6 hours and 44 minutes

Somewhere between Spokane and Boise, I dangerously attempted some road photography.

The kind that inspire lyrics from America songs, or, for that matter, the song "America" by Simon and Garfunkel.

In elementary school, my class took a field trip to Baker City, Oregon, to visit the Oregon Trail Museum. I loved anything that made me feel more akin to the Ingalls girls (even though they never hit the Oregon Trail...I don't think) with their gingham dresses and bonnets and hills to tumble down. The museum, as I recall, had a fair assortment of covered wagons and things you might put in them (and later throw out as you crossed treacherous territory, or however that game worked). Not quite Little House, but close enough. These days, though, I seem to be more enamored with signs like these, that place semi trucks in the Baker City sky.

This is always a magical moment when you reach the point when you must lose an hour of your life to continue on this lovely open highway. Just look at that blue sky.