy.) I swear that I will never, ever murder anyone in 1887)
(We also found out that they were using the dungeon secretly into the 1960's.)
Each time we have any length of a drive ahead of us Isaiah is careful to plan out a different a scenic route. This afternoon we drove Highway 20 into the town of Stanley. The sign said population 65 but we saw probably a 1000 people as the town was preparing for it's annual craft fair. It is also situated in the middle of the Sawtooth National Forest which, according to the man at the visitor center, is the largest National Forest in the lower 48 states. We stayed in town for a little bit but had missed the majority of the excitement and most things were closed (at like 4:00 in the afternoon) so we kept driving, this time along Highway 75.
Our next stop was the towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley. Most of our time was spent walking around the beautiful downtown of Ketchum, boasting many different but expensive shops, lots of restaurants, beautiful gallery artwork and a mind boggling visitor center. Though we of course did not patronize the expensive stores or restaurants we did stumble upon an incredible completely bronze statute of a Native woman (was looking for it, having seen a picture of it in a guide book, and having given up and returned to the car found that we had parked right in front of it the whole time) and found the town's visitor center in the middle of a Starbucks, which consisted of a bank vault converted into a Ernest Hemingway shrine.

Ernest Hemingway is known well to the towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley because he wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and also committed suicide here. Affectionately known as "Papa" to his friends and family he is a legend in the town. Though beloved "Papa" reveled in too much whiskey drinking, hunting and gambling for that persona to be true. We visited his grave in the Ketchum Cemetery which is marked by pennies, dimes and bottles of booze.

A rest stop with a single stall bathroom kept us for the night and you know what that means...we could wash our hair!   -A

Old Pen

Old Pen

Solitary Cell (yep it's that narrow!)

Locked up (Literally, the tour guide thought it was funny)

Tour Guide Bob demostrates a hanging

The "Battle Ax"

The "Idaho Kid"

Isaiah and Ernest

Bronze statue in Ketchum

\

Ernest Hemingway's grave

Day 29 (Thursday 7/19/12)- Boise, ID

I must have been tired because when I finally woke up Isaiah asked me to guess what time it was. I could have slept in even longer because though we had some fun last night, today was mostly a bust. We stopped at the library and enjoyed air conditioned blogging/researching but then tried to venture out and ran into trouble. The first issue was trying to tour the Old State Penitentiary "Old Pen" and finding out that the last guided tour had already ended because they rely on volunteer guides. You can do a self guided tour but we have found that if you can do a guided tour you definitely should.

We then tried to visit the Basque Museum and found it was closing. Boise has a history of being home to a large amount of Basque people (from an area that reaches from northeastern Spain to southwestern France- take that with a grain though because I got it from Wikipedia and not the museum). The Basque market across the street however was very welcoming and we generously accepted their offer of free wine samples. Very good wine but at $8 a glass it was too expensive to give as a gift, sorry. (It might not have made it to the mailbox anyway.)

After that we walked around for a bit, but the heat was severe and we had already walked much of Boise the night before. Uncle Rich was right about not liking Boise. It does have cheap drinks and a couple things to see but overall it's disappointing. Finally, a restful night at the Walmart.   -A

(Random pic showing the death of interesting sights in Boise. Props to Ol' Dirty Bastard, aka Dirt McGirt, aka Osirus, aka Dirt Dog, aka Big Baby Jesus)

Day 28 (Wednesday 7/18/12)- Emmett, ID + Boise, ID

We spent the majority of our time in Emmett with Aunt Bonnie and Uncle Rich, enjoying home cooked meals, all the chocolate candy bars and cookies I could eat and all the Moutain Dew Isaiah could drink.  Even a SHOWER! We also had some learning experiences. Bonnie and Rich have been married for over 2 decades and are clearly still crazy about each other. We saw "love is patient, love is kind" in action.  I know that when we are on 5 hours of sleep we aren't so nice to each other.  It was clear they have some excellent communication skills. We also learned a lot about self determination from Uncle Rich's stories of his past. Hearing how, despite his childhood tribulations, he made a dramatic and positive change in his life, was truly inspiring.
After Uncle Rich had searched the entire home for any possible thing he could give us, made sure our van was in perfect shape (he is incredibly gifted with anything mechanical- cars, electronics, steel work...you name it) we were ready to head to Boise.

On wednesday nights Boise holds free outdoor summer concerts at the Grove Plaza. We got to hear the Black Lillies who were great, though I did take a nap through most of it. It was a crowded event with a small fountain in the middle of the plaza. After all the children had left I took my turn cooling down from the 90 F heat (lucky for us last week was 105). We walked around the town of and stumbled upon $1 beer at one of the local bars. We stopped in to cool down on some Budweiser and Rolling Rock and eat our fill of free popcorn.

Afterwards we continued our walking tour of the downtown area and found some cool artwork like the light river sculpture on the side of the Grove Hotel. We also saw a statue of a former  governor who served from 1897 to 1900. The strange thing was that he was assisinated...in 1905, five years after he was governor.

