First a few photos of scenes along the way…

Today was the second time we made a serious deviation from our travel plan. The first was when we aborted the Hatteras Ferry crossing due to high winds that canceled all trips.

We had planned to head to West Yellowstone for two days of exploring that area.  However, looking at the weather for the next several days, we would be heading into cold, rainy weather in each location.  If we held back a day we would have a better chance of missing much of the worst of it.

And – we had been considering spending another day in Twin Falls anyway to see the flag unfurled near the Perrine Memorial Bridge. Plus there were other things to see in Twin Falls.   We had a lazy morning, including a short e-bike ride (Scott’s rear tire is still leaking a little). We then ate lunch in the campground, Scott took the daily nap he missed yesterday, and then we backtracked 45 minutes to Twin Falls.

First stop was the scene of the camper calamity where things went flying. We went to the corner and found clear evidence of the hitch scaping and black marks on the curb, but the distance of the scaping marks from the curb was more than one half the width of the camper. There was a shallow swale drainage where the roads, and we watched several cars and trucks rock bath and forth, especially when crossing the swale at an angle. Without conclusive evidence to the contrary, Tom asserts that although the rocking was significant, both sets of latches are worn and released when they should have held.

The next stop was the Hansen Bridge over the Snake River, another high bridge.  Lots of great views and informative signs, though some were a bit faded and graffitied.  On one of the signs we saw information about the Twin Falls County Museum.  More about that after these photos of the bridge and canyon.

The Twin Falls County Museum was housed in a former small elementary school, and had lots of great artifacts and some good exhibits.  There were also lots of old stuff – like a very early typewriter, a “check sorting machine”, and a WWII era teletype that could have benefited greatly from explanatory information.

While at the Museum, Tom enjoyed talking restoration of pump organs and wowed the docents with pictures of the 1903 Farrand organ he restored to working order.

It was getting time for the great flag unfurling, which was scheduled for 6PM.  It was also raining. There was a fierce wind blowing and our earlier plan to ride our bikes to the visitors center where the main activities were scheduled was looking less and less inviting.  We decided to go the Redhawk Gastropub near Perrine Coulee Falls where we could eat dinner and decide how or whether to watch the flag unfurl.

After dinner the rain seemed to have passed, but if anything the wind increased intensely and it was getting cooler.  We decided not to risk riding the bikes, but drove to an outlook over the canyon where we watched the flag unfurl.  We were still a half mile or so away from the flag, but you could hear it flutter in the wind.  It did not drape at all – at times it went upward rather than downward in the strong wind.  But we knew how big it was (150 ft x 78 ft, BTW), and it was impressive nonetheless.

After taking lots of pictures, we returned to the campground for blogging and bed…