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.