The mice will play when the cat is away
Posted on May 2, 2007 - Filed Under Adult swim, Travel
As Erin mentioned, she and Maggie were visiting Grandmama and Grandpapa last week in Florida. Wilson and I (Charley doesn’t count–all she’s interested in is when she’s going to get fed) therefore had the house to ourselves. I had a lot of crap to do for work and the weather wasn’t all that great for being outside, so we didn’t get to do some of the stuff we might have liked. We did, however, take the liberty of doing one of my favorite things–driving around. I really enjoy taking a road and seeing where it will lead me. I know this is not environmentally responsible; burning gas just to see where nature-destroying roads go. That notwithstanding, I find these drives therapeutic, even cathartic, exhilarating, and knowledge building. Moreover, occasionally, I get to see something or arrive somewhere really cool.
Saturday, I pulled out my Idaho gazetteer (thanks Rob!) and found Pearl Road, which is just north of Boise, convenient because I needed to pick Erin up at the airport. It began pretty rough because of all the rocks in the road. Soon though, it got better, immediately after crossing into Gem County; apparently, they believe in taking care of their roads a little better than others. Then I encountered another couple of obstacles but instead of being of the geologic sort, these were of the bovine type. Here in Idaho, there’s something called open range, where livestock can roam free. This, of course, presents a slight problem for drivers. In fact, I have been told that the fallout of hitting and killing a cow is not only reimbursing the rancher for the individual animal but for the next two generations as well, to say nothing of the damage to your vehicle and the inevitable subsequent rise of insurance rates. Anyway, that nightmare scenario wasn’t even a vague possibility given I was traveling at about 15 or 20 miles per hour.
As we continued to drive, we passed what appeared to be the entrance to a very old mine. Idaho has a long history of mining, thus the reason the state’s nickname is the Gem State, so it’s very likely it was what it appeared to be. But it wasn’t just your standard mine entrance; check out the picture to see why. Soon after, we encountered what was probably the best part of the trip–a group of three prong horned antelope on the left side of the road. They were a little skittish as evidenced by the fact that once they realized we were coming, they moved along pretty quickly. Wilson’s reaction was really funny: His window was about half way down and, when he saw them, he almost jumped out of the truck, putting his paws and head fully out the window. If the window had been down the whole way, he probably would have out chasing them. I think this is the closest I have ever been to a deer-like animal in the wild; we were probably less than 70 yards away.
Finally, we had the choice to continue on Pearl Road or turn onto Jackass Gulch Road. I decided to succumb to my chuckles about the latter road’s name and take it. It was pretty interesting to see. It’s really not much of a gulch but it does exemplify the kind of landscape common to this area of Idaho. The road through is pretty entertaining because of how winding it is. All in all, it was a pretty fun drive, the kind I wish I could take every weekend.
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really neat pictures, would like to take some drives into that area. I have somethong against open ranges, I think Nevada doesn`t allow them anymore because they destroy the natural vegetation. Of course, humans tend to do that every part of the earth is open range. I bet Wilson was thinking dinner when he saw those animals. Take out ,maybe
Yes - Wilson gets excited in the car when he sees cows - we refer to them as ‘Beef-dogs’