Though Boise is a college town it just doesn't have the same charm as Missoula, MT  or even the charm Corvallis holds for us. We got, despite the heat, a decent night's sleep at the Walmart.     -A

$1 beers at a bar in Boise

Capital Building in Boise

Lighted river sculpture on side of Grove Hotel

View of inside of water wheel within C.W. Moore Park

Day 26 + 27 (Monday 7/16/12 & Tuesday 7/17/12)- Emmett, ID

Foolishly we tried taking over the cat's bathroom when we set up camp in Uncle Rich and Aunt Bonnie's living room.  The cats took this as a direct threat and acted accordingly. Around 2am we woke up to Misty hysterical, persistent, and loud (the cat nip must have worn off) and when we got home in the afternoon Tempest had peed on our bed. Luckily for us Uncle Rich and Aunt Bonnie were happier to have us here than the cats. They took us out for lunch at the Idaho Pizza company and we made good on the all you can eat and won hearts and minds in the process. (or at least filled stomachs)

For the first evening Bonnie took us with her and her friend to Bingo. Though it's hosted at the Senior Center people of all different ages were there Monday night hoping to be the lucky one to take home the big prize. No one in our group did win but Bonnie has won the big prize three other times (its $500!) and we were fascinated to see the determination of the serious long time players. (Bonnie played 6 Bingo cards while still being observant enough to notice I had missed a number). We were a little worried to actually take home some money as "newbies." Apparently that happens a lot and doesn't sit well with the crowd. Threats were made. "Lucky" for us we were big losers, but enjoyed the new experience and people we met.

We spent most of the day on Tuesday learning about Rich's Moulage techniques (extremely realistic fake injuries to help emergency personnel train for disaster response) (the equivalent of a personal extra large meat lovers pizza almost escaped on viewing a teenager who had, by appearances, taken a belly flop onto a table saw), viewing Bonnie's elaborate and incredible quilting patterns, meeting a very passionate libertarian neighbor, trying to make up for lost sleep (for some reason Rich, Bonnie and Isaiah couldn't fall back asleep after 4am) (not sure if it was nightmares over the One World Order globalists who are poisoning our food supply and grooming puppet presidents to turn us into deformed corpses or cashless slaves or the half of a boy and his saw blade belt buckle) and learning about the generous spirit of our family as Uncle Rich tried to give us every possible tool we could need for the van/survival/you name it and Aunt Bonnie finding gift cards and other treats to make our day.

I also discovered that there is much more of a town in Emmett, ID than I ever dreamed. (Though Emmit is only large in the sense that Amanda, on her previous exploration of the town, turned the wrong way and missed 3/4ths of it and has now found it has magically quadrupled in size. It was assured to us that the number of restaurants had not duplicated 10fold in the 3 years she's been away). In the evening we had delicious shishkabobs and a jam session (Uncle Rich can also shred a mean axe).  -A

                        Uncle Rich and the helicopter he made

Day 25 (Sunday 7/15/12)- Pullman, WA + Emmett, ID

In Pullman, WA there are three breakfast places, two of which are crappy. Lucky for us Sara took us to the third which is not only better by comparison but just plain good. The European restuarant has a three page breakfast menu, friendly staff and delicious traditional food. Skip the Austrian coffee though, it's like a hot chocolate gone wrong. After saying goodbye to Sara, her cats and all of Pullman we headed out of town.

We stumbled upon the Nez Perce National park visitor's center. The Nez Perce tribe of Natives initially had over a million acres over four states. When Lewis and Clark first arrived they named them the Nez Perce tribe though it is actually inaccurate since these Natives never had pierced noses as the term implies. We arrived just in time to hear a ranger talk about the history of cradle boards which are used to carry their children and are a huge part of the tribe's culture. Throughout the center is Native artwork and a fantastic collection of Native artifacts from pipes to tools, clothing to head dresses.

The rest of the day was eaten up by the long drive to Emmett, ID which is near Boise. Though there were beautiful parts of the drive and we got out and walked around and enjoyed the country side.  My uncle and aunt generously welcomed us into their home and we quickly settled in for another night of vanless sleep.   -A

At Sara's house in Pullman

Sara and Isaiah

Day 24- Pullman, WA + Troy, ID

                                      Saturday 7/14/12
We woke up this morning not to the sound of cars passing by or the feeling of needing to stretch our bodies beyond the limitations of the van but instead to quiet and comfort. Without the same rush to quickly brush our teeth before someone realizes we haven't made a purchase we were able to ease into the day. After reading a few Sherman Alexie poems (incredible), doing laundry (a god sent) and eating breakfast (out of bowls) we headed off to explore Washington State University. Sara did her graduate program there and gave us a tour of the football practice field, the top of the library and some strange art. The frosting on the cake was getting to see the bear research and conservation facility. This facility is home to up to 10 orphaned bears at a time who have come there for all kinds of reasons including not getting along well with others. Since the weather was humid the bears we did see were more content to lounge than pose for pictures.

Next we headed to Moscow, ID for the farmer's market. A very popular and surprisingly affordable place to spend your Saturday, the market boasts vendors of every kind including a woman making bars of shampoo and acne/mosquito repellent/sunscreen. For people watching we did not get to see as many gun racks as we had hoped but there was a terribly awful banjo player and several mohawks.

Speaking of mohawks and awful banjo players we drove next to Troy, ID for Troy Dayz (yep spelled with a "Z"). Troy Dayz features a parade of old cars (not just classic but also dirty), a bouncy castle, a first aide station run by a guy smoking, a cloud of onion ring smell filling the air which was nicely complemented by the blaring banjo music. Within the town there are two restaurants and we decided to patronize the one not formerly affiliated with meth sales. At the Filling Station cafe the food was good and the staff friendly though Sara did mention it seems to be a little hit or miss on actually getting the food. Even with the appeal of lawn mower racing and buffalo chip tossing we took a nice walk around the outskirts of Troy instead. Though we didn't see a mama bear and her cub as Sara had once we did encounter a squirrel that seemed to be both chattering and shrieking at us at the same time.

Back at the homestead we lounged like bears and laughed like the squirrel in the tree. And we had cake.

*Written in collaboration with Sara and Isaiah- A

The WSU library

The WSU library

Sign at Bear Facility

Hot bear resting in the shade