On the road again...

Manipulated my work schedule, lined up a house sitter, Googled a map and hit the road. Left Eugene around 8 on Labor Day. Once over Santiam Pass blue sky meets browning landscape till 7pm mountain time. Sharing the driving we made it easily to Mt. Home, Id about 50 miles east of Bosie. Easy drive, dog mellow (Herman's first road trip), listening to podcasts catching up on NPR's Driveway Moments. Munching on cheese, slices of ham, hard boiled eggs and stale croissants. Didn't even stop at McDonalds for a McPiddle! Plenty of places to stop in the eastern Oregon desert. Enough sunshine to continue thru our planned stop in Boise, on to Mt. Home. The Hilander Motel: $43 per room, $4.32 extra for the dog. Clean, comfortable bed, dry swimming pool, next to a pawn shop and across the highway from the train tracks. Dinner at Cliff's Bar and Grill of fried BBQ chicken sandwich, Bud Lite on special (I had a Land Shark by Jimmy Buffet?!). Tiki night on the patio on Fri and Sat. Sorry we missed that. Five guys getting quite drunk and loud celebrating one of their companion's recent release from incarceration. A few hours of spinning the dial (we don't do that anymore--punching buttons)on the TV trying to find something entertaining with 15 choices of channels.

A comfortable bed, a good sleep, a dog walk in the empty parking lot next door, a cup of not bad free coffee from the motel office and on the road again..........