Sunday-Tuesday, August 8-10, 2021 - Idaho is a Beautiful State

Sunday-Tuesday, August 8-10, 2021 - Idaho is a Beautiful State

Sunday, August 8, 2021 - From Filer, ID to Pocatello, ID

We had a good night's sleep, resting up for the move today.  It was another cool morning that required getting a couple of light throws out to warm us for the first few hours of the day.

After breakfast I started putting things away while Dean took care of a few chores outside.  Once I put the slides in, he washed the area above all three slides since we were unable to wash them yesterday.  It was 11:06am when we pulled out of the County Fairground RV Park in Filer, ID.

It was an easy drive.  For the most part the countryside was similar to what we've seen since we arrived in Homedale (near Twin Falls).  Much of it was farmland, that we enjoyed along the way.  Dean was raised on a farm and I always enjoyed going to my Grandpa and Grandma Stapleton's farm near Hallowell, KS.  We both enjoy driving in the countryside, and the ride today was no different.

It's mostly wide open.  We were stopped at a rest area when I took this picture of the Interstate.  You will notice it was another hazy day with smoke.  Fortunately there was little smell.

Another long, lonely - but beautiful highway.

You can't beat the luscious green in these fields.

We saw many, many bales of hay stacked like this one today.

We arrived at Bannock County Fairgrounds at 1:44pm, making a short drive for us today.  We were surprised we were in the last row, which required backing in, while every other row in the campground were all pull-thru sites.  It wasn't a problem, just surprising.  (We thought there might be an event coming in - but only one other RV showed up while we were here).  Since it was Sunday there was no one on site to ask about moving.  We're only here three days so it will be fine.

Bentley in our site, #260.

All of the empty spaces that are pull thru's.

Once we were set up I made a light lunch, then we headed out to see the layout of Pocatello, ID.  As is often the case, if Dean learns there is a golf course, that is one of the first things he likes to check out, and it was no different today.  It was a gorgeous course, and we suspect it was built many years ago, due to the layout of the trees and their size.  I'm sorry I did not get any pictures to share.

Next, we drove to the Historic Downtown District.  We love looking around the communities we choose to stay in.  This was a treat as many of the original downtown buildings have been well maintained or renovated, and the area is clean and attractive.  I took a few pictures - it's difficult to take them as we drive - so they are not the finest you'll see.

An old Kress Building that has been repurposed.  It is a beautiful structure.

I loved this sign and apologize for the dirty window.

Another neat sign in the downtown area.  I would love to see these lights at night.

 We thought this was part of the park at first, until we noticed their house mostly hidden behind all of the landscaping.

We enjoyed the drive today, the shortest distance we've traveled on this journey, and we enjoyed checking out Pocatello, Idaho.

Monday, August 9, 2021 - Craters of the Moon NP

We have a plan for today - to visit Craters of the Moon National Preserve near Arco, ID and on our way back to check out Idaho Falls, ID.

Soon after breakfast, we headed northwest on our drive for the day.  I am so thankful for states that maintain nice rest areas along the interstates.  Our first stop was at one that also had some interesting information posted. 

This was very interesting and I'm sorry I was not able to get a better picture.  We waited for awhile for several people who were looking at it to leave, but this was the picture the best I could get.  The board maintains a monitoring station for wind, air temperature, humidity, dew point, barometric pressure and solar energy.  It was very interesting to watch several of the numbers change as we watched.  The sun was behind us, which didn't help the picture taking!

As we continued on down the highway we drew near Craters of the Moon National Momument and Preserve.  We pulled into a large parking area before reaching our destination, again with a sign to advise us of information, seen below.  (Don't forget you can click on the pictures to enlarge them for easier reading, if you are interested.)

We stopped to check out the informational sign shown above, where I also took a picture of the volcanoes noted on the sign.   There was a large parking area here where many people had stopped to walk out onto the lava fields.  

