2017 West Coast - Curves, lava, volcano, and straight aways to Jackson

Did you ever play the game Oregon Trail?

Today we left Mountain Home and traveled east on Hwy 20. Our route either ran on, crossed over or parralled the Oregon trail. The begining of todays journey took us up and over a minor mountain pass. After that, it was another very straight route.

LoriAnn is beginning to wonder if I know where I'm going. I have gotten the states of Idaho and Utah mixed up numerous times. I had to go back and edit last nights post because I had Utah  in it numerous times.  We are not going to Utah, never have. My apologies to Idaho.

Down the road we started to pass lava fields. One of our adventures today was Crators on the moon natioanl park.  Here we learned of the cauldron that existed from the middle of Idaho into Yellowstone. The Earth's core is close to the surface, which has resulted in Volcanos that created this land. The latest valcano in Utah erupted over 2000 years ago. Many of you know about Yellowstone being a very active region, where a very major eruption could happen sometime in the near future.

As we travelled east we were reminded of the volcanos in the cauldron.

After the lava fields we stopped for gas and food in Arco. Mutch to our surprise we found a submarine memorial in town. Of course we had to stop. There we met the man who was the curator of the memorial; Richard Dean. There we learned that Arco was the first town powered by Nuclear electricity. Down the road was the Idaho Natioal Laboratory. INL does a lot of power plant design and training. The navy trains its nuclear power sailors here.  Submarines have nuclear power.

After Arco, the road was very straight again.  Todays temperatue was in the low 90s. The heat drained us, so we stopped for a rest break in Idaho Falls. As we left Idaho Falls there was a change in the road as was worked our way to Teton Mountain range. The climb over the mountain was fun with a 10% grade on both sides. I kept my eyes on the road. LoriAnn got pictures and videos.

After we checked into the motel we walked through Jackson, doing some sight seeing and window shopping. Jackson has a wild west theme to it. I took LoriAnn into the Million Dollar Cowboy Bar. We didnt stay fo a drink. We walked around and saw the bar, murals and other cowboy stuff. Really need to come back to Jackson for a longer stay.

We have a new item to add to the prayer list. Somehow i bruised my inner left ankle. Now i am black and blue from behind the knee to sole of my foot. Also keep prayers coming for LoriAnn's back.