To continue where I left off about our last (hopefully) trip to Boise for Megan’s surgeries, uh, where were we? Oh yeah, still in Boise, and headed homeward to Idaho Falls, with David as pilot and Rudy as co-pilot, Megan as sleepy passenger, still sedated from her surgery that morning, and me as front seat passenger fiddling with my iphone.
I captured this picture right off the bat.
One of my abstracts. That iphone is wily. Maybe it just captures a Matisse when it sees it.
We weren’t too enthusiastic about the four-hour drive ahead, having already made this trek three times. I wasn’t in the mood, either, to photograph 40 more trucks and no scenery. So about twenty minutes into our drive, at ‘Mountain Home’ (not ours) David exited off I-84 onto I-20 east to take the ‘scenic route,’ which runs along the southern edge of the Sawtooth National Forest.
We started to climb in elevation.
There was still a lot of snow. But a lot of water, too.
Nice, beautiful water! The spring melt down!
Megan was immediately asleep.
All comfy in the back seat. Well, maybe.
David and I were both exhausted from the crappy night’s sleep we were operating on. I was keeping an eye on him. Hey, is he … sleeping?
He’s fading, for sure. Where are the toothpicks?
Oh, I see now…
Rudy is driving.
Good thing we have him along as co-pilot. I am sleepy too. And busy managing my iphone, which seems hellbent on capturing its own photos. Like this one –
an abstract that defies gravity.
With the shape we’re in maybe we should just pull over and find some lodging for the night. After all, we still have two hundred miles to go. Oh look! Lodging ahead!
Airport Inn? Where’s the airport? Where’s the Inn? Where the hell are we?
Oh here! What does that sign say?
Light Industrial Space Available? Huh? In my head, maybe.
Look there! On the left! Zooming toward us! – you suppose that’s a bed-and- breakfast?
Should we pull over and knock?
No?
Keep driving? We’re driving, we’re driving …
Semi’s approaching us head-on at combined speeds of 150 mph should keep us awake.
Ah! Look!
The Arco Motel! It’s such a rigorous little town, which, where did it go? Oh, it’s behind us now…
Keep driving. We can make it home!
We had to find ways to entertain ourselves. I started fiddling with this:
It was a giant …
barf bag, compliments of St. Luke’s Hospital for the road, in case Megan falls ill from the car motion, combined with sedation. The beauty of this bag is that you can vomit in it and then use the lines on the side of the bag to measure how much you vomited and then write it down. You know, if you’re into that kind of thing.
Rudy is fading now, too.
We’ve lost our co-pilot. He has resorted to lifting his head every so often and gazing at me with his pleading eyes …
as if to say, “Can we please be home now? I’ll even try to get along with that despicable cat, Tee-Box.”
Hey, look there! A cabin! Honey! Pull over!
Looks a little lonesome. You have to take whatever lodging you can get out here in rugged ‘ol Idaho, but why don’t we pass on this one? Like, where are we gonna go for dinner?
Our last chance to pull over and bunk is up ahead, flying toward us … another cabin, a little more rustic
and weather-beaten. It’s available, for sure.
All right so we can make it home. But not until my iphone shoots another abstract of the inside of the car:
What artist is it this time?
We are home now. And Megan is up on her feet.
Yay!
It’s great to be sleeping in our own beds.
I took a picture of the flowering crab in our back yard on April 20, the day after we got back, with our lilacs in the background:
Yes, that’s a flowering crab tree. It’s still ‘sprinter’ here in southeast Idaho.
The Decompression of a Boomer 
April 24, 2010 at 1:39 am |
I loved the picture of Rudy driving! I don’t know how you guys made it back with crappy night of sleep under you belts!