Hello Everyone,
It’s always good to be home. Home is definitely sweeter when you come in off the road, especially when it’s cold and dark out there. December is a great month to be in Washington D.C. and I’m really looking forward to a few weeks of rest before getting back out there at the end of the month. I have plenty to do while I’m home as I need to sort out my dad’s estate, work at my uncle’s house and help my folks out with a number of things, but I’m also looking forward to holiday shows, playing music with my friends and quiet nights by the fire. I’m not going to lie, 2025 was an incredibly difficult year for me and I’m very much looking forward to putting it behind me. 2026 is going to be better. It should be a very busy year and I am looking forward to it very much, so I hope to be well rested by the time it kicks off. I did have a nice week in Eastern Oregon and Boise, though and I want to tell you all about it, so let’s jump into it.
When I left you last week, I was out in the beautiful Wallowa Valley in the Blue Mountains of Oregon. I went out that night and had a very nice dinner at the Range Rider and then had a good night’s sleep behind the county courthouse. It was cold when I woke up the next day, but also sunny and beautiful. I took a nice long walk around town and then ducked into a coffee shop to read for a bit while the day warmed up some. This week I’ve been rereading one of my favorite books – Short Nights of the Shadow Catcher by Timothy Egan. The book is a brief biography of Edward R. Curtis, in my opinion one of the most talented photographers who has ever lived. He gave up the fame and fortune of his lucrative Seattle photography studio to spend his life among the American Indians, trying to document their cultures and lives in the last days that some of these bands remained cut off from mainstream America. It was an epic undertaking, a true magnum opus, and the finished product was truly magnificent. Sadly, Curtis had no business training and his lack of a solid business plan undercut all of his hard work (I can empathize!). Curtis knew so many important people in his time, from Teddy Roosevelt to Geronimo to J.P. Morgan to Gifford Pinchot but his work would never get the recognition it deserved. If you’ve seen a sepia toned photograph of an American Indian, there’s a good chance it was taken by Curtis. His photos are in almost all of the museums in the west, on book covers, posters and postcards – but you’ve probably never heard his name. The Indians called him many things, including “Sleeps on His Breath” (because he slept on an air mattress in the field), but the most romantic was the “Shadow Catcher”, as photography was relatively unknown to many of the Indians on the continent at the time. Anyways, he is the reason why my van is named Shadow Catcher, which is a tribute to the great, unknown photographer. Egan’s book is excellent if you ever get the chance and digs into a lot of the American history of the era.
After a couple of chapters and a hot cup of joe, I headed just down the road to Joseph, another cute little mountain town with killer views. Joseph is named after the Wallowa Band of Nez Perce’s Chief Joseph, who I have written about in the last few weeks (both of the two most famous photos of Chief Joseph were taken by the Shadow Catcher). I stopped in and chatted with a lady at the Forest Service office there and she told me that the road I was planning on taking out of town was slow and mostly in the trees without any great mountain views. With snow in the forecast and black ice already on the roads, I decided I would probably head back the way I came the following morning. With a new plan in place, I drove out to the other side of Wallowa Lake and enjoyed a wonderful hike up to a pretty little waterfall. It snowed on me most of the way up and there was snow on the ground and ice along the rivers but it was so pretty and there was hardly anyone on the trail. I cooked dinner out there by the lake and then stopped in town for a beer before crawling into my nice, cozy bed for the night. I’ve been watching American Primeval on Netflix which is historical fiction about the time surrounding the Mountain Meadows Massacre in Utah in 1857. The massacre was real, as were many of the characters depicted, but the script is fictional and takes plenty of liberties. It has certainly drawn some serious reactions from the Mormon Church and American Indian groups. It’s harsh and bloody, two things I tend to avoid, but I’m enjoying it and it gives me something to watch at night.
It was another beautiful, cold morning when I woke up on Wednesday and I wandered around town for a bit, checking out the galleries and stopping for a donut. The clouds were wild, so I drove back to the lake to take a few photos before making my way out of the valley. From there, it was a long drive around to Baker City but it was also a beautiful one which I really enjoyed. I got to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center just after noon, only to find it closed for the day which was disappointing, but it was what it was. I headed into town and had a nice long workout at the YMCA and a much needed shower and then headed downtown for the night. Baker City is a small city with a nice little historic downtown core. The Wednesday before Thanksgiving is always one of the busiest days of the year for many bars, as people are home for the long weekend and head out to meet up with old friends. It’s always a fun night to be out and see it all play out, and I spent much the evening in the Main Event sports bar, which was definitely the place to be. I enjoyed watching the usual stories play out with a different cast of characters, as old rivals butted heads and old flames drew some fresh breaths.
