The mood heading home from vacation is so different from the excitement of starting out. The distances seem longer; the scenery seems to change more slowly.
We're coming back a different way. I don't care to see the plains of southern Idaho ever again!
We traveled today from Grangeville, Idaho, to Burns, Oregon today. The climate got hotter and the landscape more dry and barren. Mr. T indulged my preference of avoiding Interstates so we traveled back roads.
It is amazing how unoccupied so much of this country is! There is so much beauty of all kinds. But we go hours and see only a few outposts. Folks here seem to be farmers and that's hard work. But most of the land just is there--being land. I'm surprised that we have driven along some river all day long--the Salmon River and the Malheur River being the largest.
Eastern Oregon is so sparsely populated. 3000 people live here in Burns and the RV Park manager has lived here 30 years--and loves it. These are not places I would ever fit in--if, indeed, there is a place I could ever fit in. Do most people travel through life--even if they never leave their neighborhood--feeling as if they don't quite fit?
Long stretches of open highway and no little towns will fill your mind with such questions. But no answers--just changing time zones and state lines.
The beautiful big skies and open spaces are soothing after so many closed canyons and thick trees.
Our stay in Burns ended with a grand thunder and lightning show and a great rain. Nothing smells better than rain on desert!
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