Three's Company Roadtrip (Day 1)

Well, it was that time again...my friends and I did our annual road trip. The first year it was Mel, "Sauerkraut" and me. That year was so convenient because Mel was at BYU, S-Kraut was living in SLC and I was in Logan. As time has passed Mel moved to Portland, S-Kraut lives in Pocatello, and I am here so this trip is a nice way for us all to stay in touch and make some good memories along the way. I was calling it "White Trash Road Trip" but Mel affectionatly named it "Three's Company Roadtrip '09" and the name has stuck....here is day 1.

I met my two travel companions in Pocatello and headed to our first stop, the booming Blackfoot metro area. Here we went to the Idaho Potato Museum. It was interesting to say the least, but I got free hasbrowns and a potato sack, so it was worth the stop. Did I mention the worlds biggest potato chip?

Next we went to a small town called Arco, ID. This town was the first town to be powered by Nuclear power. The point of this stop, other than driving through the TERRIBLE Arco desert, was to see a submarine. Mel planned the stops and when she told me we were going to see a submarine in the desert I was so excited, my excitment faded when I saw the submarine. It was still cool to stop at a roadside stop most people just fly past without giving it a second glance. Oh and the reason for the submarine? It was the first submarine powered by nuclear power, so it's final resting place is here.

After eating at Pickle's Place, I ate the Atomic Burger, we cut across Idaho to Boise. Along the way we had one more stop, Craters of the Moon.

I don't know the history of this place, but I am assuming it was once an active range of volcano's. We hiked around for a few hours. Just a quick note: We went in the evening so it was cool and quite pleasant. There would be no worse Hell than this place in direct sunlight in the summer. The rocks are all black, the paved trails are black, and there are no trees. Camp in a trailer with AC and go in the evening. Below is an action photo of me walking up a hill....I look very pleased.


After Craters of the Moon we did the final stretch of our drive to Boise. We went through the Boise National Forrest, which I hear is very pretty in the day time, at night...just a lot of dark. As we drove through the winding canyon we started to see a lot of shooting stars, because the roadtrip really had no defined beginning or end we had the luxury of stopping whenever, wherever we wanted, and we wanted to see the shooting stars. It turns out we were watching the peak of a meteor shower, in the middle of a canyon with no lights at all...we sat on the roof of the Blazer for about an hour just oohing and ahhing at the show.

When we got to Boise we exchanged pajamas, I bought for S-Kraut who bought for Mel, who made me my pajamas. She used womens stretch pants as the pattern for my pants...so they were a bit tight. The fabric says "I Love Grandma." I wore them every night except one.

A few random notes from this day...The Atomic City is not a destination. Riding a bike on hotel beds looks easy, but is apparently hard.Mel will lick a bar of soap in a museum gift shop for a dollar. And if you ever think of staying in Boise, I can't recommend the Best Western Vista Inn enough...great hotel with even better shampoo.

Tomorrow Day 2: I lose my muffler, a bike is strapped to my roof and I stay in a TeePee...but can't stay in the Beagle Hotel.

Strange childhood memories

I first must point out this post is a true labor of love. Yesterday I didn't go to bed because I have to work at Bed Bath and Beyond tonight, I deprived myself of sleep so right when I got home from the P. Farm this morning I would pass out and would be able to sleep all day.

As I was lying in bed I started to think about some childhood memories, some are thoughts I had in my head, that started to make me laugh. So I got out of bed to blog about them.

1) When I was little, probably 6 years old, I thought that the songs played on the radio were performed at the radio station. I grasped the concept of radio being broadcast from a radio station to my house, but I guess I didn't understand they were just playing a recording.

2) I used to call in to "Power 99" and request songs like "I am a Child of God" and "Give Said the Little Stream."

3) When I was 4, and I remember this very vividly, I was in the dining room in the first house in Farmington and I called Scott the "P-word" (think male anatomy.) Mom washed my mouth out with soap. I didn't understand what the word meant or why it was bad, but I remember reminding myself "Dr. Snow can say it, I can't."

4) Laurel told me a story about the "Laotian burglars" and from that day on that was my biggest fear. I must have been 20 before I realized Laotians are people from the country of Laos. I am convinced it is because of this story my biggest fear is encountering a burglar.

5) One night Stephanie was babysitting, I was probably 7 because we were sitting in the gold shag carpet of the second house in Farmington, and she told me "punks" were sacrificing cats in the Rice's field. I NEVER went into the field...not once. I carried buckets of corn in the corn field, but I never went to the field below the house.

6) Nana had a "boys bathroom" and a "girls bathroom" and I hated it. One night I had to go to the bathroom, and I had been putting it off as long as possible because Nana's house scared me at night, I am sure it had something to do with Laotians. Finally I had to pee so bad I couldn't hold it any longer, so I went running up stairs in the dark and went to the bathroom. When I was done I wanted to get back to the TV room as fast as possible so I came running around her banister and was taking the long flight of stairs two at a time when I encountered Stephanie sitting in the stairs with one of Nana's creepy Eskimo masks on. All I remember is staring to cry and clawing my way back up the stairs while Stephanie followed me screaming.

7) I loved staying up late watching TV with Scott, the problem was I always fell asleep first so I would wake up alone in the Family Room. I hated running to my room in the dark so I would make a trail of lights. I would turn on the Family room lights and the hall lights, turn off the Family room lights and turn on the office lights, then turn off the hall lights then turn on the bedroom lights, turn off the office lights, then memorize all the junk on the floor in my bedroom, turn off the bedroom lights and sprint to my bed. The panic of the Laotian Burglars really set in here. These nights were even worse when Scott would make me watch a scary movie...one comes to mind, "Angel of Death." I was terrified of this movie but I watched it because Scott was watching it and I really had two options. Option 1) watch the scary movie and walk to the bedroom with Scott; or Option 2) not watch the scary movie and have to go to bed alone. I always made the wrong choice...I would watch the movie, be scared out of my mind and fall asleep right at the end and would run to bed alone anyway.

Anyway, now that these charming childhood tales are out of my head I might be able to get to sleep.

Peace