Idaho

Idaho, in general, wasn't our cup of tea. It was hot, and there were a lot of bugs. One of the first things we noticed, too, was that everyone watered their lawns. It was mid-August, and everything was green even though it was 100 degrees outside. People were watering their weeds, sidewalks, and in the RV park we stayed at they kept the sprinklers on all night. 

Coming from Washington, where it rains nine months of the year, this was an odd sight for us. It's really common for communities there to restrict water use, and even in the nicest neighborhoods people don't water their lawns in August, but let them dry up. Maybe it's because we all know there that they'll turn back to green in September, or a community value of conservation, or both. 

In Boise there isn't a lot to do downtown, but we did enjoy the paella at the Basque Market. The highlight of this portion of the trip was catching up with a college friend of mine, and then making good time across the state as we headed to Yellowstone.

After Boise we made it through to Pocatello. I was trying to make reservations as we drove, but wasn't having much luck. When I call a RV place I've learned to ask, "Are there any special instructions for getting into this spot?" and then politely decline if it's anything along the lines of "Just move the garbage cans out of the way and you can park there" or "Go past the mobiles and barn . . ."

After checking the regular options, though, I found that their county fairground had RV spots. Score! It was really nice, at the top of the hill with city views, and everything looks pretty at night. =) Also, it was the last day of the county fair, so we walked over just in time to check out the Aztec dancers. 

Then, a nice kid asked us if we were there to sign up for the greased pole climb. To my surprise, our youngest signed up! Then, his sister signed up, too, and they had a great time taking turns with other kids trying to make it to the top. 

Then we stayed and watched the hypnotist show (2Bros Hypno-Show), which was hilarious. It could have been the long drive and the heat, but we were laughing so hard we cried a little. We fell asleep that night to the sounds of bad karaoke coming from the stage, but still got a good night of sleep before our drive to Montana the next day.

Ritter Hot Springs

Our first day trip out of John Day was to Ritter Hot Springs. The drive there was amazing--open range fields as far as the eye could see, and driving through towns with one gas station and a post office.

It made us giddy driving through this area, I wanted to see a movie view of us from the air--the lone truck driving down the road.

 

When we got to the hot springs, our 11-year-old did not want to get out of the car. It looked too much like a shack, and she uttered something along the lines of "Dad, seriously. . . no. What, is there a water pipe and a kiddie pool out back?" 

We all thought about the same thing, but put on brave faces. (There have been a lot of times on this trip where we've said, "Come on, this will be fun!" when we really don't have a clue what we're getting ourselves into.)

This is the best angle of the hot springs hotel. We didn't stay there overnight, but it did look like they had a guest or two. 

To say that this place was laid back is an understatement. There was a jar to put your money in to pay, and the hostess (?) was sitting outside on a picnic table writing a letter. (It took a while for that to sink in--there were no cell or internet signals there, so really, letter writing was the only long-range communication option, other than a land line.) If you wanted treats, it was also on the honor system to put your money in the jar. 

There were four hot spring options here. The first was a regular swimming pool that had a hose from the hot spring filling it up. It was nice and warm, and had great canyon views. We had to ignore the algae on the bottom of the pool, but enjoyed having the place to ourselves.

There was also a hot tub, four scary individual (cinder block enclosures) hot tub rooms, and an outdoor shower. The outdoor shower was by far our favorite place. It looked rather creepy at first--like someone ripped out a shower from a mobile home and plonked it down by the river. You had to turn a pipe wrench to get the water flowing, but then it was a strong stream of hot spring water rushing over you as you looked out over the river. I'm glad we had the place to ourselves, as we really enjoyed hogging this up, and would have been sad to have to take more turns.

The outdoor shower is there at the end of the bridge on the right.

As we were showering and having cookies under a big leafy tree, one of the hotel guests pulled the mattress out of her room and flopped it on the wrap-around porch, and took a nap outside with her dog under an old quilt. Perfect day material, right?