Sunday, we went to Craters of the Moon.
It opened at 8, and we intended to be there at opening when it would be cool. We pulled in to the visitor’s center at 11. Dad bought a shirt -- because he forgot to pack any -- and we got some postcards and stamps for our national park passport. We climbed Cindercone, which was a big black hill of lava rocks.
It only took five minutes, and the whole pile was just black lava. There were some interesting foreign tourists, like the German girl in the mini skirt. It was so windy, which is the only way the 80 degree heat wasn’t completely insufferable.
We also took a half mile hike and read the plaques about the lava flows and stuff. The aa and the pahoehoe are different kinds of lava deposits. Or something like that. There was a rock which some kid mailed back to the visitor’s center, after he took it from the monument, with a letter he wrote about how he felt bad for taking it, so on the Cindercone, I stole a rock. And I don’t feel bad about it either.
We also went in the caves, which were so cold and dark, and scary, but totally awesome. We went in Dewdrop cave, which wasn’t very big and smelled bad.
The openings of these caves are just basically holes in the ground right off the edge of the paved trail, so you step off into this never never land of loose rock and danger. Mom and I used both hands and both feet to get around, but the boys managed to stay upright for the most part.
Boy Scout cave was low, and wet, and very dark, and long and creepy.
There was a lot of standing water and some dripping water, which was creepy. This lady and her husband came out of Boy Scout cave just as we were going in, and they were really nice. She made us touch her hands to feel how cold it was. The husband was Australian, and the wife was Californian. She reminded me a lot of my teacher, Jill, which is a compliment.
Beauty cave was the easiest. The ceiling was high, not too dark or deep, and was pretty flat on the bottom. You could basically walk without a flashlight even though it was dark.
We went back to the trailer after that, and Aspen and Dad went quadding again, another fifty miles or so. Mom and I cleaned, and made dinner when the boys came home. I got into a very long conversation with the husband from the neighboring trailer about politics. He and his wife are snow birds from northern Arizona. It was nice to have someone to talk to about politics who wasn’t Poppers. Just for a new perspective.
The next morning, 8/2/10, we got up early, put all our stuff together, and were to Rose’s house by 11:30.
We couldn’t pull into her road, so we stopped in a Mormon church. Rose came with us into Idaho Falls, on our quest for a Laundromat (there wasn’t one) then we took her to lunch at Garcia’s. It was very good, but their enchiladas made me sick.
Rose and I were total dorks, hugging everywhere we went and giggling like idiots. It was good to see her. We couldn’t stay too long, and so by 2 or so, we left her at her house and went east.
In Ririe, Idaho, a little after 2:30, we got gas at a Sinclair, and we all finally confessed that no one was having a very good time, we didn’t want to go through Wyoming, Colorado wasn’t looking that exciting, and why can’t we just go to Montana?
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