I had a nice, quiet morning to myself on Thursday. I slept in and then took another nice morning walk, marveling at the brass sculptures around town and wondering why someone put a giant alligator on the side of their building. There were also cute Christmas windows, especially at the toy shop which had a miniature winter village decked out in all its holiday splendor. Around noon I headed over to the Calvary Baptist Church which is just a few blocks off of Main Street. They had advertised that they were holding a community dinner and I had contacted them a few days earlier to see if they could use an extra set of hands. They had accepted my offer which was really great. The folks who were there couldn’t have been any nicer or more welcoming. We all got to work setting up for the day, although the meal had been prepared in advance by various members of the congregation so we weren’t there cooking turkeys or anything. I ended up on pie detail so I must have cut up a dozen pies and plated them on a side table. Believe me, nobody went without dessert. The meal kicked off around 2pm and probably around 70 people showed up. Some were members of the congregation, but many were members of the community who may not have had anywhere else to go for the day. I can appreciate how lonely a holiday can be when you’re on your own and/or far from home and this gathering was great for my spirits and my soul. Everyone had an excellent meal and a little fellowship as well and I know I enjoyed both very much. It lasted until around 4 and then we cleaned up and dispersed before 5 and I spent the rest of the night just relaxing and enjoying the glow of the feast.
I was happy to find the Oregon Trail Center open on Friday morning and had a lovely chat with one of the ladies working there. She had done a lot of traveling when she was younger and we had a lot of things to talk about. The museum was excellent and I learned a lot about the Oregon Trail and the people who traveled it. The trail stretched 1,924 miles from jumping off points like Independence, Missouri to its western terminus in Oregon City. For most people it took between 150 and 180 days to make the journey and it certainly wasn’t an easy one. Despite the fact that most people had a wagon of some sort, they walked most of the way. They faced intense weather, hunger, bandits, bad trails and misinformation and undoubtedly plenty of interpersonal tensions. They came for the promise of free land and a new life and many people in the region today can trace their family back to those brave emigrant parties. The growing population would forever change the landscape and the lives of the people who had been there for centuries, and often not for the better. There were a lot of difficult stories there, but I really enjoyed the museum and was glad I had the chance to see it.
I was there for a few hours, but the days are short this time of year so I had a quick lunch and hit the road west. Before I left for the holidays, I really wanted to go out and check out the John Day Fossil Beds, which is the last National Park Unit in the Pacific Northwest I hadn’t been to. It’s pretty far from anything and it took me almost 3 hours to get out there but it was worth it. I made it to the park just before the visitor center closed so I could get the info I needed, and even made a short hike in the Blue Basin before the sun went down. The hike wasn’t long but went through some fascinating landscapes with blue-green rock layers of ancient volcanic ash. Leaving there, I continued on to the small town of Mitchell which is on the doorstep of the Painted Hills unit of the park which I wanted to get to first thing in the morning. Mitchell is a cute little town with a good brewery where I could tuck in out of the cold, relax and read my book with a nice pint of ale. It was all closed up by 8:30pm though, so it was another early night for me.
I woke up before the sun came up the next day and zipped up the road to the Painted Hills. It was sunny in Mitchell, but it was cloudy over in the park which was a little disappointing, but it was still a breathtaking place. There were a few little walks around the park to do and one longer hike up to the top of a ridge with views across the whole valley. The rock out there is also volcanic with orange layers from when conditions were wetter and yellow layers from when it was dryer. Purple manganese spots could be seen as well and the whole place was just a colorful wonderland of geologic marvels. I enjoyed the park for a few hours, but I got on the road about 1pm because I wanted to get back to eastern Oregon before dark. I did pretty well with that and made it all the way to Vale before the sun went down. The clouds were great and the sunset was fantastic as I cruised into this little town where I stopped for a quick beer before continuing on to Ontario. I don’t know what it was about Ontario as it wasn’t a particularly picturesque or historic town, but I really enjoyed it there. I had a beer at a nice little sports bar downtown and then an excellent burger at the Irish pub. Seeing as this was the birthplace of the Tater Tot (being on the Oregon/Idaho border, they chose the brand name Ore-ida), I definitely had a heaping mound of tots as well. Then it was out to Cowboys Bar and Grill for an excellent cover band and a fun group of people. It was such a good day all around.
