The day’s drive was straight east from Rufus, Oregon and our campground to our final stop in Boise, Idaho where we started our journey a whole month ago.

For a time i84 followed the bends in the Columbia River, then as the river turned north, we headed south to a brief stop at a roadside McDonalds at Stanfield for a breakfast muffin, hash-browns and coffee. I cancelled tonight’s planned stop at Pendleton KOA (incurring another night’s cancellation fee) and phoned ahead to Boise to extend our reservation for another night.

Then it was south-east past Pendleton, La Grande and Baker City until we slipped off the interstate and into a nowhere town called Huntington for lunch. I munched on the watermelon we bought in Wenatchee and read on a nearby sign that Huntington’s main industry is concrete making (the nearby town of Lime has a fantastic disused concrete works I wish I could have stopped to photograph).

Lunch and a short nap over, we crossed the border from Oregon into our favourite Idaho and stopped at a rest stop to photograph our first sighting of the Snake River.

Whereas Pink Floyd had seemed the perfect soundtrack in southern Washington state, in Idaho it could only be more country music. Blake Shelton’s new “All About Tonight” EP played on a loop and we sang along loudly as the miles passed by quickly.

It’s amazing how a change of scenery and a change in climate can lift your spirits. Only a few days ago we were feeling cold and more than a little downhearted. Today, even the expected thunder storm over Idaho couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm to be back.

I’d expected to have mixed feelings about returning to our start/end point in Boise earlier than we’d originally planned. After-all, no one wants a holiday to end, let alone one as long and as interesting as this. But as we’d enjoyed Idaho so much during earlier parts of the journey — from Boise to Arco in the east and Wallace in the north — instead of feeling sad, we felt happy. We’ve not only completed our 3000 mile round trip but have ended up in a place that we really like and are looking forward to spending our last fews days exploring Boise in the sun.

Gleesome Threesome

Feed the bears