Wednesday, May 23 – to Ontario, Oregon

A bit cool again overnight but nothing as bad as NZ is getting at the moment, hope everyone is safe and keeping warm!  Break camp at 8.45am, it’s now 19C and sunny, warming up as usual.

We were treated to some more low flying small aircraft this morning, the flight plan is directly over us and I swear they skim the trees in the park before landing somewhere yonder.

We get on the I84, the fastest and most direct route between us and the Oregon state line, our goal today.  A few miles into the journey we have roadworks which close both westbound lanes so we share one of the eastbound lanes in the meantime.  We probably travel like this for maybe 20 miles but they are not over-protective like at home, the speed limit does not reduce, or if it does nobody acts on it and the traffic just keeps flowing freely.  However a bit later on we did see a truck in the ditch on the eastbound lanes and that held up that traffic for quite a ways.  We often see the truck drivers (and car drivers) using their phones while driving, the giveaway is the weaving across the lane but the rumble strips seem to sort them out pretty smartly.

So Idaho is famous for it’s potatoes right, we all know that but I think I would draw the line at having that as the by-line on my standard number plate. 

And I love potatoes!!

We pass a huge factory – Jerome Cheese, it has about 60 bays for the big rigs to pull up to for loading up.  We have also seen milk tankers with the same logo on.

Wind farms are visible on the horizon.   Also see a huge bottle of wine in a field!  Fedex must have a hub not far from here as we see a lot of trucks with two trailers coming towards us.  Thought we were going to have to drive through this grain silo! And I must google Hagerman Fossil Beds to see what we missed there.

A huge wine bottle in the wilderness! Have I gone to heaven?

Those trucks must carry a lot of stuff to be delivered!

Hope we don't have to drive through this silo at the end of the road!

Love how the Americans name their towns and cities such cool names, wouldn’t it be awesome to say you live in ‘Bliss’ and if you were a country singer wouldn’t you like to hail from ‘Mountain Home’ – I am sure there is a song about that?  We stopped for milk and fruit here at Mountain Home.

We drove by Bliss!

Just after 1pm we rock up to Malheur County Fairgrounds where we have booked a night.  Our $15  (thanks Passport America for the 50% off) get us 50 amps, a very flat grass parking spot and there are animals to talk to. 

Just one neighbour for now at the Fairgrounds!

My new friends!

It’s hot and sunny so we sit outside until it gets too hot and then we are thankful as once again around 4.30pm we get a single telltale gust of wind, the thunder clouds loom and the temperature drops just a couple of degrees.  We are the recipients of a very gentle sprinkling of rain too.

There is super fast, so fast she is almost flying, squirrel just outside, she posed for the photo then scampered up the tree.  Already downloaded the photos for today so will put it up tomorrow.