Burley, Idaho

We spent the morning driving through eastern Oregon and the afternoon in southern Idaho. Eastern Oregon definitely wins the beauty contest. I know other parts of Idaho are very scenic, but really..... they should have given the southern part of the state to Nevada.

We got to see one of the extremely rare Oregon Nike trees. You may have heard that Nike shoes are manufactured in Oregon, but the fact is they grow on trees. They are harvested in the spring and fall by extremely tall aspiring basketball players. Obviously, the locations of these trees is a closely guarded secret and we were lucky to come across one.

As you can see, careful hybridization has resulted in trees that produce many different styles and colors.

Below is the Malheur River in eastern Oregon. The air is as clean and fresh as it looks.
Somewhere a few miles past Stinkingwater Creek, we saw this contraption all by itself in a field.
Vale is a typical little town in eastern Oregon. Very quiet, hardly any traffic, with a slightly Western ambiance about it. Several buildings have beautiful murals painted on them.
Sorry, no pictures of southern Idaho. Our cameras will handle just so much beige.

The man in the room next to us has gone outside to improve his cell phone reception and it sounds like he's talking to his wife. He just told her that he saw lots of either cantaloupe or antelope on his trip today. My reception isn't very good either - I need to put my ear up to the window.

Tomorrow we will finally get to the Grand Tetons! Honest....