Eclipse

May 28
Idaho Falls, ID

We had a partial eclipse of the sun a week ago Sunday. Mark and I drove out to the hills overlooking town and watched the event unfold. It wasn't too impressive, actually we didn't even notice except for a little dimming of daylight. Not too much else has happened lately. I'm starting to get a few clients, and they all like me so that's encouraging. I've been volunteering at St. Vincent DePauls thrift store on my days off, going through donations and sorting clothes. I still have lots of free time for reading and watching movies. This weeks recommendations are Tom Brown Jr's "The Quest" (book), and Stephen King's "The Stand" (mini-series and book). I tend to go hiking on the weekends. Last week I drove out to the Targhee National Forest. Today I had planned to drive to Mt. Lookout, but the rains (and snow in the higher elevations) we had over the weekend thwarted my plans, turning the unimproved roads a little too muddy for my Sentra's taste. So I decided to ad lib and find another hiking destination. So down the backroads of Idaho I traversed, taking a right at a likely looking intersection, and less muddy than the previous road. As I gained in elevation the snow got deeper. The tire tracks on the road were clear, but the snow in the middle kept dragging up under my low clearance carriage, so I found a suitable place to turn around, and back to the crossroads and another right. A few miles down this road and my progress was again impeded, by some cowboys on a cattle drive down the roadway. Not having a particular destination, and no set time to get there, I chose to turn around and explore the last remaining option at the crossroad, another right. This time success. I drove a ways and then pulled off and ate the lunch I had packed, and as I was relaxing a convoy of about a dozen semis with livestock trailers rumbled by, on there way to another roundup I suppose. I finally found a decent spot and spent a few hours hiking, seeing a couple of mule deer, and hearing the "drumming" of several grouse. On my drive back I saw a lone moose as I was descending the hills toward town. It's dark coat really stood out against the light color of the wheat field it was in.