2,810 Miles to Boston
I messed up.
I have planned and taken tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of road trip miles, so I usually have the process down to a science. Before every trip, I build a Google folder with a spreadsheet detailing hotels, mileage, possible restaurants, estimated costs, must-see stops, and maybe-see stops. I add reservation confirmations, maps, historical notes, and even a narrative itinerary. We stick to the main points and leave room for flexibility in between — freedom within form.
The day started as planned, which made it much easier to convince myself I could improve it.
We left Mountain Home early and almost immediately spotted a tank sitting beside the highway. Of course, we pulled over for our obligatory start-of-the-day selfie. The tank turned out to be a rare M1 Abrams Battle Tank displayed at a pullout marking the historic Rattlesnake Station stage stop, once a major crossroads of the Oregon Trail.
Which is the cooler ride?
As usual, I snapped pictures of highway informational signs on my path as well as a few of the wide-open Idaho landscape before we arrived at our first must-see stop of the day: Craters of the Moon National Park and Preserve.
Oodles of informational signs
Most people drive right on by on their way to Yellowstone, but it is one of my favorites. It feels like riding on another planet; maybe that is why NASA likes it as much as I do.
There was an informational sign (of course) just to the left with a picture of the landscape while that twisty tree was still alive.
From there, we passed through Arco, Idaho, which has the distinction of being the first town ever powered solely using nuclear energy. That led us to our first unplanned stop of the day, the EBR-I Nuclear Power Plant. I have never met a free museum I didn’t like, so we took the self-guided tour and stood on top of a nuclear reactor.
At lunch, we got cocky. We looked at the clock, looked at the mileage, and realized we would be at our hotel before 3:00. That sounded like wasted daylight. I cancelled the next two nights’ hotels, and we decided that we would go to Yellowstone National Park before heading back to our hotel, and then just go through it quickly again in the morning to stay on Highway 20.
Communication is key.
Before we realized our error.
In my husband’s mind, we were simply taking an unplanned trip to Old Faithful before heading back to the hotel. In my mind, we had plenty of time to take a scenic trip through the park right before sunset. Neither of us realized that we were talking about totally different itineraries.
The park was beautiful. It was nearly empty in the early evening; we saw bears, bison, elk, and even a moose. It still wasn’t worth it. About 6:00, my hips started cramping, my feet swelled up, and I wanted nothing more than to be in bed. I still had three more hours.
Lesson learned. Sometimes the best road trips come from unplanned detours. This wasn’t one of them.
Carousels and Curiosity 
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