Alice's Adventures Underground

While I was in Idaho last week, I took a day to drive up into the Sawtooth Mountains with some cousins.  Since it was a quick trip and because I had taken my violin with me in order to play at the funeral, I knew I'd be carrying a lot of paraphernalia around and I didn't bring my real camera.  You see folks, there are rules about my violin.  It doesn't get locked in a car trunk overnight.  It doesn't stay outside in moderate to extreme heat or cold.  And it DOESN'T get checked as baggage on an airplane.  Sorry, flight attendant on United, you can check someone's roller-board with two weeks worth of underwear they insisted on pretending was a carry-on because your stupid airline charges for checked baggage now, my violin is worth more than my car and it's not going to get bumped for that.  Let's just say some creative elbowing was employed and I didn't have to pitch a fit.

Once we got up here to Galena Summit, I kicked myself for the decision not to bring more than my camera phone. (Although in the end, maybe it's a good thing because I didn't annoy my traveling companions with the copious picture taking I'm want to do.) I often forget how mountainous parts of the state are because I spent a lot of time in the flat farmlands when I was growing up, but the mountain ranges of Idaho contain some of the most beautiful vistas and country I've ever seen.  Here, you can look down and see the headwaters of the Salmon River, which we drove along side for a good part of the trip.

It almost makes me want to chuck it all and move to a small town up there.  But I know that after a year or so, I'd start complaining about their lack of symphony opportunities and the inability to find guacamole take out at one a.m. and I'd probably decide to come back here.  Either that or I'd end up playing violin on the side of the road with an upturned bucket for tips and become persona non grata like Bruce Willis.