“You go down memory lane as you drive!”
This past December, AAA Washington member Doug Williams took a long drive through Idaho to his home near Coeur d’Alene. Instead of sticking to the direct route, Williams veered off into country that he knew well, keeping the radio off and watching the countryside roll by in silence. The road trip brought back dear childhood and family memories.
“I live in Post Falls between Coeur d’Alene and Spokane, and my mother lives west of Blackfoot in southern Idaho in the same house where I grew up. I’d gone down to visit her. On the way back, I decided to take a road trip. Instead of taking I-15 and I-90 to Missoula, Montana, and then Missoula to Coeur d’Alene, I took a route from Idaho Falls to Salmon via Highway 28, and then north from there to Missoula. It was about an 8-hour drive. You go to Mud Lake and then up Birch Creek and over a little pass into Salmon.
The view was just stunning, the high desert valley and then the peaks and the mountains surrounding that certain area. It was early in the morning. I decided to stop and take a couple photos in that valley, and I got a pretty good one there at Birch Creek. The early morning light makes it look dreamy-like with the clouds above the mountains. It’s just a fun trip, meandering. You’re not in any big hurry because you’re taking in everything that you see.
As I traveled through there, it brought back a lot of memories of when I was a little kid fishing in that area. When I got older, I used to take my family there. We’d go fishing and horseback riding through that area around Dry Creek Reservoir, all through there, camping and fishing and just having fun.
Those memories are just recreated as you drive through there. Of course, I was alone at that time. Nobody was with me, and so you go down memory lane as you drive through there.”
– By Doug Williams as told to Victor Whitman
– Top Photo by Doug Williams
