Almost a 19 hour day

WOW--we're back home. How often do I do a midnight blog post?  Not real often.  It's about 12:45 and we're still buzzed from an almost 19 hour day so I doubt we will be able to sleep until maybe 2 or so.  Might as well write a blog post.

Susun's out with a flashlight looking at her beloved flowers. We have the heater on in the house--it's kinda cold here.

We got up at 5:45 am at the Baumgartner Campground in a pouring rain (AGAIN!) and packed up what remained of our camp. We packed most of our stuff on Saturday before our 2-8 pm interview at the Hot Springs. We were driving away from the campground at 7:10 am. It took 5.5 hours to get over to the Big Cedar Canyon site. We arrived about 1:15 and got right to work, getting set up by 2 pm sharp. As usual, it was a long six hours sitting there. RJ (AKA: Our Boss) came by and we actually did get to interview a few ATVer's. After we broke down the interview set up, we went off a couple of miles and met with RJ in his little VW van. By the time we left his location, it was about 9:15 pm. Our original plan had been to go camp in the City of Oakley RV Park. We had scouted it out earlier in the day. Meanwhile, though, it started raining yet again and the thought of setting up camp in the dark at 9:30 pm just wasn't at all appealing. Even in the daylight, it can take 2 hours for us to set up a "right & proper" rainproof camp. Since there were no "tarp trees" at the little RV park, we knew it would be a lot tougher proposition. So, we figured, "What the heck, let's just drive home. Poof, a little more than 3 hours later, here we are. Cool.

It's been a long road trip and earlier today we even sent a Tweet that we were tired. It was about 7:15 when we sent that note. We WERE tired then. But somehow the thought of getting home tonight really energized us and we got into the "horse going to the barn" syndrome. It sure helped that I-84 and I-86 and I-15 were all basically deserted late on a Sunday night. We could often not see anyone behind or in front of us! When we pulled onto the Idaho Falls city streets, we could see several miles on Sunnyside without spotting a single vehicle! Surreal.

We made jokes about "pulling an all-nighter" and being in college again and buying a couple of pizzas and all that dorm room humor stuff. It's so great to be back home again. WOW--absence really does make the heart grow fonder. I mean we both love camping and we're getting somewhat better at it but this has been a tough trip--it's really rained on us a LOT and rain has a way of making a camping trip tough. It's great to be back under areal roof with a hot shower waiting and a warm and cozy place to sleep without the incessant drum beat of rain on our tarp overhead.

Well, that's about all for now--home safe, sound and happy to be here. CHEERS! J&S