olmue: (Default)
olmue ([personal profile] olmue) wrote2010-09-11 11:30 pm
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SCBWI conference/Idaho

JUST got back from the SCBWI conference in Boise. If you look at a map of Idaho you'll see that there is an interstate (15/86/84) that runs like a smiley face along the Snake River plain. I live on the east end, and Boise is on the west. So last night we drove all the way across the smile and six hours later (or so) we got there. Today we got to repeat the whole thing backwards, only this time we cut straight across on smaller roads. Whoa. Middle of NOWHERE. We saw:

1. the Milky Way from inside the car. It was that dark.
2. Craters of the Moon National Monument. It's this hardened, cooled lava flow, and looks way cool.
3. a power transformer that exploded into tiny bits in front of our very eyes. Given how remote it was, I'm sure the people dependent on that will be without power until tomorrow.
4.  some large birds like oversized pigeons, one of which collided with our windshield (car okay, bird probably not)
5. four owls
6. two rabbits
7. one mouse
8. three deer
9. a whole herd of antelope
10. a coyote

Just your casual evening drive through Idaho. It's quite an amazing state--you really should visit sometime!

Anyway, I'll write more later about the conference, but the person I sat by (who runs #amwriting, if that means anything to you) tweeted it. You can see her notes here: http://twitter.com/johannalive with hashtag #BoiseSCBWI (and no, I don't know how that all works--just that right now I can see it when I look at her tweets.)

The biggest weirdness thing for me--as always--is to be in a room full of people thinking kidly thoughts and stories, but who externally look like everyday adults.

[identity profile] edawn.livejournal.com 2010-09-12 05:27 pm (UTC)(link)
It sounds like an interesting trip. We would love to come visit.


[identity profile] olmue.livejournal.com 2010-09-12 07:12 pm (UTC)(link)
Any time! :)

[identity profile] kathys-shadow.livejournal.com 2010-09-13 03:58 pm (UTC)(link)
There is something invigorating about normal adults thinking about kid thoughts/stories, all together at the same time. I love it.

I'm impressed that you saw the Milky Way from inside the car--it really must have been both dark and in the middle of nowhere. One of the saddest things to me about living in a city is that I can hardly ever see the stars.

[identity profile] olmue.livejournal.com 2010-09-13 04:25 pm (UTC)(link)
I could really tell that it had been a long time since I'd lived outside of light pollution--I forgot all those stars were there!

[identity profile] kathys-shadow.livejournal.com 2010-09-13 04:37 pm (UTC)(link)
That happened to me at the family camping trip in Southern Central Utah this summer...at about 2 in the morning I saw the most vivid sky I've ever seen. It felt so unreal that I could really see that many stars--that much of the galaxy.