TORREZ TRAVELS

We drove from Caldwell, ID to Idaho Falls today. It was about 280 miles! That’s way farther than we wanted to drive. Most of it was through desert. I hadn’t realized how much desert there is in the US. It’s not as dry as Nevada desert. There are plenty of ranches and some farms that seem to do very well. We stopped halfway to get a little exercise in a small town called Fairfield. There are only about 500 people living there, but they must have a heart for art. I took pics of the colored glass windows. I liked them a lot.

They had several windows, but these were my favorites.

They also had a metal bald eagle bringing a snake to its nest. The wings are spread to catch the wind, and it turns to face into the wind, like a wind vane.

And they had a great big metal bear with scary claws! The bear and eagle were both made by a town local.

And they had an antique railroad engine.

We also drove past the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. It’s an area of old lava flows. There are cinder cones and lava tube caves. It really does look like major destruction happened there.

The thing that really struck me about this area was how it must have seemed to the pioneers that traveled through here on the Oregon trail. Of course they were traveling with covered wagons pulled by oxen mostly. The small highway we drove on (Highway 20) was first known as Jeffrey’s Cutoff. But the lava was very difficult for the cattle to walk through, and many pioneers wrote of the difficulties in their diaries. Apparently they were not as concerned about comfort as Sterling and I are.