Going West.... Going West.... Fall 2021

 Going west.....going west.... Fall 2021

RECAP: Over the past fifty years together, between Dave and 
myself, we have traveled to all but one state (Rhode Island) in these our United States.  

One day, we will visit there… but until then… well, we decided we are aging quicker than we would like, so we have this one (probably) last trip to make… and here we are, in Driggs Idaho…. 

At the base of the Grand Tetons and a morning’s overland to Yellowstone…  I have not been here before… other than when I was but nearly five years old and so short I could not see over my shoe tops!  At that time it was a fast breeze from the east coast to the west coast sharing the backseat of a Studebaker with brother and sister.. we stopped at the Brigham Young statue that was standing in the middle of a field... today the statue is surrounded by high-rises and college students. 

 

After experiencing Covid earlier in the year, and since then not having taste nor smell resume, I have been living vicariously through Dave’s palette and senses… today as we traveled from Salt Lake City north 15 to Driggs Idaho, I missed not being able to open the car window and breath in the glorious aromas of rich loamy soil, just cultivated as truck loads of freshly dug russet potatoes bounded down the road through Cache Valley.  

Hundreds of acres of hilled rows of seed potatoes remain unearthed until these last few days of early Fall, and then are dug and shipped by tractor-trailer-loaded trucks across the country to be planted at the appropriate time. The potato farmer is a healthy contributor to the economics of Idaho and Utah in its billion-dollar business. From personal experience, potato farming is a labor-intensive, financially challenging pursuit. It is a year-round commitment, but oh to dig your fingers into a hill of potatoes and pull outta 2-pounder baking potato… priceless!

 And so, on this first evening at the foothills of this enormous mountain range, we can’t help but wonder what the first pioneers felt as they approached these startling mountain ranges.  Approaching from flat country of the Great Plains the Rocky Mountain range, at least 200 miles in the distance, must have been such a daunting, if not awesome, spectacle to our first courageous pioneers. To even consider the challenges of not only the height and breadth of these mountains but the deepening ravines and dangers. And to be astonished to find the mountains still covered in snow in early June.