I Usually Don't

I've been traveling for my job since 1997 and I've been to many place in the west. I drive everywhere. I never fly. Not out of choice, or out of a fear of flying. I love to fly, but I just have to drive so I can stop at many different places along the way. Most of the time I'm either in such a hurry, or just a creature of habit that I really don't stop to see things along the way. The exception to that rule is when I take my friend Russ with me, but more on him some other time. Today I was driving from McCall ID down to Boise. For a while I was following a river. I've done that countless times. Follow a river I mean. I used to make a regular trip up to Salmon ID and I would follow the Salmon River for 2-3 hours. I look over at the scenery all the time, but a usually don't stop. My "enjoyment" of the world around me last mere seconds and is usually seen through glass. Well, today I stopped and got out to look, not once, not twice, but THREE times in the course of 30 minutes. I've driven that stretch of road before. I've seen the river. Today I ENJOYED the river. Granted, it wasn't for a long period of time, maybe 5 minutes at two of the stops and 10-15 at the last, but for me, that's an eternity. I took pictures and even climbed down on to some rocks near the last place. I stood there and felt the mist on my face from the rushing water. I listened to the roar of the water. I smelled the fresh mountain air. (Russ would be proud.) Did it delay me? A little. But that just didn't seem to bother me as much today. I still finished what I had to do and just got to the hotel 30 minutes later than I would have. I think I won. Maybe it's because of this blog. Who knows? If it was because of this, then it's already been useful. Here's a few pictures and even a video. For some reason, my phone decided to stop taking pictures while out on the rock at the last location, but you can still see it from higher up.