Day 8-heading into the homestretch of vacation, Part 1

Day 8-Idaho!

Contrary to popular belief, Idaho is not covered in potatoes.  There are potatoes, yes, but there are also huge farms with corn and wheat crops, and massive ranches with horses and cows.  On our way from Idaho Falls to Boise, we discovered something else huge that is in Idaho-2 things, actually!

Snake River dam

Mormon Temple

To begin our day, we hit up a very cute 50's style diner in Idaho Falls.  The food was good, the atmosphere was awesome, and the jutebox in each booth kept Alex very occupied.  I haven't seen a diner like that at all in Massachusetts, and sadly, the Parthenon in Branford, CT removed their jute boxes a few years ago.  DJ's day began even earlier, as he got up to run as he does most days. He ran behind the hotel to a very cute bridge & dam area of the Snake River, checking out the geese and ducks on his way.  He later took Alex back to see the ducks and geese, because why not?  It also turns out that Idaho Falls has a huge LDS population, which was another unknown fact for us. BYU actually has a campus here.

INL land

Anyways, after our brunch stop, we headed off for another action packed day.  Again opting for the more scenic route, we chose to forgo the highway in exchange for a faster by milage, slower by speed, state road that took us through Craters of the Moon National Park.  Highway 20 was most interesting, and DJ and I learned more about this route in Idaho than perhaps we wanted too.  As we drove through very picturesque ranch land, we encountered a huge sign; now entering the INL.  Being rather curious people,  DJ had no objections to my googling this sign. (Yes, he was driving this leg!)  The INL is Idaho's National Laboratory, which has been home to a nuclear research center that continues to operate today, and is also home to the most tragic nuclear meltdown on US soil.  (Though nowhere near in comparison to Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Chernobyl).  Just that bit of research made the entire open area seem just a bit more ominous than before, but we were just getting started.  On our large map that accompanied us, we spotted a sign for Atomic City.  We thought it was just a clever name based on the INL.  Atomic City though, is an authentic ghost town, though not in the wild west way.  It has been mostly abandoned since the 1960's, shortly after the aforementioned meltdown.  The reactor that melted was buried somewhere across the land through which we were traveling.  Though there was a museum, we felt no need to go.  I've always been fascinated with ghost towns, but this was not one that I wished to explore!  Instead, we settled for driving through and googling what we wanted to know.   After a quick, successful letterboxing stop in Arco, we soon entered one of the strangest landscapes I've ever seen....

Pumice

Craters of the Moon

Craters of the Moon National Park.  Way back when, this entire area was volcanic and active.  What has been left behind over the millenia is a terrain that truly does resemble the surface of the Moon-desolate, rocky, eerie, magnificent.  For anyone who is a volcano or geology enthusiast, this is the place for you!  There were a number of scenic pullouts, which we used to our advantage. We clambered over some of the huge pumice stones (legally) and gawked at what lay before us.  DJ's thought was that it rather resembled a post apocalyptic world as portrayed by Hollywood. Alex's thought was, volcanoes? Here?  Will there be lava and will we explode?   The visitor's center had a very fun interactive exhibit detailing the history of the region and its geology, and Alex began to settle down.  It was just so bewitching and surreal to see!

Leaving Craters of the Moon, we made our way to Boise.  Initially, our goal was to get to Boise, eat and relax.  However, our stomachs' let us know that food was required before Boise.  A quick tripadvisor search led us to Smoky Mountain restaurant in Mountain Home, Idaho, which is really only about 30 minutes away from the capital city.  First off, Mountain Home is 100% adorable.  Big enough that it has grocery stores and its own schools, small enough that there was no traffic.  This was probably the best food stop we've had all trip.  The pizza's were amazing, the desert and beer selection, fantastic.  Plus, it being my birthday, my meal was on the house!  Pizza in this area of the US can be dicey, especially for those of us who come from the New York/New England area and are spoiled.  In fact, my family who lives out this way refers to it as MBP-more bad pizza.  Smoky Mountain though exceeded our expectations. Seriously, it's right up there with Pizzeria Regina, Willington House of Pizza and New York style pizza.

Our last stop was Boise, but that's a story for later!

Stats thus far:

States crossed: 14 (MA, CT, NY, NJ, PA, OH, IN, IL, WI, MN, SD, WY, MT, ID
License plates found: 48, plus some Canadian
2,500+ miles