It's Hot!

We've been reading about and hearing about a legendary heat wave sweeping the western United States for a couple of weeks now, but by and large we've been OK. The weather got into the 90s when we were in a few places, but it was always cool overnight, and that's the important part when sleeping in a van that doesn't have AC (it has AC when the engine is on, but there's not an AC unit. A furnace, but no AC). 

The tables turned in the last couple of days.

On Monday we left Jackson (more on our time - our second time - in Jackson here) and headed west into Idaho. We planned to stop for an hour or two in Idaho Falls - a place we'd previously spent 2 nights and which has a delightful river-walk area and the best cheese/gelato shop outside of Italy - and then sleep at a camping area we'd found in Twin Falls. The campsite was down a rough road, but it was right on the Snake River Canyon and very very beautiful.

The day started fine. We got to Idaho Falls, walked a loop around the river-walk, got some cheese and gelato, and carried on. 

It was a pretty rocky drive into the camp spot, and we were getting there around 5:30 p.m. You might think that this is the time of day when things start to cool down, and normally you would be right, but not this week and not in Idaho. 

As of 6:15 it was still 100 degrees in Twin Falls, and our campsite was in direct sunlight. No trees, no shade of any kind, nothing. The views were great, as you can see below, but there's only so much a great view can do when it's so hot that you can feel sweat dripping down your ankles while hiding in the shade of your van.

(not pictured: unbearable heat and flying ants)

By 6:30 we were cooked. We found a hotel 30 miles away for an affordable price and made a beeline for it. It had AC and an ice machine, and honestly, that would've been worth more than the $85 it actually cost. 

But there's more!

We had planned to spend Tuesday-Friday in Boise and had previously booked an Airbnb in the city. We arrived on Tuesday afternoon and headed straight for a Planet Fitness to get an indoor exercise before grabbing a late lunch.

At some point I checked my phone, as the heat was once again unbearable. This is what greeted me.

107 degrees is one thing. 104 in the shade is another thing. Arriving on the afternoon of the hottest day in recorded history in the city of Boise? My god. 

A little research has shown that this was the record high for July 6 and maybe not the hottest day in Boise's history, but it only missed that mark by about 3 degrees. And this was the kind of heat where it was still 90 degrees at midnight. At midnight. It was still 90 degrees AT MIDNIGHT.

So we spent most of our time indoors and will continue to do so over the next few days.

It's hot.

We Have Friends Again!

The last 16 months (ish) have been weird for almost everyone. Jenna was able to interact with coworkers on a regular basis, and I had occasional interactions with humans beyond the grocery store, but by and large we spent very little time with friends. 

As such, our first leg of adventure was down through the southeast to see a bunch of friends. (Note: We're vaccinated.) It was wonderful and therapeutic and frankly a little strange to suddenly be spending time with people. As we were approaching the first friends' house, it dawned on me that I hadn't shaken someone's hand in over a year. I genuinely wondered if I'd forgotten how to do it.

It went well - I didn't screw up and grab his elbow or anything.

So we visited friends and all of their kids - they had 2, 2, 3, 3, 1, and 2 kids - and then went back to Cleveland before starting this western leg of the advanture.

Back to the present: I wrote recently about how we made a couple of friends at a campsite, but we hadn't seen anyone we knew in over a month when we arrived at the Bozeman airport on June 28th. We were about to spend a week with a 3rd wheel, and that wheel was Kevin Malone, who I've known since pre-school. 

We had some concerns about whether or not it would be fun or exhausting or cramped or heavenly or terrible to have a 3rd person riding along in close-quarters, and while he'd be sleeping in a tent overnight, it was still a pretty stark change of pace. We'd suddenly be eating an extra 50% of food, drinking 50% more water, and taking up 50% more space in the van by just...existing. 

It worked out. 

As it turns out, our biggest problem was that he's in way better shape than us.

For the first few days we were near Big Sky, Montana. We hiked and camped and swam and hiked and sat in the river that flowed less than 20 feet from our campsite. 

It was everything we hoped it could be, and probably more. But that's not all we did that week.

We went toward Jackson because, as luck would have it, another guy we went to pre-school with was going to be in Jackson for the weekend and had rented a cabin. BUT THERE'S MORE. Another guy I've known since I was 7 would be in town as well.

So on Friday we hung out in Teton Village and visited with the Schultzes (I played baseball with Adam when we were 7 and 8, respectively. Also he hit a homerun once at Hall Field and I still remember it pretty clearly), which was just an A+ experience. Their 16 month old daughter gave me a world class hug (a photo which I'm not gonna share because little kids can't reasonably say whether or not they want their photo shared, so instead I'm attaching a photo of the adults) and it was just so so so good to see them.

(my people)

And then AFTER that, we met up with Graham and his wife Sam and their dog Juneau and spent big chunks of the weekend with them.

Photos!

It seems worth noting that on Sunday, Jenna, Kev, and I went on the longest hike 2 of us have ever done (according to Fitbit), which is the 3rd photo here. It was about 33,000 steps, which could've been anywhere from 12-16 miles, and up about 2,300 feet of elevation, to the lake pictured above.

So to recap: Malone flew in on Tuesday, we picked him up and hiked a bunch near Bozeman. We stopped at his triathlete-coach's house for a night in Alta, Wyoming, then came back to Jackson. We visited with Adam and Jane + toddler. Then we visited with Graham and Sam and Juneau. Then we hiked a bunch on Sunday. Then we dropped Kev off with Graham Monday morning so he could fly back from Salt Lake. Then we ate breakfast at Graham's cabin-resort, which was kind of stealing. Now we're alone again.

That was a really good week.