It was the first time that the rented car was going straight west. As we entered Idaho, the Yellowstone, bison, elk, and bears were behind us. It was now over a week of having hard-boiled and cold eggs in the morning. It was too much of them 🤢 We stopped at an IHOP for a light American breakfast that would be classified as dessert in other parts of the world.
At that time, we didn't even know that the place we stopped was somewhat famous. It was Twin Falls in Idaho, and it looked pretty awesome. The whole town is situated on top of a canyon with a river running down. The IHOP restaurant was actually looking down on the Snake river below. But you can't know and see all. I left Twin Falls as a bookmark for the next trip.
We also stopped to get some basic groceries, and that's when I realized the writing on the bread I was about to buy. Dave's Killer Bread was famous for letting folks with criminal records work there. Also, it is tough to find bread in the US without it being sweet. This one was sweet but not like the others where you almost feel like eating a cake.
After a couple of hours of driving, we arrived at our next camping spot - Lake Cascade in Idaho. It was out of our way, but we didn't find any other good spots to camp between where we were. It took us a while to get there, but it was worth it. The lake wasn't crowded with campers, and we got a cool spot right that overlooks the lake.
As you approach the lake, you have to pass some kind of dam that has a very narrow road on top of it. Honestly, this was the first time in the USA that I had to worry about the road size and whether or not the car would fit.
As we set up camp, we noticed we had some camping pals right next to us. The only thing that kept us from the water was the rocks beneath our tent. There, little squirrels were curious and were constantly popping out of the rocks to see what we were doing. I have never seen so many of them 🐿 You can't get close, of course, unless you have something to offer them.
Besides those fast little ones, we also had HUGE ants around the area. They were mostly harmless, but they looked scary as hell. I guess they wanted a bit of that Dave's Killer Bread. It was getting dark, and it looked like it was about to rain, but we decided to go for a short walk around the lake. It was a perfect time to try out the raincoats we got for the trip 🧥
Of course, it started to rain, and one more group of guests decided to walk with us - the mosquitos. They were aggressive as hell, maybe because no one had walked that route recently, and they had to eat. But I don't blame them. I'd probably do the same. But that's the thing with mosquitos. They will be active around sunset and later leave you alone and rest.
That's what happened. As we returned to the camp, there weren't any, and we could eat dinner at peace with squirrels and ants alone 😌 There was also one person we met there, a camp host. That's an interesting way to name a job/hobby. He told us that as a camp host, you get a cool camping spot and some extra benefits that let you stay there and enjoy nature but also help out folks if needed. I'd like to try that for a month or two one day.
The sun was almost fully down behind the mountains. I remember just staring at the shore across. I liked camping there, it wasn't packed with activities like other spots, and I could feel very relaxed there. It was time to rest up. Tomorrow, we were driving more west into Oregon. There, we will finally sleep in a bed for the first time on this trip 😌