I was told this week that Spring Break is “the way the valley used to be. They were referencing the quiet roads that come with the traditional time when so many families pack up and leave the valley for warmer conditions.

I can recall asking someone where they were headed for Spring Break. The response, “It doesn’t matter, I’m just driving south until the pickup truck outside temperature reads 72 degrees, then I’ll stop there.”

As I hear this year, there were a lot of places on Star Valley’s Spring Break travel plans this week that surpassed that 72-degree mark.

Safe travels to everyone.

Now back to the “way it used to be.” I miss those days when I ran up and down the valley for newspaper stories in all of our communities. Afton to Alpine was easy in those days. And, occasionally, Smoot!

As the years went by, that running up and down the valley was challenged by endless and congested summer traffic — by those seeking quiet mountain escapes — something we just call “home.”

I think it all changed with COVID back in 2020. In those days, traffic increased as air travel was challenged by health regulations.

People got in the vehicles and crisscrossed the nation looking for little get-aways; places, like Star Valley.

I realized this one night after another long day of work. I have this little tradition, if there is time at the end of an extended workday, I reward myself to a  fresh strawberry shake at the ‘Baron. It’s something I do on those days that start at 4 a.m. and close somewhere around 8 in the evening.

One night while spooning my great tasting thick shake, I looked up and down the parking line at the drive-in and saw licenses, not just from Utah and California, that we usually see, but plates from Texas, Michigan, Illinois and Florida.

I though to myself, ‘We’ve been discovered.’

It hasn’t been the same since the summer of ‘20.