Idaho, Oregon, and Idaho

In the last two days, we've been in two states, done two shows, and driven a zillion miles.  Not many times you can say that!

Any time we have a day on the road before a show, we try to find neat things to see.  After all, if you're traveling throughout the USA, why not see everything you can?  So, north of Twin Falls Idaho, Paula found a good one:

I had never heard of this place.  Look behind us here:

. . . and look where the kids are standing here:

That's all hardened lava!  Apparently there was underground lava which flowed through this area a long time ago.  Craters of the Moon is a several-miles-long area which consists of nothing but lava fields.  It really is quite the sight!

So, it was on towards our show in Oregon.  We stayed the night in Ontario (Oregon, not Canada) and had lunch at "Taco Time", somewhere we had never been.  Eli enjoyed howling like the decorative wolf:

We got to Pendleton a couple of hours before set-up time, so we decided to find a park where the kids could play.  This is Pioneer Park:

Remember the thing that always used to be on playgrounds, which was a round platform with handles (and mounted in the center so that it could spin)?  You would stand on it with a bunch of your friends, and get it spinning ridiculously fast, while you desperately tried to fight the centrifugal force and hang on.  I don't know what that was called, so I always called it the "Guaranteed-to-fling-you-off-at-breakneck-speed-wheel-of-doom".  You don't find those on playgrounds anymore (they took out all the good stuff), but here at Pioneer Park, they apparently have a similar thing:

Several kids can jump on this and get it spinning fast.  There was a lot here that I had never seen!

The time came to load in for the show.  It's always fun to see things like this outside the spot we're performing:

Pastor Marc did a great job of setting everything up.  Several big guys were on hand to help move in the big road cases.  The show was awesome- the folks in Oregon were just as much fun as last time! 

Something really cool happened- when we were at the park earlier, Silas had invited a family to come see the show (Silas has never met a stranger in his life).  The family actually came to the show!  They sat in the front row and laughed the whole way through.

We can't wait to return to Oregon.  Thanks Pendleton!

So, we faced 378 miles to our next show.  We chose to get half of the driving out of the way after the show, which got us to our hotel at about 2:30 A.M.

We woke after a few hours sleep and drove to today's show in Heyburn Idaho.  To our surprise, this was the second city in a row to use this form of advertising:

They had a nice big stage, complete with a luxury we don't get very often- working curtains in the front!

Apparently, when you're backstage before the show, this is the way you get your hair done:

That's actually a perfectly ordinary sight before our show.  Isn't it normal to do things like prepare a metal blade that goes through a cabinet, or say things like "It's almost time, everybody get in the box"?

The crowd here was incredible!  There were lots of people who weren't members of this church, but had come in to see what this was all about:

During the show, we had a fun thing happen.  I do an escape where members of the audience secure me in a straitjacket and a long heavy chain.  I always tell them to get things as secure and tight as they can- and they often do- but tonight, the volunteer was SERIOUS!  He got everything so tight that I could barely breathe, and he tied knots in the straitjacket behind my back.  It was all good in the end, though, because even though the escape may have taken a moment longer than usual, everything worked fine.  This really was a tough one, though.  No acting required!

The people were so nice!  After the show, we talked with the crowd for quite a while.  Heyburn was a new city for us and we're really looking forward to when we can return.

So, tomorrow, it's on to Pocatello Idaho.  We can't wait to see all of our friends there!