THE LONGEST DAY OF THE YEAR

June 21, the summer solstice, the longest day of the year. We should have known what to expect yesterday, but as usual, we took on the day with happy thoughts. The unload and loading at Marathon Cheese in Mountain Home, ID went extremely quickly. Even though we were operating on mountain time, and had to be there an hour earlier than we normally would, we were in and out in under an hour. In fact, some of the employees, who were congregated around the office door, even commented to Craig that it was their fastest time ever. Well gee, wouldn't you think we would at least get a free block of cheese for that? By 9am our time, we were rolling down Interstate 84 towards our fuel stop in Jermone, ID and shortly there after would be on the route, that was the longest day we have had on the road. It was not so much the time involved, as we have put in the same amount of hours many times before. No, it was that change of scenery I talked about in my previous post. We have been this way before, but we must have blanked out the memories, because I almost think I would have enjoyed a poke in my eye with a pencil more than the drive we had yesterday. I truly thought it would never end.Once we left the town of Twin Falls, ID, and were well on our way on Highway 93, it soon came time for us to cross into Nevada. Anyone who thinks we are running out of land should take this trip. It reminded me of our days driving across Canada. Mile after mile of nothing. Now granted, there were moments of finding some things nice to look at. Some snow covered mountains, or a nice green pasture, but the majority of it was flat areas of nothingness. But, don't let me lead you astray, because some of the highlights of this trip were the multitude of stretches of road construction where the two lane highway was restricted to only one lane, with a pilot car to escort us through the construction. Obviously, Nevada does not have a shortage of money to spend on the infrastructure of it roadways. We also came across a herd of cows that had escaped their confinement, and made their way to the side of the highway. Time for a photo opportunity there and a blast of the air horn to scare them away from the road. Can't say as I blame them to want to expand their grazing area in search of something more exciting. We kept pushing ourselves to keep going as there wasn't much civilization around except for what might pass as a town here and there along the highway. For the life of me, I can't figure out why people live in these towns in the middle of no where, or what keeps them from moving away. With Craig's driving hours maxed out, we finally pulled into what was touted as a truck stop in Alamo, NV and let me tell you, we were happy to finally put an end to the longest day of the year.