Belated photo post.

As requested some images.  From Portland through to Idaho Falls. I don't have any of Salt Lake City yet. The drive was nice here but all the stops (and what I've seen of the city) have been kinda ugly.

The Rose Test Gardens in Portland were amazing. I couldn't get any landscape shots that did the place justice. I definitely picked the right time of year to visit this place.

I did have fun trying to be all arty taking close-ups of the more interesting flowers though. I loved the two tone roses and the dark purple and black ones were also pretty cool.

The 'authentic' Japanese gardens nearby were amazing as well. This is about the point where my camera ran out of batteries and I started using the ipad though.

You can kind of see one of the huge Coi(sp?) they in this picture on the bottom right hand side. Also in the background the huge fir tree forest the entire garden was set in (which is not very authentic, but was beautiful).

The view from the top of a hill rest-stop in Rural Oregon.

The rest-stops here are amazing. They all have buildings with vending machines, drink fountains, airconditioning and automatically flushing toilets. Since Idaho I think all have had free wifi and most have loads of tourist information (booklets and not just signage) plus payphones. Some have even had free coffee! The wifi has been fantastic. My tomtom is mostly pretty good, but it doesn't always show me the quickest or most interesting way. I also sometimes forget to book accommodation until I get halfway to a destination.

Me at Idaho Falls. Under a bridge. Unfortunately I didn't think to get a photo of myself until I was past the falls. I'll save those for another post though. It was strange being basically in the middle of a desert in the center of a continent and all of a sudden WATER EVERYWHERE though.

I'm currently in Salt Lake City, Utah. I traveled east from Oregon through Idaho and tomorrow I set out further east through Wyoming to Denver in Colorado to meet a friend of a friend who is letting me stay with her a few nights. She assures me she has cats that like strangers patting them! I might be missing Diesel the Cat a little.