The Lewises go to lunch

Don and I took a day trip today. We decided to take a scenic route to a small town, have lunch, and then come home. Right now we’re about halfway between my birthday (Sept. 6) and Don’s birthday (Oct. 5), so we called it a joint birthday celebration.

It might also be worth noting this is the first meal out we’ve had since I lost my online job in February, so we were determined to make the most of it.

We left around 9 am. The day was bright and sparkling, warm but not hot. Much of our drive was along a beautiful river.

Periodically we saw bridges across the river – most of them private – and envy the fortunate souls who had the ultimate privacy barrier.

This stretch of road has amazing power lines. They swooped along steep slopes, they climbed mountains, they bridged the river. I don’t know how the utility crews did it.

It was about the point where we stopped at a foot bridge across the river that I realized I had a very dusty camera lens. Grunt.

Dusty or not, the view was gorgeous.

We passed many steep and dramatic slopes.

Photos just don’t do justice to the scenery.

We stopped at one point along a sun-dappled stretch of water with beams of sunlight streaming through the trees.

We had it all to ourselves.

The shore was covered with a variety of whitish metamorphic and igneous rocks (says my geologist husband).

After a couple of hours of driving, we fetched up to the small town which was our destination.

And here … the Lewises went to lunch. Woot!

In truth, the food was generous but mediocre. Don said his burger and fries were fine. I had chicken-fried steak, hash browns, and sourdough toast. The potatoes were underdone and tasteless (I didn’t finish them), and the toast was completely dry (no butter). But hey, we were in such a happy mood that we didn’t care.

Afterward we drove around some of the town’s outskirts. One home we passed was little more than a junk yard, go figure.

We went in a different direction and skirted some broad meadows which offered beautiful views.

Very Idaho-esque, no?

Another junky place. Sadly, they’re fairly common in even the prettiest rural areas.

We retraced our route out of town and down the windy road….

…admiring the dramatic vistas as we went.

So that was our lunchtime excursion. We were home by 2 pm. As birthday celebrations go, it was great … despite those awful hash browns.

Source: http://www.rural-revolution.com/2025/09/the-lewises-go-to-lunch.html