Idaho: state of surprises

The past two days I've spent in Idaho! I will admit that I had pretty low expectations of this state, given the general opinion of Easterners about it ("Oh, the state that's full of potatoes... why would you go there?"). I'm glad to say though that the general opinion of Idaho appears to be wrong and there is in fact quite a lot to do. To combat the stereotype even further, I saw no indication of an unusual amount of spuds anywhere that I went - all that I saw were delivered in the form of french fries, and in normal portion sizes. So! Instead of reading about a terrifically boring journey across a state full of potatoes, you all get to read about a terrifically interesting journey across a state full of odd sights and excellent people! Here goes:

8/14:

This morning my dad left Jackson headed east and I left Jackson headed west. After a slight amount of repacking I hit the road for real and drove towards my next national park destination: Craters of the Moon. Aptly named, Craters of the Moon is a huge volcanic field in the middle of nowhere that is reputed to have a totally otherworldly appearance. I thought it'd be cool to stop by on my way to the Pacific.

Lots of clouds here...

Well, when I finally got to Craters, it turns out that I had totally underestimated the coolness of this place. It was mindblowingly awesome! I mean, I'm sure that part of that awe comes from my geology background, but really anyone who sees it is going to appreciate it. This volcanic field just comes out of nowhere - one minute you're driving along through gently rolling grassy/scrubby hills, and the next moment you're surrounded by jagged monstrous black shards of volcanic rock. Super, SUPER cool! I would totally recommend it to anyone in that neck of the woods - nothing better to do in that vicinity anyways!

A giant hill made entirely of decomposed  basaltic lava! So sweet!

Cinder cones in the volcanic field

Jane and some cinder cones

Whoaaaaa

After I crawled around and hiked up some overlooks, it was time to see the next best feature of the park: the lava tubes. They now appear as cave systems in the ground and can be explored if you have enough light. By this point in time I had met a new friend, Steve! He was hiking alone, as was I, so we banded together for company. Had a great time hanging out chatting with him and climbing over cool rocks - it is really a treat to meet someone on the trail to explore with!

The entrance to a lava tube - the "skylight" is a part that collapsed

Interestingly colored rock

Looking out from inside a tube

Steve and the floaty who-knows-what that keeps you from taking pictures of anything inside caves. It was almost like mist!

1

I spent the majority of the afternoon there and felt like I saw a good portion of what the park had to offer. As the sun set on the Craters, I said my goodbyes to Steve and headed back to town to camp for the night. Dinner was chicken and sauteed onion in a huckleberry jam glaze (sounds weird, but totally delicious). On to the next day!

8/15:

Today I packed up camp early and headed west to Boise, where Bruce, a fellow VMFer (member of the Vintage Mustang Forums), had offered me assistance! Jane was sorely in need of some brake work and also needed a new ICVR (so the gauges stop pegging out arbitrarily) and a shroud (so I can run the A/C full blast in traffic in the hotter southwestern states without fear of overheating). Fortunately for me Bruce was totally cool with having parts ordered to his house, so NPD and CJPP delivered my parts there while I went to the local Big O Tire shop (as recommended by him) to have them take a look. While I ate delicious pizza at Flying Pie Pizza right down the street, they conducted a thorough inspection of Jane in preparation for me heading further west. When they pulled the rear drums they found the source of the poor braking - foolishly, a few months back I replaced the shoes without having the drums turned. Well, the drums and the old shoes were perfectly matched (and had been since the late 50's when they were manufactured - yes, they were original) but the new shoes were not. The drums apparently had a conical shape to them so the pads on the shoes were worn in a really odd shape, reducing the braking surface by more than half. A quick turn of the drums and shoes got everything back into round. The front rotors were deemed to be in good condition with a little bit of glazing but nothing major. I took Jane out for a quick spin before paying for their hard work and braking is now a MILLION times better - funny how that works! Who would've thought that having full use of your rear brakes would improve braking performance...

Anyways, with that taken care of (and my sincere thanks given to the Big O guys for their excellent work and care on/for Jane), I headed around town to reacquaint myself with cars that brake on command. I ended up down at the Greenbelt, which is a bike/jogger path that links all of the parks along the river. Interestingly enough, the first thing I saw was someone surfing on the wake created by a small dam in the river! The dam turned out to be an adjustable water feature that is made pretty specifically for surfers' enjoyment. Really interesting to see inland surfing - I guess where there's a will there's a way, and you gotta surf where you can!

I also saw a lot of paddleboarders making their way down the river. It was super peaceful and very relaxing to just hang out for a while. I found a big blackberry bush full of huge ripe blackberries hanging over the river, so I hiked my jeans up and waded out to pick some. Delicious! (No pictures of that, as I ate them before I thought to take a picture). 

The three stages of paddleboarding: standing up (enthusiastic and ready to go), sitting down (on the verge of quitting), and napping ("screw it")

After hanging out for a bit I hopped back in Jane and made my way to Bruce and Julie's house, where Jane's parts were waiting. We got the shroud installed in no time flat, though we did have to go digging in a British car parts warehouse to find some extra hardware to space out my coolant overflow tube (nope, not going to explain that one... ha). And lo and behold, I cranked Jane up and everything appeared good to go! Clearance all the way around the shroud was good and no amount of revving caused the fan to bang on it. Perfect!

Bruce and Julie's hospitality didn't end there - they offered to let me be a passenger for once and ride downtown with them to see live music / gathering that is a precursor to a large annual bike festival, the Tour de Fat. Our ride? A '57 Bel Air, complete with metallic flames on the front. Super cool (and the first 50's car I've ever ridden in!)

Nothing like a vintage hot rod on a summer evening out on the town!

Super cool graffiti in "Freak Alley", which is dedicated to graffiti of local artists

How do people come up with these things?

Had an AWESOME time downtown - it really was a lot of fun hanging out! Boise is a very cool city. My favorite sight of the evening was a guy DJing who looked like the hipster version of one of the Twins from the Matrix. I really think that he was just up there to dance because he would put a mix on... and then dance his heart out on stage. Hilarious to watch! Dude had some moves for sure.

Anyways, I hung out for the night and in the morning Bruce and Julie sent me on my way with some extra snacks. Really can't say enough good things about them and their hospitality! Very thankful for that.

Oh, and right as I cranked Jane up to leave... CLANG CLANG CLANG CLANG. Yep, the fan now hit the shroud. I hadn't moved the car or started it or anything since installing the shroud the previous afternoon. Nevertheless, the fan had now decided that it had an issue with the circle of metal around it and was doing its best to whittle it away bit by bit. Luckily, a quick adjustment of the brackets solved the issue and then I was on the road and headed further west again. I will detail my Oregon exploits in the next post! Kelly signing out.