Days 4 &5 Riding WITH the wind...

August 9th & 10th
Burley, ID to Desmoine, IA

Nice Nancy and Zombie McDonalds

No serious drama to report. J and I are both fairly anxious to get home, so we've weeded out all of the stops we planned to visit on the way down to just one: THE WORLD'S LARGEST FRYING PAN.

Of course, as soon as you do anything like building the world's tallest building or making the world's largest frying pan, SOMEONE has to go and make something taller or bigger. 

So as of right now, according to Wikipedia (which is an accurate source because EVERYONE can edit it), the pan in Brandon, IA is currently the 3rd largest frying pan in the world. The other two are in Maine and North Carolina.  Been to Maine, NOT going to North Carolina. So Brandon, Iowa is it. We're just trying to get there before it drops out of the top 10.

We've been taking mostly I-80 back home, which actually would have been our route to Portland had Dusty not warned us off. His

Confirmation of our location

Even in the middle of nowhere, there are still RULES

advice was correct. As much as there was often NOTHING on our northern route, there is actually MORE nothing on this one. One of the local businesses shows a little self- aware humor of this fact in their logo! (see pic to right) The logo is apropos. Don't get me wrong, there are indeed small oasis gas stations and stores, with actual PEOPLE running them. But surrounding those oasis are miles and miles and miles of flat, grassy NOTHING! I didn't, but I wanted to ask, "Ok, so you work HERE, but where do you LIVE???? Is it like 100 miles away?"

Anyway, let's first talk about Nice Nancy. Nancy was our breakfast hostess at a Marriott where we stayed. We've been traveling for 51 days now, and have encountered some wonderful people. Nancy inspired me to write the comment card below. I am also going to send an email to Marriott. My main reason for doing this is that Marriott is a multi-million dollar corporation that is probably not paying Nancy commensurate with the benefit which her work is visiting upon them. In other words, Nancy is making money for Marriott and I think they should share more of it with her. I took a picture of Nancy, but it did not come out. Sorry Nancy! Hope Marriott comes through for you!

Now for the Zombie McDonalds. I've mostly said sweet and innocuous things about pretty much everything....except for Iowa, so I've felt no qualms sharing addresses, names, etc. but the following passage is NOT sweet or innocuous, but it is TRUE...at least in my world.

Somewhere, between Oregon and Maine, there is a McDonalds that J and I visited that is run by ZOMBIES! I took no pictures and will not even share the state this store was in, but I SWEAR they were all super skinny, gaunt, pale, and stared at you with an empty, "I"m going to eat your brains as soon as I can focus" look. We would have left, however, the customers looked fairly normal, and appeared to have intact, uneaten brains so we stayed. But the experience was bizarre.

Here's a few pics from days 4&5.

Southern Idaho, going through the Rockies. This pic does NOT do justice. We wound through a path that literally was at the bottom of some VERY tall mountains. I personally felt that this route was far more dramatic and "Rocky" like than the northern route which I cycled. J disagreed with me, but since she's not blogging anymore, I win by default. 

Southern Idaho buttes.

We made a sort of nap area in the back of the truck. This J taking a well deserved rest. Scott told me to tell her that she is my wife and my best friend. I'm hoping that she already knows that she is basically my EVERYTHING. 

Growing up, a company called "Table Talk" made these awesome single serving pies. This the largest most varied selection of single serving pies I have ever seen. It was at a Super Walmart in wither Idaho, Nebraska or Iowa.

Heading home through the Idaho Rockies.

We still haven't made it to the World's Third Largest Frying Pan yet. Probably tomorrow. I know you're on pins and needles about this!