Yesterday we made the move south and 4000 feet lower (6700 to 2700 feet) in elevation to Boise, Idaho.
Well, we had 3 screwups. Two were my fault and one not. Nothing serious but…
The campground review site I use had two highly rated RV Parks in Boise. It seemed that all the people in the blogs I read had used one of them. Both have really small sites but one is by the river and one is right next to Interstate 84 and the airport. When I booked a site back in February, guess which one I wanted to book and guess which one I booked. I have no idea how it happed but I sure got a surprise when I programmed the GPS on the previous night and saw where it was taking us.
The second screwup was the route I took. Our GPS has a car mode and an RV mode, where it takes into account the size of the motorhome. I forgot to switch it to RV mode so it took us the “shortest” way. If you notice on the Google maps routes (which does not have RV mode), it offered two very close routes. The RV mode would have taken us the other way.
If I would have zoomed in the maps I would have seen this.
We had several cars following us when we got to Lowman. They all turned the other way and I wondered why we were suddenly alone. Now I know.
Also if you look at the elevation profile of the routes, the one I should have taken is pretty much all downhill.
While the one I took had two rather steep climbs and downhills.
It turned out that it was nothing I couldn’t handle and because we were alone, I wasn’t holding anybody up. I just took my time around all those switchbacks and climbs.
It is a very scenic route but I had to concentrate on keeping the RV on the road and didn’t really get to see much of it. It and the alternate route are supposed to be a great looping drive. We may go back with the car.
The third screwup happened in Boise. After we arrived I took the car for a needed oil change. The quickie places always feel the need to check the air in the tires. First off he didn’t check the door to get the proper pressure and over inflated them a bit (34 vs 30 psi). What he really did wrong was give me a flat tire. I have special valve stem caps that wirelessly report the pressure to a display in the cab of the RV so that I know if I have a problem when towing the car. When you screw them on they open the valve so that they can read the pressure. On one of the tires he only screwed it back on enough to open the valve but not tight enough to make a seal. The CRV has its own tire pressure monitoring system and the light came on while we were driving home and stupid me thought that it was just because he had over inflated them. Thankfully it was a very short drive home because when we got there the tire was completely flat. It doesn’t seem to be damaged because I pumped it back up and it was fine driving around today.
We did get a few pictures from the drive. The snow had not stayed around in Stanley but as we headed west we climbed up just enough for there still to be a dusting of snow on the ground and trees. It was very pretty and made us think of Christmas.
Once we turned south, the road was very narrow and we were frequently on a very narrow ledge as we climbed up and down the mountain sides. This is not Jennie’s favourite viewpoint. So not many pictures.
A non existent shoulder.
We wondered how they kept the road clear with all the very sandy looking cutouts we went through.
Love those switchbacks.
Near Boise we passed by Lucky Peak Lake which is a dam reservoir.
As I said, the RV sites are kind of skinny.
They really pack them in.
Below, the orange truck is heading east on I-84. I guess the other side of the highway get the sound barriers but we don’t rate. We also hear some planes from the nearby Boise airport.
It was pretty loud last night but I slept through without having to resort to earplugs. At least the WIFI is pretty good.
Some people stay here permanently. I couldn’t take this all the time.
Today we headed downtown. I had read that the Boise Farmer’s Market was actually worth going to checkout.
There were about 85 booths and it really was a farmer’s market. It was almost all produce or meats and very few artisans but there were some interesting food trucks and booths.
It was well attended but not crowded.
We were entertained by a marimba band.
One guy selling mushrooms had some interesting specimens on display.
I gave in to buying a very good chocolate croissant and Jennie ordered some egg and veggie sausage beignets. We had to wait a while but they were worth it.
We headed more downtown to check out the visitor’s center (which was strangely closed) and the Idaho Capital Building.
We drove in one side of a parking garage and as we walked out the other side we discovered that we were in the middle of the Capital City Public Market. I had thought about going but I wasn’t sure where it was.
They take over two blocks of two cross streets every Saturday morning. There had to be over 100 booths, this time leaning much more towards the artisan type.
I think the lens on my camera is dying and it sometime has a really hard time focusing, as evidenced by this shot of the crowds. A lot more people in a narrower space.
I took a photosphere at the crossroads.
This booth sold rolled ice cream.
It was very labour intensive. They started from scratch with the raw ingredients. First chopping everything up and smearing it on the cold plate until frozen and finally scraping up the rolls to put in a cup.
It did look good but we had already bought a lemongrass pork Vietnamese sandwich from some very Caucasian looking girls. The one making the sandwich told Jennie that she had a Vietnamese mother-in-law that had taught her.
One booth had these yarn bowls that I thought might interest my cousin who has a yarn business.
Some wild ceramics.
And copper wall pieces.
We liked the stuff in this booth that took smashed up glass to make items.
After discovering that the visitor’s center was closed we walked over to the Capitol Building, only to discover that a multi-cultural festival was being held on the lawn with more booths to check out.
This one was a lot less themed. There was everything from miracle cures, to church groups to political action groups. The only booth that was of any interest to us was this one.
On to the Capital Building. My only picture of the outside is again out of focus but you get the idea.
A floor to dome panorama from the main floor.
The photosphere does it better.
The dome.
Jennie wondered where this spiral staircase went.
Lots of work went into the columns.
The only room we could see into was a committee room. The house and senate were down locked corridors. They do run guided tours during the week.
Up on the third floor they had a Winged Victory. I forgot why.
Jennie headed down to the basement for me to get a shot all the way down.
Looking back up at me.
Another panorama.
And the photosphere.
We watched a short movie about the restoration of the building and then headed back to the car.
The market is supposed to close at 1 pm. At 2 they were removing the barriers and the cars were about to enter but not everyone was gone.
On the way we saw these ladies pedalling and drinking their way around the city. The driver looked thrilled.
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