2007 Labor Day Road Trip

August 31, 2007
Ax picked me up from work shortly before 3:00pm ready to set off for Lewiston, ID. We were towing the Valkyrie so Ax would have it on Saturday and Monday. We decided to change out the hitch before we left. Shuck's Auto Supply doesn't carry anything other than a 2" hitch. Now we know not to waste anymore time in there. Turns out U-haul carries whatever you need for towing. So we got a straight hitch and finally left Boise by 4:00pm.

It was right about 4:00pm that we heard the severe thunderstorm warning. It said it was in Marsing, traveling at 20 miles an hour, moving east. "Great, we wouldn't see it."

We passed one forest fire that made a haze that turned the sun red red. From inside the smoke the world looked red. It had the creepiness of the green light that comes before a tornado. (Or the green light that accompanies the Avada Kedavra killing curse.)

As we get to White Bird the sky is getting black. The wind blew dust over the road so thick that you couldn't see more than 10 feet ahead. Fortunately, these areas are short lived. Unfortunately, people tend to stop on the road in these conditions. Not the best idea when clear roads are just ahead and you're on top of a mountain with moving traffic behind you. After the dust came the huge wind gusts. Ax was praying, "Please don't blow the bike over. Please don't blow the bike over." Next, the mud rain... Then, the hard rain that forces you to speeds of about 25 miles an hour. We could see sunshine on the other side of the mountains. It took a while before we finally got to it though. We had a hugh, full rainbow just before Grangeville.

We were driving into the sunset leaving Grangeville. That was a new kind of weird light. Everything was wet and reflective and looked gold in front of us. Ax had to drive with his sunglasses on just to see the lines on the road. Behind us and on either side was dark. We could still see the rainbow, though it was fading. I thought it felt like we were Off to See the Wizard.

We arrived in Lewiston after the storm had blown over.

September 1, 2007
While Ax was teaching, I spent the day trying to figure out why the laptop wasn't picking up a wireless signal, watching movies & shopping at K-Mart. (Did you know there are still K-Marts?) What I didn't know was that there was a Wal-Mart and a JC Penny’s just as close. I guess next time I feel the need to accompany Ax to Lewiston I'll know.

You probably don't have any idea where Lewiston is in Idaho, well it's right next door to Clarkston, Washington of course.

September 2, 2007
We went to a BBQ Saturday evening and got up early Sunday. We were on the road by 7:00am to get to my cousin's wedding in Bozeman, MT at 5:00pm. We arrived at 4:30pm just in time to change into wedding guest attire in the outhouses at the wedding location. The last 2 1/2 miles were on a gravel road, just graded. Hopefully, the bike didn't get a bunch of chips in the paint. (I'll hear about it if it did.)

The wedding was nice, not religious at all, I liked that. Darren and Katie are outdoors people. It was held at Springhill Pavilion. Apparently "A River Runs Through It" and "The Horse Whisperer" both had bits filmed there. I think if you spend any amount of time in Montana, you're bound to find places used for "The Horse Whisperer." My Grandmother's store was used for the scene Robert Redford used a pay phone. They actually added the gas pumps and phone booth to the store's facade.

I actually enjoyed the toasts made at the reception. Everyone seemed to have a good sense of humor and a sense of timing. I think we all know that the timing is everything and it can be painful to listen to toast after toast at some weddings. We left the reception just as the band was about to begin at 8:00pm. The groom, kept a tight schedule. In our wedding experience, we have learned this is a good thing. "Get 'em in, get 'em married, get 'em drunk, get 'em danced, get 'em out."

We had a hotel booked two hours away in West Yellowstone. It took us a little more than two hours driving in the dark, in my Saturn, with the 900lb bike on the trailer and avoiding collisions with large animals. (We don't count the little ones. They're just suicidal and don't cause enough of a bump to be a concern...)

September 3, 2007
We got up at 3:00am and were on the road at 3:30am. Ax had to be in Paul/Burley, ID at 8:00am. If you couldn't guess from comments above, during a lot of our driving this weekend we listened to the last Harry Potter book on CD. We both read it in the first week or two it was released, but have been borrowing all of the CDs from a co-worker of mine, apparently needing to review the entire series. We arrived in Paul shortly after 7:00am. I tried to nap the last two hours of the drive. I think I may have slept 15 minutes at one point. Instead of hanging around the range and waiting for Ax to finish his class or waiting around in Sunshine's (his co-worker) hotel room, I left Ax with his bike and drove the last 2 1/2 hours back to Boise with an empty trailer. It's a lot harder to stick to the speed limit when you're not towing an extra 1000lbs.

I crashed on the futon as soon as I got home. Natasha, our cat, wouldn't let me sleep more than an hour without getting a good snuggle. I wake up quite abruptly when the cat decides to lick my neck and she knows it.

When I finally got up I found "Shaun of the Dead" on TV. It's just hard to look away from that movie. Ax got home about 7:00pm. I still haven't unloaded the car. Guess I should help him unload his bike and deal with the car.