Dam That's Beautiful

July 13-15, 2019

Country Corners RV Park, Caldwell, Idaho

Day 29-31

Easy drive, no real traffic but again it’s hot (99 F)! We took the interstate, but it felt more like a state road. Speed limit in Idaho is 70 and even 80 in some parts – and helmets are not required for motorcycles! I don’t feel much like driving over 65 with the trailer, so I continue to stay in the slow lane and let cars pass me. There is so much responsibility pulling a trailer – you have to constantly look in your mirrors (and I have a backup camera on the trailer so I can see people in my blind spot) and make sure you have more than enough room between you and the guy in front of you to stop in an emergency.

Unhitched and immediately went looking for a watering hole for Sparky. We went to Lucky Peak State Park just outside of Boise. It’s about a 35-minute drive to Discovery Park at Lucky Peak. Nice green park that had live music playing for a bicycle rally. There's a section where the kayaks are that's dog friendly. Water is clear, shallow and incredibly cold, and wonderfully refreshing. I go up to my knees and he just barely goes to his tummy. We are both happy. Lots of families around us and people are really friendly. There are so many great outdoorsy activities in this state – from skiing to kayaking to bicycling - I had no idea.

Now we are off to check out downtown Boise. First let me say, it is really nice! Very green, clean and livable. I didn't see any homeless downtown, and I didn’t get the feeling they were bussed out to other cities either. They have a Whole Foods (probably the only one within 250 miles) which is good, I'll visit that later for a few key items I can't find anywhere else.

By now its 5-6pm (Saturday night). There's no traffic congestion on the interstate or downtown streets. I drive down Warm Springs Road thru the historic housing area. It’s beautiful, well maintained and not over built. The older homes have nice big front yards, trees, and again, it's very green. There are a few festivals going on (scavenger hunt and twilight bike race) in nearby downtown. Things are so orderly and the small amount of traffic thru the closed off streets runs very smoothly. I am amazed there isn't more car traffic. Driving back to camp was a breeze at the 80mph limit.

Weather alert – told thunderstorms and possibly golf ball size hail tonight. Yikes! Golf ball size hail is not good for Airstreams, or any trailer. Fortunately, the midnight storm brought only pea size hail for a short time. Dodged a bullet…

Day 2 – It’s another hot day. The skies are so blue with scattered clouds. It's beautiful. Left Sparky behind in the trailer and went to Jiffy Lube for an oil change while the car was still cool. Stopped into the local grocery store to stock up. Surprisingly, prices were not less. The produce offerings are anemic and the groceries generic. I make do.

Picked up Sparky to find another watering hole and explore Birds of Prey Park, Snake River Dam and wine country. Stopped in Kuna, a small town on the way to Birds of Prey. They had a small park with a stream that people kayak on. What a find! The water was so clear and cool. They had cement stairs going into the water, making access really easy. A small boy liked Sparky so much he carried him out about 10 feet so he could swim back to shore. He did that for about 30 minutes, it was awesome. Sadly, I left my phone in the car so no pics.

From there, we drove thru Snake River Birds of Prey Conservation Area - an amazing, flat, desolate park. Honestly, I was going to blow it off because it didn't seem that interesting. Boy was I wrong. Though there were some fields of grass, it was mostly flat parched land with sagebrush. At times, I didn’t see another car for 10-15 minutes. It took about 30 minutes to drive thru this park to get to the Snake River Dam. What makes this dam so spectacular is that it looks like the Grand Canyon! The land at the bottom, near the dam is BLM (Bureau of Land Management) which you can camp on. This type of campsite is a little too primitive for me at this point, but I hope to with others one day. The views are worth it.

Back on the road, we take the Snake River Canyon Scenic Byway thru wine country. Again, hardly any cars. At one point, I didn't pass one car for 15 miles! I really didn’t see that many wineries either; coming from California, I guess I thought the "wine country area" would have had more. The one I stopped at turned out to be the oldest, Chapelle. They have a nice tasting room with food, and live music outdoors. Idaho’s state fruit is the huckleberry, so it’s no surprise they add it to wine. I purchased some champagne and Riesling both made with grapes and huckleberries (BTW the champagne was great).

It’s still a scorcher at 5pm, so we go looking for another watering hole called Lowell Lake. This man-made lake has a beach and allows dogs. I met a local, originally from Minnesota, that works for Salesforce (based in SF). She has a small dog too, and fortunately both dogs get along. Talked about the housing market in Boise and how Californians are driving the prices up, so some locals are resentful. Suggested I downplay coming from California – will do! She really likes it here. The winters are not too bad because they get little snow and it doesn’t stick. And, they don’t get tornados. I am starting to really like Boise.

As if all the driving/activity today wasn’t enough, I drive back downtown to go see the historic homes district again. The drive is about 30 minutes at 70 mph. I get there only to realize I am too tired and drive back to camp, about 40 minutes away at 70 mph.

I catchup on calls and curse my iPhone because of the poor reception. I can either talk in the truck or while sitting up in the trailer. If I lay down, my reception sucks. I am really tired, so I want to lay down which means no phone calls. Radio here isn't bad, aside from a few country stations (one playing classic old country), there is a college station 89.9 which is really refreshing. I listen to music instead of TV and call it a night.