Look Up At The Sky

As much as I love our quiet Tiny Tune Town, I am ready for a change of scenery, and feel the need for mountains and rivers.

To feed that need and to feed the beast, we found a legitimate reason to take a long day trip to Salmon and back this Thursday.

LC had a choice of signing up for a VA center in Idaho Falls, Pocatello or Salmon.

Both Idaho Falls and Poky (as it is known regionally) are towns with populations slightly above 50,000.

In the short time that we have been in Idaho, we have both decided that we do not like Idaho Falls.  

At all.

Too many people.  Too much traffic.  Too much road construction.  Too many last minute lane changes.  Too many businesses and choices and noises and people and frenetic speed.

Too much.

Pocatello feels smaller than IF although its population is only a couple of thousand less.

But Salmon is north - through the mountains and close to the rivers.  Smaller.  Prettier.  Quieter.  

An excuse to travel up the Big Lost River Valley and just........be.

We are going to test out the VA center there and see how it works, evaluate the quality of care.

If it doesn't work, it doesn't work, and Poky is just down the road.

A quick turn-around day trip on Thursday, although hopefully next time we can stay up there a day or two or more......................

Our blended family of lost woman, and lost man and sweet dog (who always just takes life as it comes as long as walks are involved and her people are close) walked late in the evening a couple of days ago.

Down the middle of the road as we always do, allowing our sweet pup to take the lead.

We stopped often as we always do when we allow Jamie to set the pace, because our dog is led by her nose.

Apparently there are interesting things along the way that LC and I know nothing about, because sometimes the going is very slow.

Eventually we found our way to the edge of town (which is only about 1/4 mile from the house) and wandered around the outskirts of the raceway.

Atomic Motor Raceway (all 1/3 mile track and falling down bleachers of it) is located where the city ends and the BLM land begins.

As we approached one of the gates I first looked up at the mountains in the distance and then walked over to the locked gate so that I could take a picture of them.

I have walked by that gate probably 50 times over the past six weeks and had never noticed the sign before.

Pit Enterance................

I am still amused by the street signs and addresses in this town (and, as it turns out, other Idaho towns).

There are a lot of numbers to remember when you are using longitude and latitude coordinates as your mailing address...................

It's like somebody threw a switch.

One day it was summer and the next day it was fall.

Days recently have mostly been in the upper 70's and nights have been low 50s.

But the weather is becoming slowly more unsettled and unpredictable.

A few evenings ago it was very cold and windy, and I made the first grab for a jacket since we arrived in Idaho.

In a few days they are calling for a high in the low 60's and a low around 37.

I am curious to see what winter brings.

I suspect a tougher winter than what we had in Cody, but somehow that feels OK.

Next month we will have to put the sanders and the paint brushes down and concentrate on winterizing preparations.  Weather stripping.  Lots and lots of weather stripping.  Cleaning out wood stoves.  Checking electric heaters.  Maybe getting a little more wood.

Our house is a very good house.

Solid.  Sturdy. 

But is has been neglected for many years.  From what we have heard from neighbors, it has been a very long time since anyone cared anything at all about this house.

We care.  

And slowly we are turning it into a nice home.

As we continued slowly wandering down a very long and straight dirt road I looked up at the sky.

The sky is alive here.

More than any sky I have ever seen anywhere.

It often tells me stories that I don't yet know how to interpret.

A narrow rain band moving across the plains.....................

Some of the raceway structures...................

Jamie saw them before we did.

The most deer I had ever seen together in town.

There were eight or nine of them grazing and sitting in a yard the next street over from where we were.

When they heard Jamie (who was her usual barking self) they instantly went on alert, suddenly no longer grazing and resting peacefully but instead watching our every move.................

We all stood motionless for a few moments, watching each other across the fields, until one and then another and then another turned and slowly wandered away......................

Second weekend in October we will go to Bonners Ferry Idaho, which is not too far south of the Canadian border.

My youngest son Chris will meet us there and we'll spend a few days together.

When he joined the military he became the gypsy that his mother had been most of her life, and now when I reach up to hug Chris around the neck, kiss him on the cheek and say goodbye to him, I never ever know where and when I will see him next.

In the last six years I have seen him in Tennessee, Texas, Tennessee, Virginia, Tennessee, New Jersey, Alaska, Tennessee.

And now Idaho.............................

Every time you look at the sky just remember that that's how big my love for you is............Samantha Katrina