DAY 3 -- YELLOWSTONE TRIP 1926

 

July 29, 1926

We had the usual breakfast with everybody feeling fine. We were soon in desert country proper looking like old times so much that I begged for two good pictures and got them, I hope. [Well, she got one anyway.]

We saw our first live jack rabbit, but the highway is dotted with dead ones. It got very hot in the P.M. on the desert. We passed through New Plymouth, Middleton, Caldwell, Nampa, Meridian, Boise, Regina, Sunnyside, Cleft, Mountain Home. At Caldwell, Shirley exchanged her glasses for a lavender-tinted pair which she liked better.

Caldwell is in the Boise Valley and nice. Middleton is small. Nampa – fine. The valley was lovely but we seemed to be dodging out occasionally into desert country. In the suburbs of Boise, Earle had to tinker with the car so we ate lunch on the side of the road in the shade of big trees. We had bought some minced ham, relish spread, pork and beans, lettuce and mayonnaise. We passed through Boise about noon and managed to see the capital building. Boise is beautiful with wide streets and shade trees.

We drove out at 12:20 and were in for our hottest P.M. Finally we came to Sunnyside – a service station and small store. We went in and drank some kind of bottled cool drink which was very refreshing, but we looked nothing like the ads you see of people drinking Coca Cola. [In 1926, Coke's tagline was "refresh yourself."]

I found I could pin my duster to the frame so as to shut out the sun pretty well, but oh, Girls! My hair!!! I tried to keep it on by wrapping with auto veil but the veil would slip off and hair go all directions. Well, the heat was fierce, but we grimly endured and presently came to Mountain Home. We passed through Cleft, but it was too small to notice. Mountain Home was a nice little place, and here we decided to come by Pocatello instead of the shorter, harder route. We passed through Hammett, but I have no recollection of it.

The next place was Glenns Ferry. Here dad purchased the hamburger which proved bad and forgot the butter.

This P.M., we passed what is called the Thousand Springs Ranch on the Snake. From a bluff across the river numerous waterfalls descended apparently coming out of a rimrock. We were not on the desert all P.M. but occasionally dropped into the river valley. Then it was nice – big trees and green fields.

We passed through Bliss, Hagerman, and Buhl and then began to watch for Twin Falls. Here we had our first experience of auto camps – a little kitchen with oil range, good toilets, even a tub and clothesline. There were shade trees, too. We boiled potatoes and expected a feed, but the sausage was bad, no butter, and Lynn didn’t like boiled potatoes, so we were sort of grouchy but got to laughing and I thought of the corned beef hash and insisted on Lynn finishing the relish spread. Dad had bought doughnuts and so with tea and jam, we made out. I found a cinnamon roll in a bag and was voted lucky.

After supper, the menfolk all went to hunt a bath and swim and ice cream, and the girls took the chance to write in the little cookhouse. When the men came back, they were minus the bath and swim but had ice cream and cookies. We ate it out of cups and were the worse for doing so. Then we collected wash pans, etc., and went to the toilet room for a sketchy sponge bath and after that we bathed our underwear and hose and hung them on the tent ropes and benches.

We made 200 miles this day – mostly desert country but part of the time through the Boise valley and along the Snake River. It was awfully hot. We made 25 to 50 miles per hour. We ate lunch in the suburbs of Boise.