Traveling bees

 

September 16: Tri-Cities to Mountain Home, Idaho

Today was a travel day. We left the Original Pancake House in Kennewick about 10:15 after a wonderful breakfast with our nephew Jared and his two boys, August and Corbin, and our friends Judy and Gary Wagenblast. Judy, a wonderful quilter, brought her latest challenge to share with me. She is making a square a day for the next year. She didn’t get started until July, but she has made up some time and now has enough 3-inch blocks (so tiny!!) to take her through February.

So I included my eclipse photo because today Ken and I traversed the same route that Reagan and I took on August 21 when Reagan and I drove to Baker City to see the solar eclipse. Reagan and I had such a fun time on that road trip. We also stayed with Jared that time, so he has seen quite a bit of his auntie over the past two months. Reagan and I had an unobstructed view of the eclipse from the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center right outside of Baker City. Ken and I drove right by it today, and I remembered what a life highlight that was.

Ken and I drove down I-84 through a smoky haze for much of the route to Mountain Home, Idaho, where we found lodging at the Best Western here. We were pretty tired when we stopped even though it was only around 5:00 Mountain time. The scenery was spectacular much of the way, especially after Pendleton in the Blue Mountains. Rest areas along the way provided information about the pioneers who traveled the Oregon Trail here, and this section of the trail through the Blue Mountains was especially arduous as evidenced by at least one of the area names. In fact, we drove right through Deadman Pass which is located on Cabbage Hill, a treacherous, windy road with double hair-pin curves that indeed resembles the leaves in a head of cabbage. This would not be a good place to drive in the winter! Here is a link to some historical information on Deadman Pass.

We will head out for Salt Lake City tomorrow. In the meantime, Ken is trying to find something relaxing to watch tonight, and he just found the Lawrence Welk Show!

Mosquito Update: Actually this update has nothing to do with insects. I did some research on the Beehive State; I was wondering about whether or not the nickname had anything to do with bees. It does in a way as 🐝 bees are hard-working insects. According to the internet, Utahans say that the beehive symbolizes their positive pioneer values of hard-work, thrift and perseverance. Actually I’d say that Judy is a beehive person as she has 10 more months or about 306 days of squares to complete, but, hey, who’s counting. I also have to give beehive commendation to Jared who keeps up a house, yard, shop, and swimming pool while fathering two busy little boys. We appreciated our overnight with him.