Sunday morning I crossed over into Idaho and stopped in the funny little town of New Plymouth. This is, to my knowledge, the only horseshoe shaped town in the country. It was laid out that way to make irrigation easier and it’s an interesting place to walk or drive around. You can definitely see the layout, even from the ground level. From there it was on to Idaho’s capital city of Boise. I have always pronounced it “Boy-zee”, but the locals definitely use a hard “s” and say “Boy-see”. I was in Boise many years ago with my folks, but it was only for a night and it was a long time ago. I definitely remembered as I drove downtown that it is more modern than one would expect with only a few old buildings around, which were thankfully preserved in the midst of a huge urban renewal project in the 1960s (boooo to knocking down old buildings). I didn’t do much the day I got there other than wander around downtown and stop in for a few beers here and there. I was definitely impressed that one of the bars still had one dollar beers and I may have stuck around there for two or three. It had been a busy few days and I was happy to just relax on a Sunday afternoon and evening. Downtown Boise has a really restrictive parking system with lots of residential zones and one hour limits and it was tricky to find places to park, but I made it work.
I spent much of Monday in the Idaho State History Museum which I really enjoyed. These state history museums are hard to put together I am sure and some states have more success than others. Idaho’s was better than average and I enjoyed learning more about the Gem State. I especially liked the theater which told the creation stories of the five different American Indian tribes of Idaho and the special gallery which looks at the Basque culture in Boise (which has one of the highest concentrations of Basque people in the country). And I loved the little movie they had which described how Boise stole the state capital role from Lewiston by having two different election days and calling the election after the first one before Lewiston and northern Idaho had even voted. I enjoyed it so much, I watched it twice. I spent a couple of hours in the library and then headed over to Honkytonk Monday at the old Pengilly Saloon in Old Town. The band was really good and I enjoyed their whole first set before taking off.
Most of Tuesday was about preparing for my Wednesday departure. I wanted to get my laundry done and my van all cleaned out so I can come back to a fresh start for the new year. Packing is always tricky as there are some things I will need for my trip and other things which I wanted to bring home and leave here. I also went out and paid for my storage unit for the month which is safe and covered to keep my van in out of the rain and snow (and half the price of airport parking). I did make time during the day to get some lamb stew and croquettes at the Bar Gernika in Boise’s Basque Quarter. It was delicious and I really liked this simple little bar. I also spent some time in the State Capitol building just down the street. It’s a beautiful building and very bright on the inside but there wasn’t much to see there. It was somewhat sterile and almost completely devoid of artwork of any kind. I did like the Christmas decorations they had up and it’s always nice to just roam around a big old building, but I wish they offered tours more than twice a week. There was one fun little display with potatoes dressed up as historical figures like Thomas Jefferspud and Alexander Hamiltater which I got a kick out of. That evening I had another local favorite dish – finger steaks. These are basically breaded and fried steak bites like chicken fingers but with beef. I had some delicious fresh-cut Idaho potato French fries to go with it and some fry sauce, obviously (if you’ve never had fry sauce, it’s usually made from ketchup, mayonnaise and pickle juice and is super popular in Utah and surrounding states). Then I headed out to a truck stop just outside of town to grab a few hours of sleep.
My alarm went off at 2:15am which is an absurd time of the day to be waking up (and as I get older and insane time to still be up as well). But my flight was boarding at 4:45am and I had a lot of moving parts to get through on my way to the airport. I drove up the road to my storage unit where I parked for the month, disconnected all of my batteries, closed everything up, locked the doors and double checked them and told my van to get a good rest. Then I ordered an Uber which was thankfully only 10 minutes away (likely sitting at the airport). We pulled in right around 3:30am and I was the only one in the security line at that time of morning. I even had time to make a little small-talk with the man at TSA. I gate-checked my bag on to my final destination, which also bumped up my boarding group which was nice. We had to de-ice the plane, but still got off on time for the hour-ish flight to Seattle. I had an hour in Seattle to make my connection and landed in D.C. at 3:15pm local time. My folks were there to pick me up and we were off towards home at a nice time of day (hence the crazy-early departure). It all went so smoothly and I will be doing the same thing in reverse at the end of the month.
And here I am. It’s nice to be home but there’s also a lot of work to be done while I’m here, as I mentioned earlier. I was out working at my uncle’s house all day today, but I also sold the second of his three cars this morning to a nice man who actually got it running and drove it home (it had been sitting untouched for several years). He’s been eyeing it up for over a decade, so I was really glad he chose to buy it. I also took a huge load of junk to the dump and marveled at how much work my folks have done since I’ve been gone. There’s still work to be done, but it’s getting there and should be on the market by the spring which will be a huge load off of everyone’s minds and backs.
I’ll be here for a couple of weeks and then headed to my brother’s place in New Hampshire for Christmas. I hope to get quite a few photo essays published while I’m home as I try and catch up from the last month of travel. We’ll see how it all goes. Anyways, that’s all for now. I hope you’re all safe and warm out there and looking forward to some holiday festivities of your own. Have a great week and I’ll check in with you next week and let you know what I’ve been up to. Take good care and thank you, as always, for reading.
-Mike
