R and J in the USA

In Idaho we discovered a land that was filled with so much more than we knew to expect. Ryan already knew Idaho was a beautiful state, but he only knew some aspects of what made it so. Julie only knew one thing about Idaho, the thing that everyone knows. Potatoes. 

Both of us were in for a treat and found ever so much more to love than we anticipated.

For every site we saw there were five more we wanted to see but missed for time. Alas, another set of things to put on our places to come back to list.

We drove through the irrigated farms and deserts of Southern Idaho and fell in love with the browns and beiges of this land. We hiked sand dunes and did our best to slide down them on our butts. We narrowly escaped the coyotes behind the yips that surrounded us and looked up at the most beautiful sky full of stars we have ever seen. 

We changed our itinerary to get an extra day in those clear night skies and open expanses. While never regretting that choice, we wished we had more time to see the towns in central Idaho as we drove through without stopping. We had already traded in that time for a second night under the brilliant desert sky.

We were immediately taken with downtown Boise, and Julie was having too much fun in the gift shops. We took in the State Capitol in Boise after having a lovely chat with a fellow visiting couple outside the capitol building, which you can read about in our People Along the Way section. Julie learned all about Idaho history, geography, and culture at the State Museum while Ryan took a little respite in the van. We drank boba, ate unbelievably good Korean food, and, of course, devoured French fries made from Idaho potatoes. We were in Idaho, so this was a joint where they advertised the burgers available on the side, with the fries being the main course. You could pick from five different types of potatoes for your fries. The hallway was lined with boxes of Idaho Potatoes. The only thing as delicious as these french fries were the roasted brussels sprouts with maple bacon sauce that we ordered on the side. 

We ate ice cream and walked the happening streets of downtown Boise. We encountered City planners who were doing community outreach to get input on how to make this hopping area even more appealing. Way to go, City of Boise. 

While Julie took her moment to rest in the van, Ryan hiked a hill in a local park aptly named Camelback, a sandy brown colored foothill that rose up from the landscape in a steep incline in the middle of a neighborhood park.

Before we left Boise we did a whole list of practical errands that were in sore need, from grocery shopping to laundry and whatever else needed tending.

Having spent an extra day in Bruneau Dunes State Park, we had traded off our day in Riggins and McCall. We had been to McCall once before, so we could stomach just passing through and enjoying the memories from the prior trip. All of our morning errands in Boise had us arriving at the Nez Perce Visitor center too late to do any visiting. 

Our time in Idaho was a strong reminder that 10 months, while a lot to get to travel full time, was not nearly enough to get to see all this country has to offer, as we realized our trip to Idaho would be ending far too soon with so much left unseen.  And so it goes.

That said, even though we didn’t spend much time in the various beautiful spots along the western side of the state, we were filled up by the views of the river running alongside us and the mountains jutting up from the road along the other side. We would leave Idaho without having ventured into its juicy center, where everything we read and understood about it made us want to see it so very much. 

We slept overnight at a riverside fishing access site that allows camping for up to ten days. Alongside five or six other campers, we woke up to the view of trucks down below, there to start their fishing bright and early.

It was more than clear at this point how the book and movie “A River Runs Through It” got its title. Many of them do – meaning rivers, running through it – and each of them fills the land with life. While that movie took place in Montana, it certainly applies to Idaho as well.

We woke in the middle of the night to scritching and scratching somewhere in the van. We hoped it was coming from outside, but it followed us night after night. We became on alert that we may have taken on some stowaways when we left our van in Wyoming during our Alaska adventures. Fun.

We woke up early and made the rest of the drive north to the destination of our Idaho 5K, where we found ourselves, once again, in awe of the scenery. This time, the lush green hills and forests and expansive lakes of northern Idaho. The upshot of our 5K is we learned that Ryan is the #1 Jackass of them all, and this is a very good thing. To know why we were so happy to find this out, you can read all about the race in our 5K section. 

We rode the race shuttle to the starting line for our point to point race. Julie chatted with her seatmate and learned all about the Huckleberry economy that sweeps northern Idaho for a short season in late August and September. She found her mouth watering for the chance to taste some of the locally famous and treasured berries.

We swung by the old mining town of Wallace, where we saw a mummified mermaid. Julie bought a book about the brothels that had been embraced as part of Silver Valley culture all the way through the 1980s and 1990s. We had Mexican food that Julie put Huckleberry hot sauce on. It was delicious.

We had only a few hours before we needed to hit the road and cross the border into Washington, far too soon for both of us. We had hoped to have time left to explore Coeur D’Alene, but unfortunately only had time to find a beach for Julie to jump into. She dove into the cold waters of Lake Coeur D’Alene to check “swim in Idaho” off the list while Ryan looked on warmly from shore. 

We headed out of Idaho only an hour later than planned, but many hours and days earlier than we now wished. Idaho took us both by surprise and, well, we may be sounding like broken records at this point, but the record is actually working just fine, it’s just playing a similar tune on each track. We left Idaho voluntarily, but not exactly willingly, and were already talking about when we would come back to this gem of a state.