pioneering - another day on the trail

So back on the trail again... to Goodale's Cutoff -  by 2:15 pm 104* F - We are nearing Glenns Ferry before heading on to Nampa Idaho for the night. As with the last two days, we rarely see other vehicles as we follow the trail route, sometimes it's more than an hour. This is a change from the wagon trains of the heyday when a group of 300 wagons and 2900 head of stock would be on the Goodale Cutoff route we took this morning.

We started via the craters of the Moon park (which we had visited on our 2005 Way Out West tour and continued on to Arco City via Atomic  City (als seen on prior trip)

Entering the area of the Goodale Cutoff- 

Arrive to Glenns Ferry by mid day and "dined" at the Hansons Cafe-

Then it was on to the Emu-Z- Um an interesting and entertaining - all encompassing museum of Americana that should not be passed by!

We dined that night at the Holiday Inn Burger Theory restaurant where I won the ordering with a blue cheese burger on a pretzel bun and onion rings to TB's cobb salad- 

tomorrow would bring the last big push for us,,,, into Baker City... via a burning wildfire in the Cow Valley that we kinda sorta got stuck in for a bit.... but lived to tell the tale...

We started the day in Nampa, Idaho with breakfast at a local cafe the Sunrise. Then we headed to Walters Ferry to pick up the scenic byway between canyon walls (of varying height) and the Snake River. It's a big agricultural area. Views were limited by smoke from what we thought were fires in California but turned out to be fires in Eastern Oregon. We learned this when we got turned off the county highways on the way to Baker City, Oregon.  We encountered both fire trucks dropping flame retardant materials near the widely spaced homesteads and helicopters doing bucket drops of water. We only encountered one actual flaming fire but saw many marked by smoke in the various hills along the way. A photo of our car (if I can attach it) when we arrived to Baker City this afternoon. It is (was) a very dark gray  (almost black) Toyota

Neither of us grew up.on a farm and even with Google's help I still don't know if this is wheat or barley. (In the golden grain photo) But we did figure out the stalky green plants were onions! And even more exciting, figured the trellised plants were hops. (Later verified by the sign). Despite the "wine region" signage we saw very few grapes. I think it's aspirational. We did pass a new subdivision with a street name of Cabernet

Behind the Chevron station in Baker City - the Chinese cemetery. It holds few remains today as most "residents" were repatriated to their home province in China.

an afternoon stop at DQ turned out to be a stroke of genius, as the meal at the Sunridge Bar & Grill was mediocre and service pretty abysmal. Apparently the hotel was SURPRISED by the motorcycle festival in town despite being fully booked for the three nights of the weekend.... it being the highest rated place in town there was quite the crowd. 

This is our turn around point - from here was are headed back east. But still many things to see- including an occasional Oregon Trail site....