Left the house at 6:45 and headed directly to Starbucks in Redmond for mocha and coffee. Having crossed Oregon on Highway 20 way too many times, we elected to take Highway 26. Both will take you from Redmond to Ontario, but 26 has trees. And altitude. And towns. And is much easier on the eyes.
Anyway, we made a quick stop in Prineville to pick up a sandwich to share later on and headed East. This is truly a nice drive. The first 80+ miles out of Prineville there was neither a car in front of us or behind us. Along the way we passed through Mitchell (too early for lunch, but great hamburgers at the Little Pine Café), Dayville, John Day, Ironside (the town that isn’t), Jamieson (yet another town that isn’t) and finally Vale (the town of murals.)
Having spent too much time driving through downtown Ontario, we opted to stay on Highway 26 for Nyssa, where a nice city park provided a spot to share the sandwich. After lunch a short drive and we crossed the Snake River into Idaho and soon were on Interstate 84. Speed Limit 75. Never see a sign like that in Oregon. Another couple of hours and we were in Burley, Idaho for the night. Dinner at El Caporal was good and inexpensive.
Today’s interesting sight: A hawk crossing right to left about 25 feet in front of the car at an altitude of 5 feet with a snake in its talons.
Today’s crop report: Once close to Vale there were fields of corn (lots of corn), wheat and what were either potatoes or sugar beets. The presence of a sugar beet processing plant near Ontario makes me lean towards beets. Idaho had lots of corn , some wheat and alfalfa, and what I’m pretty sure were potatoes.
Today’s weather: 48 leaving Redmond and 91 somewhere in Idaho.
Today's bargain: Fairfield Inn - free
Tomorrow is a short day with a drive to Green River, Wyoming.498 miles today.
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