report from the road: Coming home in 2011

We know this road. We've been here lots of other times in a car. We've even been here in the motorhome in 2010. This summer as we drove the 500+ miles from the Utah-Idaho border to our home, we began sorting out this summer's travel experiences: what we would do differently, how we would repeat some things in exactly the same way, places where we would return to explore more leisurely, and when we would head out again.

The scenery along I-84 and US-95 is very beautiful. We relaxed because we knew pretty much what to expect. Road construction continued to be the greatest source of excitement during this final stage of our trip.


The view from our deck at home

Idaho corn

Onions north of Fruitland

New Meadows

The Time Bridge near Riggins
Pacific Time north; Mountain Time south

Riggins

The Salmon River

Rock removal at the top of White Bird Hill began Sept. 21, with delays up to 90 min. We drove through
on Sept. 23. Thank goodness delays had been reduced to 30 min. This project is planned to run Mon-Fri,
until Dec. 4, and will resume in the spring, 2012.

Traffic going north and south is stopped for 30 minutes at a
time as the construction crew makes the pass safer.

Rock blasting stops and traffic moves from both sides of the hill for 15 minutes.
Then vehicles are stopped for 30 minutes as blasting and rock removal resume.

We passed this wide load at the bottom of White Bird Hill. Able to get to the top of this seven-mile grade (with 2700 vertical feet rise) during the stop, the wide load and its escorts were allowed to roll through the pass. Next came our motorhome and all the big trucks that had climbed the hill and were waiting behind us in a pull-out lot near the top of White Bird. After the big trucks, buses, and RVs came passenger vehicles. Keep this delay in mind if you're going to travel on US-95 this fall.