Day Twelve - Twin Falls, ID to Yakima, WA

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This had to be the hilliest of all the driving I had done to date! The five hundred miles seemed to take forever as a lot of the hills were steep enough that it meant Kels was climbing at 50 to 55 mph (although I was quite content with that - she was still moving forwards so I couldn't complain!). Google maps says that the distance can be covered in 7 hrs 19 mins but it took us closer to 9 hrs - that is how many hills there were!

Boise, Idaho had one really neat feature that most cities don't post for drivers just traveling through the city - they had a sign that said 'through traffic stay in left lane'. How sensible is that? As a slow vehicle, I always want to move into the right lane to let people pass and then constantly have to move over when there is an 'exit only' lane or when vehicles from an off-ramp are merging into my lane. This makes for a bit of stress when you don't know where you are going. But this permission to stay in the left lane through the entire city, knowing that I wasn't going to get shuttled off onto an exit only ramp was very relaxing. And if people didn't like the speed I was going, they went around me (although that didn't happen much oddly enough). Anyway, all cities should have a lane that is designed for through traffic - it would cut down considerably on everyone's stress.

The prettiest stretch of this drive was between Pendleton, OR and Yakima, WA. That part of Washington is the wine country and I swear it makes you feel like you are in Tuscany! Beautiful rolling hills with neat rows of grapes with small streams winding along beside the highway - spectacular! The month of June may be particularly nice there, I don't know but it sure was pretty and worth the trip.

Although I had thought about driving straight through to Vancouver, BC and the ferries, with the late start in the morning I decided to stop in Yakima for the night. Found a KOA near the highway and pitched my little tent. The campsite was nice - on grass - but the owners have to do something about the mosquitoes which were HUGE and fierce. I finally locked myself in my tent to get away from them and was asleep by 9:45pm.