The two pictures below are closeups of some of the lava rocks.  I thought they were interesting to see all of the small holes.  It reminded me of a sponge.  The smaller rocks that were broken off were very light weight.

We left this area moving on to the Craters of the Moon Park Office where we picked up a map and flyer about the area.  The park has a nice paved road to drive through with several pullouts so you can stop to see interesting information along the way.

When we first noticed these areas in the pictures above we first thought it was small rocks, but on closer observation we realized these were small clusters of flowers.  As the sign below notes it is Dwarf Buckwheat's...see lower right side.

You can click on any picture to enlarge it.

A panorama shot of the area.  Notice the hill on the right, later we walked up that.  It was a gain of  approximately 160'.  We had to stop a few times before we made it.  It was such a beautiful area to look out over once we arrived at the top.  On our way down the hill, we met two ladies coming up, using their walking sticks.  Now, why didn't we think of that.  Ours were in the backseat of the truck.

I really wanted to pick up one of these little shiny rocks to bring back to Jaxson, but signs clearly stated we were prohibited from removing any rocks from the area.  So Jax, this is the best I can do.

Here we are at the top of the hill we climbed - we enjoyed many beautiful views from every direction.  We spent quite a bit of time walking around here.

I loved the lone tree at the top of the hill/mountain.

We loved it enough, we had to take a selfie.  I finally got Dean to give me a good smile!  

Another panoramic shot on top of the mountain.

A few more pictures from atop the mountain.

To provide perspective of the height - the two couples at top left are just starting down.  We waited at the top until they reached the first rise on the way down to take the picture in the upper right.  The bottom picture on the left is when they made it to the bottom.  The one on the right is the picture I took when we were still at the top.

I was taking a picture of Dean at the Spatter Cones location.  A lady asked if she could take a picture of both of us, which was so kind of her.  Not the best picture - too shaded and I should have removed my sunglasses, but here we are at Craters of the Moon National Preserve.

Spatter Cones

If you look close in the picture above, you can see people walking down the mountain we were on earlier.  

A few other pictures we took before we left the area.

We left the Craters of the Moon NP shortly after 1:00pm, making our way back to the nearest town Arco, ID, where we stopped to have lunch and check out the town.

Lunch was at the Golden West Cafe.  It was a good choice.  We had hot pork sandwiches - the whole works with mashed potatoes, pork on the bread with gravy all over.  It was very good.  Then we shared a piece of bread pudding, and Dean enjoyed a small dish of ice cream.  The bread pudding was very good - it reminded me of gingerbread.  The owner's granddaughter was our waitress.  She told me the sauce was brown sugar warmed it hot water.  It sure was good!

Where we ate lunch.

This is an interesting long time activity in Arco.  

Arco Number Hill is a long time tradition, beginning with the Class of 1920 from Butte Co. High School.

  Click to enlarge the sign.

Enlarge this to see the numbers.  

Dean asked our waitress about it and if she had participated.  She said her class did, but she was afraid of heights.  They actually lower people down in order to paint the numbers on this mountain of rock.  She said her mom helped paint it the year she graduated in 1993.  It takes about two days to complete the numbers. 

As we drove by this, I asked Dean, is that part of a submarine on display.  Sure enough it was!  It is Idaho's "Submarine in the Desert".

City of Arco City Hall - Arco is known for being the "First City in the World Lit by Atomic Power".

 

ATOMS FOR PEACE

AN IMPORTANT PAGE IN ATOMIC HISTORY WAS WRITTEN HERE ON JULY 17, 1955, WHEN THE LIGHTS OF ARCO WERE SUCCESSFULLY POWERED FROM ATOMIC ENERGY.

Chosen by the Atomic Energy Commission as an experiment in the peaceful use of atomic power. Arco, Idaho became the first town in the free world to be served by electrical energy developed from the atom. The energy for this experiment was produced at the National Reactor Testing Station in the Arco desert southeast of here.

We enjoyed our visit to Craters of the Moon NP and the City of Arco, ID.  It was time to make our way back towards Pocatello, but we have one more stop to make before we arrive.

