Driving to Boise

I waited too long to make flight reservations to Boise (only crazy expensive seats remaining), so I set out by car at 5 AM for the 10 hour/31 minute drive to Backwater Ave for the 4th of July weekend. It was surprisingly pleasant except for the long stretches without radio reception between Winnemucca and Boise. As Adrienne remembered from an earlier drive to Boise, there are also long stretches in Nevada without filling stations and with ominous signs reading:

PRISON AREA
HITCHHIKING PROHIBITED

But I arrived without problems. Had a great Subway sandwich in Winnemucca and enjoyed the changing scenery from Sierra forest outside Reno to Nevada cowboy country to Boise farmland. Bathrooms were also few and far between and it was truly a sitcom moment when I pulled into the only gas station in Jordan Valley, Oregon - first gas in 100 miles -- to find three SUVs with signs that said Ramirez Family Reunion and seemingly all 18 of the extended Ramirez family in line for the only bathroom.

I tried to scribble down some of the interesting street signs on my way into Boise, but it was becoming a driving hazard, so all I have is "Chicken Dinner Road" near Snake River.