The sprawling truck stop in the distance beckoned to us. We were all caffeine-deprived when we left camp. No stove meant no easy way to boil water in the morning. Amy will be back on track once she buys another fuel canister, but until then we're going to be improvising. As we approached the building complex, we saw that all the truck activity was from the weigh station, and all the windows were boarded up. Coffee would have to wait. This is not an easy thing for two adopted Seattleites to accept.

On to the Interstate for the last time. Just 3 or so miles of it, again with a wide and clean shoulder. While the freeway veers right to climb out of the valley, we continue along the Snake River. We had become increasingly aware of the threat of loose dogs, so when we approached the Cafish Junction RV Park and I heard the sound of dogs barking, I stopped pedaling, looked over, and saw three Labradors approaching. The owner came out to see what the fuss was all about, and I cautiously approached. Sunyoung and Amy rolled up, and when we all dismounted, the dogs calmed down somewhat.

The owner is a very nice lady who obliged us with some fresh coffee, a place to sit, and pleasant conversation. We had only ridden about 5 miles and already we were taking a pretty luxurious break. This was to define our day. We knew there were no hills, and the weather was in our favor. What's the hurry anyway?

Our next stop: Idaho and lunch! I took Amy's obligatory "Welcome to (fill-in-the-blank)" sign photo, and we crossed the street to enjoy a picnic on the bank of the Snake. It wasn't a gourmet meal but we didn't care. Everything was perfect. Even though we had lost an hour to the time gods, we were still doing just fine. It's not as though the sun sets any earlier. I'm not sure how long we lazed at the table and on the grass, but by the time we started up again I think it was pretty close to 3:00. Time for dessert and shopping in the town of Payette. Amy and I later regretted not taking any photos of our lunch spot or the root beer floats at A&W. We were just too caught up in the moment, I guess.

We made the last half of our mileage without stopping. We knew it would take a while to get dinner going. I had read good things about the RV park we were headed towards, so I was a bit disappointed to find that they wanted $20 per tent to camp, and our attempts to negotiate were fruitless. Oh well, gotta pay the piper. To its credit, the site is very nice, the showers are great, and the owner let us help ourselves to the wood pile.

As if to make up for lunch, we whipped up a feast that included two different curries, rice, broccoli, cauliflower, and an onion we picked up off the side of the road. And we had chocolate and a shot (or two) of bourbon around the camp fire before rainproofing our gear for the night.

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