It seems whenever we have gone anywhere in the car, we hurried. If visiting family, we minimized driving time to enhance family time. Now that we are retired, I have decided this is silly. Once after the Jerabek reunion, we took a leisurely trip back to Phoenix. Lillian had not gone to the reunion and Bill, Marvin and John had flown home. Consequently, it was William, Marilyn, Jennifer and I in the car on the return trip. Christine was born the following October, so by the end of August, lengthy sitting was becoming a problem for me. To break up the trip, we began to visit tourist traps. We enjoyed the world's largest hand-dug well, the Dalton brothers' hideout, El Morro National Monument, Meteor Crater, and Montezuma's Castle. Not only did we learn some fascinating bits of history, but got some exercise.
Last week we went to Moscow to visit Benjamin. At my insistence, we took the scenic route down the Lochsa and Clearwater Rivers instead of I-90. The scenery was marvelous. We actually stopped to read historical markers, and visited the Dworshak Dam. At breakfast in Kooksia, we found a SCENIC IDAHO pamphlet. Instead of zipping home via the Interstate as planned, we could take the White Pine scenic byway and the St. Joe River scenic byway. So we did. It was refreshing to drive at a pace slower than the speed limit, pulling over to admire the view when the winding roads became tiresome. Yes, the trip took two days each way instead of one, but we arrived home refreshed.
