Interestingly enough, despite the fact that they share a border, you can tell the difference between Montana and Idaho without switching roads.
This is Montana
This is Idaho
We entered Idaho on 3, July 2018. Here in the United States, 4, July is a pretty big deal, as that is Independence Day. We like to celebrate by dressing like the flag, blowing things up, and eating a lot of grilled meat products.
Now, the dilemma for road people is what to do with yourself on that day. It's a huge traveling day, so campsites were booked to the gills. I pulled a hat trick out of Hotels.com, though, and scored a very discounted last minute room in Idaho Falls. And that is literally all of the thought that we put into our Fourth of July celebrations for this year.
So, we landed in Idaho Falls and in a shocking turn of events, we visited a brewery. Snow Eagle accommodated us with a delightful burger and beer while we researched the area to figure out what we were going to do, now that we were there.
Some of the older, more wizened road folk consider use of the internet as "cheating." I consider it a major blessing. First, we do actually use paper maps- we have a road atlas that we use constantly, and when we're in the National Parks, we consult the maps they hand out in detail. That being said, I have used the internet to find homespun roadside cafes that don't advertise anywhere. We have discovered breweries, rarely used trails, hidden free camping spots, local attractions, etc. Our biggest resource, however, has been the people we meet. Asking The Locals is our number one way of getting around, because they actually know where they live (exception: no one in the Ozarks actually camps. That one was weird.). SO! As we sat there, the waitress asked us if we were going to the festival the next day, and we gleaned important details about our city for the holiday.
Also, they do have Falls in Idaho Falls, and they are impressive. The Snake River winds through a lot of the Rocky Mountain territory, as an excellent placeholder for the communities that thrive on its banks.
After a little wander on the banks, admiring the immaculate landscaping, we decided no trip to Idaho would be complete without visiting the Idaho Potato Museum.
As mentioned before, I LOVE KITSCH, so I really looked forward to this. I also really love potatoes- from vodka to gnocci, I'm down.
Above, you will see the World's Largest Pringle, a trio of Couch Potatoes (they sang a song that probably stick in my head for at least another year), and lastly, we got to play with Mr. Potato Head. The Potato Museum also has a program called *Taters for Out-of-Staters* which I think is the most adorable concept. They gave us a complementary container of dried shredded Idaho potatoes for being from Ohio. I'm still tickled.
We made a quick pit stop to the local store for supplies (mainly potato salad), and headed to a camp spot that looked promising. It was, in fact, pretty fantastic, but the camp host was adamant that we had to be out early the next morning to make room for the holidayers.
Thankfully, that proved no problem, and after a quick, cold shower, we were on our way. Now, we definitely knew there was a festival along the waterfront, and Ryan had confirmed with the Idaho Brewing Company that they were doing a brew-ha-ha before the city fireworks, so we had the afternoon planned out. We had to check into the hotel at 4, so that gave us nothing but time to burn. Smitty's Pancake and Steak House was open, so we popped in to grab some grub.
Afterwards, we found a daily parking area near the hotel, and we walked to the festival. Sure, sure, we had nothing but time, but it ended up being a 2 mile walk each way. Oops.
On the plus side, the gardens of Idaho Falls are very lovely. We walked through a gorgeous Japanese Garden, and the walk was dotted with just absolutely brilliant gardens and floral displays.
So the festival itself was just kicking off, which meant only the food trucks were really up and running. I snagged an ear of elote, because I am from Ohio and have a corn problem, and then we sat down under a tree to listen to the opening band.
On the way back to where we'd parked Vincent (by the hotel), we were stopped by a lovely young lady who sold us organic blueberry lemonade, which we slurped on the hot, hot walkway.
I rarely talk about the hotels we use, because they are typically cheap little rooms where we can take a shower and sleep in air conditioning and do laundry. We don't really *like* to stay in hotels, because they cost money and there's loads of free camping out there, but sometimes we need to. I'm not sure what kind of mojo landed me this room on the cheap, but check this out:
This is the Alaska room at Destinations Inn. We immediately turned on the fireplace, cracked open the bottle of complementary sparkling soda, and jumped in the champagne bubble tub (with color therapy lighting). After all the hiking and sleeping on the platform in the back of Vincent, the bubbles felt absolutely amazing on muscles so sore, we'd forgotten they hurt.
Thus cleansed, we walked back down to the festival area to listen to the bands at Idaho Brewing Company, take in a few beers, and eventually watch fireworks.
This was a fun little walk, and was only a mile each way.
The beer at Idaho was very tasty, and while listening to a folksy-indie band perform, we made a new hiking friend. We sipped beer, ate street tacos, and yapped about hiking in the Tetons for hours, trading trail stories and tips.
The sun slowly sank, and at about 10pm, the fireworks began. Someone brought their Doberman, and the poor dog was terrified, so she sat by my feet for most of the show. I was really, really impressed with the fireworks spectacle Idaho Falls gave us! First there was the main city show, which was coordinated to music that someone nearby put on a radio for all of us to enjoy. Then the citizens of the city took turns exploding all the goodies they had purchased at the pop up fireworks trailers we'd seen dotting parking lots across America over the past week. We walked back to the hotel amidst the blasts and explosions of freedom, and watched the History Channel in surround sound until we fell asleep.
The next morning, the hotel delivered us complimentary breakfast in bed, and we took one last champagne bath before our next hiking push. As we were heading to Wyoming, we had nothing but tough trails lined up for the next several days, so it was one last chance to pamper ourselves before we hit the road!
I've got to admit, I really enjoyed our 48 hours in Idaho Falls. We found some new "spuddies," and got a little education to boot!
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