After almost 12 hours on the road yesterday, I rolled into Boise about midnight, local time. I have to say, it was one of the more eventful drives I've had. For instance, at one point I thought Bertha was on fire...but it turned out to be steam exiting the heating vent. I had the cabin heater on most of the drive because of my concern about the water pipes and/or my cat freezing solid as I crested 7,000 feet.

When I was getting close enough to smell potatoes I made the dreadful mistake of following the first sign to Boise and ended up on the "scenic" route through scenic Buhl, scenic Hagerman and scenic Bliss. It's quite possible those towns are, indeed, scenic -- but I was unfortunately unable to appreciate their scenic-ness due, in part, to my 10th hour of driving and being somewhat hacked at my mistake. I also nearly made my stay a little longer by almost missing a big curve and running into a ditch because I was looking at the map to see just how dreadful my navigational mistake had been. Bertha really corners! (joking)

Scenic Bliss, population 275, was my gateway to the 84. I tell you what, there is nothing quite like going 75 on a straight road after you've spent the day slowing to 25 for one podunk town after another. ;)