Baker City, OR to Pocatello, ID

Last year when we drove through Idaho on I-84, we encountered a lot of road work.  Guess what, that road work is still going on.  The traffic wasn't too bad, but it's disconcerting to drive alongside traffic barrels and normally divided roads that were now only one lane in each direction with temporary barriers in the middle. 

We did, indeed, find gas in Ontario, Oregon for $3.63 per gallon at Love's.  That was cheaper (not cheap, of course) than we had seen in a long time.  We put up with a common frustration at the gas station, that is pumps that were not working, and of course those were the ones on the ends that were most convenient to pull into with our big motorhome with toad attached. 

We entered Mountain Time just before Ontario, so we instantly lost an hour.  Good thing we got a fairly early (for us) start this morning at 8:45. 

We are always amazed at all the construction and new buildings along I-84 around Boise.  The economy there appears to be healthy, at least on the basis of all the new buildings and hotels.

This morning I got a picture of Sophie in a hat that I made for her which is already much too small for her.  So I started making her the same hat but in a bigger size, and I made a lot of progress during our drive through Idaho.  Thanks for the picture, Kiersten!

The new hat in progress:

When we came to American Falls, we had planned to stop at an overnight RV park that sounded nice--a city park on the Snake River.  Due to road construction, the freeway ramp we needed to take was closed, so we headed on east to Pocatello. 

An interesting hill west of American Falls, Idaho

Near the spot at American Falls where we had planned to camp. We stopped at a gas station to find an RV park in Pocatello and located three, all fairly undesirable.  We nixed the fairgrounds that didn't have sewer since it was after 5 and fairground RV parks can be hard to find after business hours.  We tried Cowboy RV Park, but there was a sign on the office door that said no vacancy, even though we saw several empty sites.  Finally, we ended up at the Pocatello KOA in a less-than-desirable overflow site.  This KOA was very expensive at $36.40 after the discount.  Our site is supposed to have full hookups, but the sewer line seems to be blocked by a rock.  We do have free (slow) WIFI, though. 

This KOA is full of families who are in town for a youth wrestling tournament.  Two young brothers were in line after me and I could see that they were waiting for change for their dollar bills.  I let them go ahead of me, and the younger brother, about 7, asked the older brother, about 10, if he could get the change for both dollars.  The older brother said no.  The woman ahead of me in line and I both were startled at his refusal, and we both chided him that since I let him go ahead of me, he could be nice to his brother and ask for 8 quarters instead of 4.  It was pretty funny!

Tomorrow afternoon--arrival at West Yellowstone, Montana!