As much as we enjoyed Wyoming, it was time to keep moving toward the Bay Area so that we could coordinate the next leg of our travels.

Near Idaho Falls we stopped at Frontier Pies, a real-deal truck stop with an attached restaurant, and sat in a booth made to look like an old covered wagon. We also went real-deal on the food: ham and bean soup, cornbread, chicken pot pie, a bacon cheeseburger and an egg scramble, with a little banana cream pie for dessert. The food was fine, but eating under a canvas arch that was grimy in places was a little strange.

The drive across the Snake River Plain was long and hot, with temperatures exceeding 95 degrees. It’s interesting to note that the Yellowstone hotspot traces the eastern half of the plain, and that we saw lots of scoria mounds covered in sage and grasses across a long stretch of the drive.

As we neared Boise there were large cumulus clouds off in the distance dropping rain in an unusual j-shape. The precipitation was falling straight down until it neared the ground where it turned sharply parallel to it. Clearly there was wind near the surface, but we didn’t realize just how strong it would be. We soon entered a series of these micro-downpours. We watched the outside temperature drop from 95 degrees to 65 degrees within a mile, had a smattering of rain, then a complete torrent of large drops, gale force winds, then clear skies and temperatures back up to 95. We passed through about ten of these, one of which nearly blew us off the road and I dropped the rig/coach down to 35 mph on the freeway and flashed my hazards. Although the Airstream is very aerodynamic and handles well in cross winds, these were unusually aggressive and gusty. A later-named ‘big scary one’ was enough to make us consider pulling over until the storms passed.

Even though I spoke quietly and confidently through that final stretch of driving, I was plenty adrenalized.  Despite hunger, fatigue, road detours, and rush hour traffic in Boise, we made it – safe and sound.