Idaho brought with it the Idaho Potato Museum & The Craters of the Moon...and it did NOT disappoint!! Back in March when we were planning this Rte 20 Trip and were looking for a Harvest Host spot between campgrounds in Idaho, it became a Kay-Must-Stay choice of the Potato Museum because...hellllooooo??!!!...where else would one stay in Idaho? Who cared that it was in an asphalt parking lot on a main street abutting a railroad track?? It was the bleepin' IDAHO POTATO MUSEUM!!!! I was like a little kid in a candy store - I have no idea why, but this was up there on my anticipation list. And for a little museum in a little town in Idaho - this museum was well worth the effort! It was truly fascinating to learn about all things potato! Growing, grading, processing, nutrition, the secret of McDonald's fries etc... Idaho processes about 13 billion pounds of potatoes a year - how amazing is THAT??! For more fun facts, check out the little collage I included in my photos of some of my favorite facts learned at this gem of a museum! Oh, and when I was looking around the museum I felt like I was having olfactory hallucinations as I kept smelling the amazing smell of french fries. However, I soon learned that I was, in fact, smelling french fries as they were being cooked in the little cafe adjacent to the museum! And OMG they were delicious! We bought some to have with dinner in our trailer as a side dish to our cold grilled chicken that Karl had cooked in preparation for this leg of the journey. I also purchased some potato soup because it just felt wrong to pass it up! I ended up having the chowder for breakfast the next morning and that was actually a BRILLIANT idea. Chowder-for-breakfast...you heard it hear first! (I wouldn't want a fish or clam chowder in the morning but potato was perfection.) Oh yeah, I also had some potato ice cream. Yep, you read that right AND it's not disgusting in the least...You see they simply use the dehydrated potato as the thickening agent; it is NOT some frozen mashed potato concoction as I had feared!
After dinner we took the opportunity to update our trailer map with our Montana and Idaho stickers, leaving one little space for the infamous OREGON and the end of US Rte20! The hilarious exclamation point of our stay here in our paved parking lot was the train that went by in the wee hours of the morning and felt the need to continuously blow its horn. We knew we were next to train tracks and were prepared for the noise of said train...but the whistle blowing was so crazy-ass it brought us to laughter in the middle of the night! In the morning when a mini train went by in the daylight I realized we were not only next to the train but at an intersection with a side street - so they probably HAD to blow that sucker intermittently in case there was traffic. So, given that, the evening train must have had a ton of cars attached because it lasted a long while and had tons of toots. (I've included a video clip to illustrate our proximity - make sure you have the volume up.)
We then moved on to Arco, ID and Mountain View Arco RV Park for a few days. This was one of those campgrounds that we chose simply because it got us from point A to point B in our journey. And as it so happened - it turned out to be one of those places we were very happy to have happened upon! A nice couple had just purchased it the previous year and they were really invested in improving it - so we felt good about supporting their efforts. They were really nice to Penny and I offered to clip their dog’s nails. This is a testament to their nice quotient as this was the ONLY time I have offered this service to someone and I hadn’t even met their dog yet - so had no idea if she was going to eat me or die of a coronary from my intervention! (EDITOR’S NOTE: I often share with dog owners that we meet that I am “a retired dog groomer with mega dog withdrawals” only for an explanation as to why I am making out with their dogs like some crazy lady! Many people, when they learn this fact amount me, comment that they would’ve “let me” clip their dogs nails “if only they had brought their clippers!”…to which I reply (only to myself) - GEE…thanks!!! For the record I NEVER offer my services and would refuse if asked unless I WANTED to. Anyway, I DID offer in this instance and had no regrets as their dog was a nervous old sweetie and it would have been a time consuming project for them to take her to the groomers - not to mention time they did not have.
If you look up Arco, ID you will learn that it was the first city in the world to be lit by atomic power. Karl really wanted to tour the power plant and we were mega bummed that the tours were “on hold” due to CoVid. HOWEVER, our campground owners told us that the Craters of the Moon National Monument & Preserve was in town and worth the trip…IT WAS!!!! Craters of the Moon was crazy-ass AWESOME!!!! I Totally felt like I was in an episode of Star Trek (the TV show, not the movies) when Scottie beams them up somewhere and they are in these barren rocky areas walking around trying to figure out what had caused the terrain …it was WAY COOL!!!!! Unfortunately, we had Penny with us in the truck so we couldn’t partake in some of the amazing hikes or go on tours of the caves. But we were able to go into the welcome center/museum and read about the amazingness and we then drove around the 7 mile loop and got out to explore and take pics of the various lava fields, volcanic cones and sagebrush steppe grasslands. Hopefully our pics do this place SOME justice. One thing I came away from this day with was the fact that Mother Nature is some intricate, brilliant, and high-powered chick!!!!
Finally, to close this post I will leave you with a little rhyme from my childhood that immediately came to mind when we entered Idaho. I couldn’t stop repeating these sing-songy phrases to myself and I still have no idea where or when I learned them. I will give you the rhyme followed, in parentheses, by the interpretation for those who need it! And feel free to email me or text me if it is familiar to you because I have absolutely NO IDEA where it came from but is still stuck in my brain a gazillion years later…
Here goes:
If Mississippi and Missouri wore their New Jerseys, what would Delaware? Idaho - Alaska!
(If Miss Issippi and Miss Ouri wore their New Jerseys, what would Della wear? I don’t know - I’ll ask her!!)
Comments