Its about 1:00 a.m. when I suddenly awake in my coffin-like sleeping quarters. Sleeping in the back of the Element has been good so far but right now I’m having a bit of a freak out. I’ve enclosed the small space I’ve got for sleeping with some blackout curtains which help me sleep longer in the morning but right now they’re adding to my confusion. It’s one of those “where am I?” “who’s here with me?” moments that passes quickly but is unnerving all the same. I check the time and knowing that I’ve still got quite a few hours to sleep I get bundled up again and try to catch some more shut eye. The outside temperature is at or near 32 degrees most nights at this time of the year according to the ranger and tonight is no exception. Makes for a chilly slumber.
Once the generators start rumbling along RV Row I decide to wake up and get going. Today I’m off to Aberdeen, Idaho (AKA the potato capital of the world) to meet up with Stephen Clark who’s business is powersports photography. He’s been nice enough to offer me a place to crash for a day or two which will be very nice after my days on the road. First though, I’ve got to go say goodbye to my Yellowstone neighbors so I hop in the car and take a gander out on the grasslands. Sure enough, the bison and elk are awake and stirring this crisp, clear October morning.
I leave Yellowstone park through the west entrance and come down off the mountain along a nice stretch of highway that becomes increasingly more rural as I near my destination. I stop off and get some gas and since I have a decent signal on my phone I decide to update the blog with the day 4 story. As I get back on the road I realize that I forgot to clean the windshield back at the gas station (too busy on the computer – woops) and I take the next exit to do just that. The weather has been absolutely perfect the entire trip which I’ve enjoyed thoroughly, but from the looks of the splattered mess that is my windshield all the suicidal insects in this country are enjoying their last seconds of fall sunshine as well.
I meet Stephen at his new office space in downtown Aberdeen, where the potato harvest is nearing its end and the truck traffic is finally dying down. Before I get there though the GPS decides to route me off the highway and down a few farm roads before sending me back to the very highway I just left. “The shortest distance between two points,” she utters. “Is a STRAIGHT line.” I reply, “And that was anything but.” Hopefully she’ll be a bit more cooperative on the final days of the trip.
Stephen and I leave Aberdeen to see some natural geo-thermal pools called Lava Hot Springs. Along the way we head off on some dirt roads to put his new truck to the test. We head up some access roads where in the winter months he shoots snowmobile photos for magazines & manufacturers (not a bad gig). As we’re driving along we have to stop for a herd of wandering sheep that seem just as content along the roadway as they do on the grassy hill.
We make it to a good turn around point and stop to enjoy the view. The F150 has performed well and makes me miss my truck. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Element but that car isn’t going to make it up these hills.
The first place we stop near the hot springs is a little local bar called the Wagon Wheel Lounge. The fellow next to us (named “Moon Dawg” according to his leather motorcycle club vest) strikes up a conversation and proceeds to tell us all about his job as a nighttime truck driver in the remote, high-elevation oil fields in eastern Utah. Apparently he transports oil in an off-road worthy truck pulling an extra trailer with a total of 109,000 gallons of liquid capacity and he does this year-round. So, during bad winter weather he’s got to take a big lunch in case the off-road chains lose their grip and he gets stranded miles from anywhere and has to wait for a rescue. Moon Dawg ended up in Utah because of a girl he met after he bought a one-way ticket to Los Angeles from his home in Boston. When things didn’t work out with her he started driving truck from L.A. to New York and when he got tired of that he found work in the oil fields which is closer to his current stomping grounds in Utah. The things you learn in small-town bars…
After the Wagon Wheel Lounge we head up to what’s supposed to be a good Thai food restaurant. Sure enough, the food at Riverwalk Thai Food is great – and I’m not just saying that because I’ve been eating nothing but dried fruit, peanut butter sandwiches and beef jerky for the last four days. We each have an excellent meal and make our way to the Laval Hot Springs. They’ve done a great job remodeling the facilities and the hot springs are almost like a mini resort – complete with on-staff massage therapists. Back at the bar we heard from a local that the magical healing powers of the hot springs water are less a result of magic and more a result of the radon gas bubbling up from below. That fellow said that equates to low-level does of radiation exposure and since they use radiation to treat cancer the radon gas must work for everything else. Sounds a bit like the duck/wood/witch logic from Monthy Python’s Holy Grail to me but hey, we’ll go with it for now and jump in the mystic waters.
The next few days of this road trip are up in the air. I’m going to try meeting up with a motorcycle distributor in Centerville, UT and stop in Las Vegas to see my buddy Lee and his family. Between those two points, I’m not quite sure…
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