Huntington, Oregon: Hello from Oregon... via Nevada and Idaho. My morning started at 2 o'clock. I was up - off and on - all night, checking the interweb for updates on our friends in Portland who were in labor with their first baby. We had no cell service in the middle of nowhere, so relied on our rooftop internet dish to keep us connected to The Real World.



Hmmm... kinda reminds me of what I was doing 29 years ago this weekend, in The Philippines... I think I was about 12 years old at the time... giving birth to The Lovely Lisa. What was I thinking, giving birth in a Third World country? Who knows? Anyway, it all worked out. I was in labor just a few hours and our little 6.6 pound baby was born. This weekend, our little girl is in Las Vegas with eight of her friends celebrating all my hard work. Have fun kiddos, and don't forget your Momma at the craps tables!

With all my late-night interneting, we were a bit delayed leaving Wild Horse Crossing Lake this morning. After Little Cabeb was born, I kept checking for updated photos. Okay, possibly constantly. Then we went for runs along the great paths around the lake. But I asked My Driver to "get me outta here". After two weeks over 6000 feet, I needed to get to a lower elevation.
Why I needed to get to a lower elevation:
1. I can't run at 6000 ft.
2. My skin is dry.
3. My lips are chapped.
4. My shampoo bottle keeps exploding.
And so we headed north, towards Idaho through the Duck Valley Indian Reservation, the nearly 300,000 acre home of the Shoshone Paiute Tribes. As I wrote last night, Wild Horse Crossing Reservoir was created to conserve snow melt for the tribe to use for irrigation. The Owyhee River leaves the lake and the road immediately plunges down along the river past the dam, through steep cliffs and sage-covered hillsides. Spectacular, and one of the most beautiful canyons in the west.

And cows.
Lots of cows.




Our route today took us through the reservation and north to Bruneau, Idaho on Highway 51. We then headed up to Marsing on Highway 78 and then into Oregon and continued to Huntington, Oregon on Highway 201. (You will need a good map and a magnifying glass to follow this obscure route.) Nearly every crop we saw cultivated today was for animal feed. Hay, Alfalfa and corn. Mile after mile after mile of baled hay. We did see (very little) potatoes growing and as we came close to the Snake River, we started seeing a few fruit orchards. Mostly, we saw sagebrush desert. It was a beautiful drive!

We only finished one lamb shank last night, so I removed the meat from the left-over shank, thickened the gravy and served it all over chunky Yukon Gold garlicky mashed potatoes.


PS: The Mariners beat the Yankees 6-0 in New York tonight.
RV Park: Oasis RV Park. Apparently there is some fabulous cat-fishing right here on the river. Full-service 30 & 50 amp pull-through and back-in sites. Laundry and bathhouse. Boat ramp. No cable TV, but limited antenna, propane, bait, tackle, ice, fish cleaning station. Very quiet, right on the river. No cell service. Sites 1-4 are long pull-throughs with views directly over the Snake River. We paid $18 with Good Sam discount. Owner, Allen, is very nice and friendly (even though he is a Oregon State Beaver fan.)