Back in Boise

We said our goodbyes to Bonnie and Roger last evening and to J.E. this morning as we gathered up our things and left Salem, bound for Boise. We took our time this morning - it was very pleasant on the deck in the shade, eating our breakfast and talking. But we managed to get on our way by about 10:30 or so. Not exactly an early start, but not too bad. We stopped in Mill City at Rosie's, a favorite place for coffee and scones. Ellen got a latte, I got an "Americano" - i.e., a decaf coffee - and we got four scones. What a treat! I can't remember exactly all the flavors - one was cranberry/orange, one had lemon in it, another had some chocolate chips. They were all yummy.

Rosie's Coffee House in Mill City, OR.*********************************** We decided to take a route back to Boise we have not taken for several years - U.S. 26 through John Day - the "northern" route, as distinct from the "southern" route, U.S. 20, through Bend and Burns. There is, of course, an even more northern route, I-84 (I think) which goes from Portland along the Columbia River through Pendleton and down to Ontario and on to Boise. That may be the fastest route, because it is an Interstate highway, though it ia the least direct. U.S. 26 through John Day is more mountainous, and more curvy, and thus a bit slower than the southern route through Bend. But it is very scenic, and since we hadn't done it for a while, we decided to do it. It goes through Sisters, as does the southern route, but then goes to Redmond instead of Bend, and on to Prineville, past the various John Day Fossil Beds, through Prairie City (where there is a little park and pair of rest rooms we have stopped at many times past), and on down to Vale where it rejoins U.S. 20. It was a nice ride, and I read aloud a fairly good chunk of Big Rock Candy Mountain along the way, which is proving to be a great book, a candidate for "The Great American Novel," we both feel, because it captures so much of life as it unfolds. The central figure in the most recent reading is Bruce, the younger son of Bo and Elsa, who we suspect is Wallace Stegner in his childhood, at least to some extent.

A scene along the way on U.S. 26 today. ******************** As we were going through Prineville, OR we noticed a HUGE complex of buildings off to the left. They were not identified in any way that we oould see, but later we looked it up on the Internet, and found out that it is a data center used by Facebook, Amazon and many other large companies. It must be one of those places that are full of huge computers that create a great deal of heat and thus have to be kept cool with air conditioning, thus using a tremendous amount of energy as a result. One of those deplorable aspects of the modern world that we are all complicit in when we use our iphones and oomputers to access the internet, and are sort of blithely unaware of.

Data Center in Prineville, OR.**************************************** Now we are in Boise. We got here at about 9:15pm Pacific Time, but Boise is in Mtn. Time, so it was 10:15. The loft was warm, but we turned on AC and got it down to a comfortable level and now it is off and we have the windows open. Should be okay. Tomorrow will be an easy day.