Day 36. Friday 23 September.

No animal photos today – unless you include D.

Many of the RV Campgrounds we’ve been staying in have been in the process of packing up for the winter season. Some amenities have been removed or closed down – recreation rooms, common camp kitchens, BBQ areas and the like. In some cases we almost feel like we’re imposing!

The day looked bleak after another overnight rain. We hit thick fog on mountains a few miles out of West Yellowstone, but after we descended, the weather cleared and although cold, at least the rain held off – and there were occasional patches of sun.

A surprise touring route today when T realized we were very near Idaho Falls, where she’d been about 20 years ago with Sally to visit her friend Marsha. This took us off the route on the TomTom and guidance sheet and we expected to have to double back. In fact, Tomtom dropped about 50 km off the total distance to be driven and when we consulted a map we saw that Pocatello, our destination was south west of Idaho Falls. Others in the group ignored the guidance – the best of these went back into Yellowstone, took the southern route out and then travelled through the Tetons, creating envy with their descriptions of the beautiful scenery. A lesson for next time!

After a few shots of the falls of Idaho Falls for old times’ sake, a very decent coffee and a very chocolaty pumpkin brownie in Downtown, we did a bit of a tour on foot – and we found one likely spot to add to a well named street.

Back on the road again to discover what must be the highlight of the trip at Blackfoot. It was hard to drag T out; she was so interested and totally intrigued by the story of the spud!

She intends to follow up on this claim.