The City of Idaho Falls name fits well as you can see by the pictures below.  We made our way to the beautiful park, known as the Idaho Falls River Walk - Greenbelt Trail, part of the Snake River.  

Gorgeous area.  We were not sure what we would find, but didn't expect it to be as nice as this.  A wonderful walk along the Greenbelt Trail in downtown Idaho Falls.

Cute bench (taken from the backside) along the way.

My first time trying to include a video in the blog.  I don't know if it will work or not.  It doesn't work when I click it, but I'll leave it here in case it has to post before it works.  If not, any suggestions on what I might be doing wrong?

Great Moose sculpture.  Moss is growing on his back.

What a beautiful bench!

I haven't included a Flag picture in awhile.  It was so beautiful flying out in the middle of this land near the Falls.

We loved this gorgeous waterfall with the Eagles. If you look close there are eaglets in the nest on the right. Just below there is a mountain lion on the right side below the falls.  It was located in the middle of a roundabout so I had to take it while driving.   (This made me think of a lady back home Karen B. who loves watching the eagles near our hometown.)

Tuesday, August 10 - A Day of Chores Preparing for Our Move Tomorrow

While there are other things to see in the area, we have things we need to do today before we move on tomorrow.  Last night just before we went to bed, I noticed the light in the shower was out.  I searched our drawer where we keep parts or things we need specifically for the RV.  We did not have an extra bulb to replace it.  

I opened the back shade this morning - I should have done it sooner.  Not only was it a nice view of the mountains but the sky was blue with no smoke.

After breakfast this morning, Dean googled RV Stores in Pocatello.  He drove to Crossroads RV and fortunately they had the light bulb we needed.  He bought two extra for any future outages.  I had several things I needed to do and one was to call the Cherokee pharmacy in Vinita to get a couple of prescriptions refilled while we are here in Idaho.  I wish it was as simple as making that one call, but it required a few phone calls before it was finalized.  

We left a short time later for Walmart.  We needed a few RV items and a few grocery items.  When Dean went to the RV store earlier he found a shorter route to and from the RV Park which made our trip much quicker than how Google Maps wanted to direct us.  By the time we had found all of the items we needed and paid for them, my prescription was ready, and we were soon back home.

My Grandpa (Lawrence) Stapleton's younger sister, Edith lives here in Pocatello.  Prior to leaving on this trip I had asked my mom's cousin Lorene, if Aunt Edith would be up to visiting with me if I called her.  She encouraged me to do so, as she calls her every week or two.  I was really surprised when I found out she is 103 years old.  I called her this morning and we had such a nice visit.  She sounded pretty spry for her age. I believe I met her once when they came back to Kansas, but I was pretty young, so it is a faint memory.  She wanted me to call Wanda Jo, which I believe was her sister's (Aunt Elvie's) daughter, so when we hung up I called her too.  I really enjoyed visiting with her as well and found we had a commonality as she and her husband traveled in their RV too.  While they did not full-time, they did visit many states over the years.  This trip has turned out to be a wonderful time visiting with family.  We are sorry we missed visiting with Dean's nieces in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho.  We expect to visit this area again in a couple of years so we hope we'll have another opportunity then.  

I put a roast in the crock pot for our dinner tonight which gave me plenty of time to do a few other things, including washing a couple load of clothes.

Since we are on the road full-time, we can't get away from taking care of business things, and we both had a few things that required phone calls and computer input of one kind or another.    

After dinner and the dishes were done, we drove to a nearby Freddy's Frozen Custard for a little custard treat.  When we returned we took the time to wash the windows on the truck in preparation for our drive tomorrow.  

Taken after we finished washing the windows.  I love the reflection on Bentley!

Dean was watching a movie tonight that neither of us had seen before, The Astronaut Farmer.  It was a great movie.  To me it was just a good decent movie, and the only movie I've ever enjoyed with Billy Bob Thornton in it.  

Tomorrow we will head south.