The Long and Winding Road

It was all Randy's fault. He started humming the Beatles' The Long and Winding Road. It played a constant sound track in my head as we traveled 3,255 miles, far from the flat 90-degree-angle roads of central Kansas. (He knows songs get stuck in my head: It was a conspiracy, I tell you!)

Randy's brother Lyle has lived in Cascade, Idaho, for 9 years, where he bought the Pinewood Lodge.

It was our first trip to see him. The winding roads took us away from our 100-degree-plus temperatures and the scorched, drought-stricken landscapes to hidden oasis nestled in trees.

Warm Lake near Cascade, Idado (It wasn't warm, but it sure was clear!)

It was difficult for this flatlander to get used to the idea that a thumb-width distance on a map would take twice as long down the winding, corkscrew roads of Idaho.

(Another snapshot of Warm Lake, one of Lyle's and his wife, Crystal's, fishing spots.)

There were some knuckle-gripping rides as this Kansas native peered out the side window, where only a thin white line and flimsy barricades separated us from an imagined plunge into the tree-lined canyons.

But it was worth it to come to spots where the only sound heard was the trill of birds, and the morning air was filled with the scent of pine.

In another of Lyle's favorite fishing spots along the Payette River south of Cascade, bees fished for nectar, Randy fished for trout, and I read a good book.

His fishing expedition was unsuccessful ... at least in terms of fish caught.

But images of fall crops burning up in Kansas fields drifted away as surely as this raft full of other vacationers ... at least for a little while.

If you, too, want to listen to our "theme song" for our trip through Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and Idaho, check out this youtube version: