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This is how I know we are not in Portland any more: the donkey man with his loads of dirt to sell was passing our house this morning.

To get here, we flew first to San Antonio for some shopping, bbq and to meet up with our friends Yoli and Victor and their SUV. The righteous bbq was at County Line Barbeque on the River Walk. They really do know barbeque so don't open this link if you are a vegetarian.

After a full day of shopping (Bryan says it was the longest day of his life) we loaded the Chevy Tahoe to bursting. Much of this load was Bryan's grill from Lowes, but Yoli and I held our own at Ross and Jo-Anns. Fortunately the customs stop gave us the green light! Unpacking the Tahoe would have been a task.

The drive is about 8 hours from Laredo, Texas, not including the stop for visas and car registration, so we broke the trip at Matehuala. Before toll roads, freeways and fast cars Mateuala was the mid-point for travel between Laredo and Mexico City. It still has remnants of 1960s-style neon signs advertising the motels as you drive through. We stayed at our favorite, Las Palmas, and I was disappointed that the neon light was off as we drove in after dark. The desk clerk explained that it is too expensive to run when there are not a lot of hotel guests. Here it is in the daytime.
After a relaxing breakfast at the hotel the next morning we drove the last 3 hours to San Miguel. A long section of this last leg is lined with Joshua trees which I once thought were native only to southern California. I know they are in Baja, and Matejuala is the same latitude as La Paz so that makes sense.
It feels good to be home.

Wild Rivers and Big Sky, Pt. 2

Eastward we head, through the wheat fields of Idaho. (Yes I know there should have been potatoes, but we didn't see that many, just miles of wheat and barns.)

I thought Dr. Pierce's General Tonic might be a cure for our new "improved" health system, when served with a bit of gin.

We arrived in West Yellowstone and were greeted by a herd of life-sized painted buffalo. I had seen the painted cows of Chicago but the town of West Yellowstone choose buffalo to decorate and auction off. Some of them were beautifully done.
I love this red one below with petroglyphs of buffalo

And sure enough, just after we entered the park we saw this guy for real.
But I came for geysers and mudpots and I wasn't disappointed when I saw these plumes in the distance.
From Yellowstone it is possible to drive through the Grand Tetons National Park

to the town of Jackson Hole. WY, where the old west is still alive, according to the city planners . I did spy this lovely old neon sign, however and I'm always happy to see them preserved.

Also, we can recommend highly the Snake River Brew Pub in Jackson.

From Wyoming, we moseyed west to Craters of the Moon National Park. This was one of our stopovers on a trip across the US in the summer of 1970. The park consists of mostly inaccessible lava beds with one corner set aside for camping. That night's Park Ranger's presentation was on the Oregon Trail which passed through as Goodale's Cutoff at the north end of the park. The lecture was fascinating and from then on I kept an eye out for remnants of the trail. Here we are parked on a portion of the Cutoff visible and still used (for reenactments)
The next day we followed the amazing Snake River along it's route to eastern Oregon.
We spent the night in Joseph, checked out Wallowa Lake, and lunched at the supremely excellent Terminal Gravity Brew Pub in Enterprise. If you detect a theme here, it might be called "Destination Brew Pubs Tour of the West."

I 'll leave you with another lovely neon sign.