A Great Day
A Great Day
by: Anna Gonzalez
The road trip began in June of 2016. I had just graduated school the month prior and wanted to take a drive through the West to visit my older sister who had relocated to Seattle a year before. Being from Kansas, I have low standards for what terrain I find interesting, and for the beginning of the drive, things seemed weary. Until my mom and I arrived in Denver, most things were f-l-a-t. A good portion of Wyoming was incredibly dull as well, but my mother who comes from Western Kansas has reminded me since my youth that there is beauty in simplicity. “How remarkable that you can see all the way to the horizon,” she would say.I’d had a colleague while I was a student who was from Idaho, and he always talked about how underrated a state Idaho was. Eager to see if he was right, I looked forward to the moment we crossed state lines. He mentioned Salmon and Salmon Valley specifically as a great place (I think maybe he has family there) to visit, so even though it was not on the way, Mom and I chose the scenic route. We were quickly glad we did. Because my mother has multiple sclerosis, we didn’t get a chance to do any hiking, biking, or fishing, but we could quickly tell what a perfect place Salmon Valley would be. It’s an outdoorsman’s (or outdoorswoman’s) dream. The residents were friendly, the food was great, lodging was cozy; temperatures were in the low 70’s (considerably cool for June in Kansas), the sun shone, and I don’t think I’ve ever breathed fresher air. It’s always been a dream of mine to visit Alaska, but I imagine it’s as close as you can get to feeling like you’re there without going that far north. Bob Ross once said, “God was having a good day when he made Alaska.” Well I think God was having a great day when he made Salmon Valley. Salmon was a wonderful place to visit, and I’m so glad we took the extra day to go. (Note from the author: We got so caught up in the trip, that–in a complete moment of idiocy–forgot to take photos, so I had to borrow the photo from the Salmon Valley tourism site. I’d like to note that it’s true to reality.)
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