Idaho Falls to Salt Lake City...and the thrift shops in between

I left Idaho Falls yesterday, hesitant to have to board my new pup, and nervous to return to the San Francisco Bay Area; I don’t make it back too often, and my disdain for airlines only seems to grow with each trip.  I took Thursday off of work, and spent the morning in bed cuddling with Jack; I just felt like we needed a little time together before I dropped him off at the boarding facility.  I hopped in the truck and headed down Interstate 15 for Salt Lake City, where my brother lives, and my flight was to depart.  

About 30 miles south of Idaho Falls, the landscape subtly turns from farmland to arid, high hills and deep drainages covered with silvery-purple sagebrush…my kind of country.   I hadn’t planned on stopping, but a friend recently told me that Pocatello had some neat thrift and antique shops, so I made a quick dash into a few, and scored some great books.  I’m sitting here on the plane now, about to touch down in Oakland, California, my home turf, reading about the interesting regional and social history of the Sweetwater country, in James Chisolm’s Journal of the Wyoming Gold Rush: South Pass 1868.  The Sweetwater is that expansive, wild country that drew miners to South Pass City, just east of the Wind River Mountains of Central Wyoming.  I love learning about this region, as it was just a few miles down the dirt road, Twin Creek Road, of the ranch that I worked last summer.  Madisen and I always said we would fuel up the ATVs and take a day trip out there; have dinner at the Atlantic City Saloon, explore the old, abandoned facilities and sites, and just imagine what 1868 must have felt like in this boom town.  

 The road, south of Pocatello

It’s Monday today, and I’m already looking forward to Friday, just a few short days away.  Madisen and I are meeting, either in Pinedale or Farson, Wyoming, where we will caravan to Lander to attend a wedding with the old ranch hand at Twin Creek Ranch, Pee Wee…we are his dates.  He is turning 70 in a few days; it will be so fun.  I’m hoping we will have a little window of time on our journeys home to swing by Atlantic and South Pass Cities; I’d love to place my new book into an on the ground context, as well as finally live out our plans and daydreams from last summer.