August 25

At Twin Falls, ID where we stayed last night, the elevation is down to 3,745'. We saw green beans and potatoes growing here. We are also beginning to see corn fields again. There have been many wheat fields and we are seeing wheat piled up outside like you see corn in Indiana.

We had to have the car washed because of the soda (mineral) water that got on it yesterday. We went to Rocket Express which they claim is the worlds longest and fastest car wash. Whether or not it is, it did a very good job.

This is a gorgeous waterfall and we were lucky to have the sun at the right angle and see a rainbow. This is the Shoshone Falls just east of Twin Falls, ID.

 This is the Snake River Canyon by the falls. This is where Evel Kenevel jumped the canyon on his motorcycle. That man was totally insane! This is a beautiful area. We spent much more time here looking at the canyon and falls than we thought we would. Ed saw cliff swallows here.

Here we are!











Up river about 5 miles from here are the Twin Falls. A problem is that one of the falls has dried up since they named them and the town. The falls there are much smaller than these. There are two dams there that are used to collect water for irrigation more than for use as electricity. They irrigate 110 miles of canals and irrigate 161,000 acres of land. At times there is not much water left to go down river but there are many springs and tributaries that flow into the Snake River downriver.

This is the Perrine Bridge over the Snake River at Twin Falls. We came into town over it and didn't realize how it was built or what it looked like. I saw a postcard of it at the motel and asked where the bridge was.

We have seen several semis pulling a second trailer throughout Idaho and Oregon. Today we saw one that was a semi loaded with the huge rectangular bales of hay pulling two more trailers.

These burned fields were east of Baker City, ID where we drove for miles and miles seeing this. We were told that the fire had destroyed 15,000 acres and was still burning. The sky had been very hazy all morning. It had burned up to the parking lot of a motel where we stopped. About all that is on the land is the few tufts of dry grass and a few sagebrush. It hardly seems that it would be enough to burn so hot and so far. I wonder if sandy soil burns hotter than our soil?



At Baker City, ID the emigrants left this type country and were looking at the Blue Mountains. Those are more like the Smokey Mountains with a lot of trees, almost all Douglas Fir and pine trees, food, water,etc. The major problem for those who went first in 1843 was that there were no roads or trails to follow so they had to chop down trees to get through. They had a lot of trouble with that because their axes were very dull by then and they had nothing to sharpen them with. The trees started at La Grand.

We saw a gigantic building in Boise, ID that was a Mircron plant. Think the size of Warner Gear except 3 stories high.

We also crossed the 45th parallel where we were halfway between the Equator and the North Pole. It was 17 miles west of Baker City.

Coming down to get to Pendleton, ID we went on a stretch of highway that was 6 miles in length with a grade of 6%. Thank goodness we were going down. Think of the wagons trying to go down that! They probably had a slightly different route but it would have been similar.

Sorry to be so late but the motel internet wouldn't allow me to download pictures.