It was pleasant farmlands on the way into Carey through the slightly winding road. When I was up to the last hill to get over a van stopped at the top of it and set in motion a new mood to the walk. Inside it, offering me a ride, were Lex and Val.
First, the van pulled to the side and Val, a little lady with a Romanian accent ambled down the road to me and asked if I needed a ride or anything. I told her, as always, that I was fine and was walking the US. She chatted with me a bit more saying her husband, Lex, had done that for 13 years on horseback and I soon found myself up at the driver’s side of the van chatting up the two of them. Immediately Lex asked me if I had stopped in the hot spring back down the road. Huh?
Apparently the day before I had wandered dreamily within 60 feet of a natural hot spring at the temperature of 101 degrees. They had just come from there but said if I wanted they’d take me back to soak a bit. This I could not pass up.
Ten miles back I recognized the path and the turn in the road as having passed it and followed Lex down to the pool. Sure enough, a quiet little haven trickled down there and he returned to the roadside with his wife to let me strip down and bath in my skinnies. It was absolute heaven. I sat on the algae soft rocks and let the waters seep in, then floated about a little bit, then sat and soaked some more. After ten or fifteen minutes, though, I began to feel guilty about them just sitting up there waiting for me to come out.
When I returned they were a bit shocked I took so short a time in there, but I excused it as a craving for breakfast so we returned to our meeting hill top. At the bottom of the hill was a little log cabin restaurant not more than a quarter mile away. We both wanted more time with each other so I met them down there and had lunch together. They were fascinating people. Lex, with his tales of horseback travel, could top his own stories talking about his days in NYC as a kid growing up, and then his childhood in occupied Czechoslovakia by the Russians in the late ‘40s. Val was from Romania but had lived a large part of her life in Switzerland as a surgical nurse and then her days with Lex in the US over the past 22 years. I loved it.
When we parted ways they insisted on covering lunch with Lex saying “been there, done that. I know how it is.” How can you argue? We arranged to meet up again in the afternoon as I passed their home toward the end of my day. I left happy as a clam hoping to use the library there but discovered it to be closed so I pressed on through the mountains.
Lex informed me I had cell service in the area so as I crossed through the pass under Queen’s Crown I dialed everyone I could think of who’d be home and got voicemail after voicemail for an hour. By 3pm there was a grey curtain in the sky that would drip on me on occasion from afar and threatened to open up, but since it was small and still a little distant I simply hurried my pace rather than drop and don the gear.
I made it to the tiny depot in Picabo (Peek-a-boo), ID without incident and got myself some coffee and a burger along with some energy bars. Following that up with a pint of sherbet ice cream I chatted up some bikers coming out of Durango, CO and then the cashier for a bit before figuring I should set off again.
By 4:40 I was back on the road and no sooner was I on again did I come across Lex and Val’s home four miles later. I headed in thinking I’d stay for an hour then head off for another seven miles to a rest stop where I’d stay the night and have a good jump on getting to Fairfield the next day.
As we hung out telling stories the time passed and no sooner was it 7 that they reminded me I was walking for the experience of meeting everyone and it was not a race. From all this hustling and bustling to get to Idaho Falls and get to Boise and get to Seattle I was beginning to forget to look around and take it all in. The fourth of July was coming and I would likely end up spending it isolated away like I had last year in some thatch of bushes in Kentucky. I stayed the night and we had a great time talking for a good while. They even let me use their computer to post up for a bit.
I pitched my tent outside and after a good visit with some great folks I passed out like a baby for the night with no pouring over maps or anything.