Keepin' it real in Riggins.

The first thing I noticed, upon returning from a morning run, was the fact that five out of six of these guys were wearing green ~ thereby adhering to the directive on Rafe's shirt. But in keeping with the oblivion so common to males, they hadn't even realized it themselves. (Once I pointed it out to them, Jan promptly went and changed clothing.)

Note, by the way, the über-extended bike rack, altered by our handy-dandy dairy technician. Seven bikes get strapped on here in a rather unwieldy fashion, thereby further increasing the fuel inefficiency of the Carbon Footprint Enhancer.

When I was a child, family road trips typically involved reaching a given Destination. The journey was a means to an end and that entailed mapping a route and putting in some serious daily mileage. Which, in turn, required rising bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to hit the road.

Well, perhaps we weren't all bright-eyed. Or bushy-tailed. But when a former Army drill sergeant pulls off the bed covers, claps his hands heartily, and sing-songs, "It's time to get up! It's time to get up! It's time to get up in the morning!", you follow orders with minimal complaint. And then, years later as an adult, you rebel by engaging in the ultimate road trip taboo: Sticking around town until afternoon. In my case, you still rise-n-shine early ~ leaving the rest of the family contentedly asleep ~ and take a run or a bike ride. You explore your surroundings, either yearning to live there or praising God you don't. You get to know a place, just a bit, before moving on.

Such was the case on the first full day of our road trip. I enjoyed a long, early-morning bike ride while the guys slept. They breakfasted on the hotel so-called food while I found good coffee & pastries elsewhere. And then they spent two hours horsing around in the pool while I did nothing in particular. Finally, when check-out time arrived, we acknowledged that we weren't going to simply stay put in Walla Walla, but still spent some time biking before settling in for a drive.

Now, given that our kinda-maybe-sorta next stop was Boise ~ 260 miles away via the shortest route ~ and given that it was already mid-afternoon, one would think we'd take that shortest route. But no. Of course not. That would be too obvious.

Several hours later, it was clear that north-central Idaho offers a whole heckuvva lot more scenic beauty than it does places to rest one's weary head. So, keep driving. Hope for...something...anything.

And that's where Riggins comes in. The first thing we noticed about Riggins is that it was packed. It's a rinky-dink place in the middle of nowhere, yet cars were lining both sides of the highway (the only street in town). The town didn't look like it offered a whole heckuvva lot, but it sure was a hot spot, as evidenced by the various "No Vacancy" signs that greeted us upon our arrival. Clearly, this po-dunk place wasn't our destiny.

But wait! Did our eyes deceive us? A Best Western ~ and a really lovely Best Western, at that ~here of all places? With a room available? Hallelujah!

And so began our love affair with Riggins. Is it beautiful? Well, no, not really. But that's made up for by the natural surroundings, by the authenticity & friendliness of the people ~ people who genuinely want to be living there, who in some cases actually made sacrifices to be able to move there. As evidenced by the name of the river, people come there to fish. They drive in with ice chests strapped to their bumpers and load 'em up with salmon from runs that hit our Western Washington rivers more than half a year ago. Then they head back home. Or they buy beer, and drink complimentary beer, while soaking up the atmosphere of motels that are rilly, rilly cheap and still offer complimentary beer & homemade cookies. But some of them do stay at the nice Best Western Salmon River Lodge, which is why a letter at the front desk kindly asks guests not to clean fish in the bathtubs.

We don't know how good the fish actually taste, because despite being surrounded by people fishing, on the shores of a river teeming with fish, there was no fresh fish to be had in town. The one regrettable thing about Riggins is that aside from the unusually-good breakfast at the Best Western, the food situation leaves, ah, something to be desired. I never knew there were restaurants that "proudly serve pre-packaged food" along with "only the best corn-fed beef". But there are. And they're in Riggins.

The other big attraction in Riggins is river rafting. Since we weren't equipped to go salmon fishing, and couldn't so much as eat any salmon, we had to at least partake of the rafting. And so we did. It's not New York. It's not L.A. It's...Riggins! Keepin' it real.