Napolean Dynamite Country

I'm in flippin Idaho, but I didn't see any tall, red-afroed moonboot-wearing characters or geeky guys in rollerblades being pulled by a car. In fact, Idaho was flippin beautiful, and provided me with some of the best food of my whole trip ("Tina, you fat lard, come get some dinner!") If you're saying, "What?", you obviously haven't seen Napolean Dynamite. And you must.

We left Salt Lake City after a final stop at Gussie's favorite place of the whole trip: the dog park. Speaking of which, we went there yesterday, and I was talking to two girls, and one of them tells me her sister lives in Dumont, NJ. The other one says her mother went to Tenafly High, and that her grandparents live in Tenafly. Small world. This morning Gus met and befriended a Spanish Water Dog (akin to a Portuguese Water Dog) named Tito. They sniffed and romped and chased tennis balls together, and then we piled in the car again and got on I-15 North and then I-84 West.


And, before we knew it, we were crossing into Idaho.



The ride up I-84 was scenic, with the Sawtooth Mountains looming alongside.




We sidetracked to Twin Falls for lunch, where we crossed the Snake River. The river cuts through a gorge that drops about 400 feet. I'd like to read up on that. I guess the running water cut through the rock over the years. It's breathtaking, and the photos probably don't do it justice.




Twin Falls reminded me of Ames, Iowa. Same kind of Main Street with diagonal parking. I found a great little gyro place there. Then we stopped at Shoshone Falls, where the Snake spills over in some stunning waterfalls. Couldn't get a good photo of it, though.

I did get a photo of a black lab riding in the back of a pickup truck:



And if I ever decide to move to Twin Falls and open a home heating company, my sign might look like this:



We pulled into Boise around 3:00. Boise is much smaller than Salt Lake City, but like the latter is also clean and friendly, with wide streets. While Gus and I were strolling around, I scoped out a Korean restaurant, which had been written up by the Boise paper. I tried it out, and was happy I did. The spareribs were to die for. And it came with about six different kim chee dishes, as well as miso soup and rice and soy beans. Yes, after five days of road food, I've embarked on culinary adventures of a different sort.

After dinner, I satisfied my craving for a good cup of coffee at Dawson's Downtown. Oh, and a pistachio gelato, too. Amazingly, I'm looking thinner than ever. At Dawson's I was blown away by a series of oil paintings by a Boise artist named Sam Allen. They were priced right, too. So I inquired about buying one, and I emailed the painter. I'm hoping to pick one up tomorrow before I leave for Portland. I was thinking it would be nice to hang it in the cabin to look at during my stay, and then take it back east to decorate my new home (wherever that turns out to be). If I buy it, I'll post a picture of it.

Okay, I'm flippin tired. I think I'll dream of wide-open spaces and ligers (see the movie).

G.