While getting ready to make french toast for breakfast this morning, we discovered that all our ice had melted and our butter had gone rancid. We made french toast anyway, and after eating and packing up our camp, we drove up the road a bit toward a tiny town called Meacham. I'm not sure if we ever came to the town, or if it just didn't have a centre, but eventually, we happened upon a cafe/general store which sold ice. They only took cash, and the ice was kind of expensive (USD$4/bag), but at least the bags were a decent size. Meacham has a small claim to fame as having been the capitol of the United States for one day, when on July 3, 1923 President Warren G. Harding stopped for a day and participated in the exercises commemorating the eightieth anniversary of the covered wagon migration of 1843 (The Oregon Trail).
After about half an hour of driving, we stopped at a reasonably sized place called La Grande (apparently it used to be called "Brownsville", which would have fit quite well) where we filled up on petrol, road snacks, and coffee. We've discovered a Starbucks drink called a Cold Foam Cold Brew, which is cold brew coffee with ice and frothed milk on top. It's refreshing, and, as a nice change from the rest of American cuisine, doesn't have any sugar in it.
Taking one-hour-each turns at driving, we drove on to Boise. Along the way, Katie learned how to use cruise control, which she had previously been quite wary of, and began to appreciate the benefits of it on the long straight stretches of highway. The air got hazier and hazier as we drove, and we saw several sections of the countryside that had been burnt by fire. We didn't see any active flames, but according to this wildfire tracking website that Katie found there were several very close to the roads we travelled along.
One of the places we pulled off to switch drivers was called Durkee (which is probably my favourite name so far, closely followed by Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in Alberta, Canada), which seemed just to be a ghost town. Apparently there are 236 people living in Durkee, with an average population density of 1 person per square mile. It was sweltering and windy outside the car, so we didn't feel the need to stay very long.
In Boise, we had a late lunch at 10 Barrels Brewing. We've been collecting coasters from everywhere we stop, and when we asked for some to take with us our server went off and got us some coast-cards which are both coaster and postcard! Outside, we found an alley called Freak Alley, which is covered in all sorts of fantastical street art. We stopped in at REI (an American outdoor activities store, like Kathmandu, Macpac, and Bivouac combined) and bought a solar shower and some bear spray (finally!) in preparation for camping in Yellowstone. We then checked in at Inn America, our hotel for the night, and escaped from the 38 degrees (only 17% humidity though) heat.
