Boise
The Drive
The drive from Wilson, WY to Boise started out with going over Teton Pass again. Using lower gears helped with the brake overheating, but it was still a bit of anxiety going down that pass with the load behind us.
Highway 31 was similar to the roads we encountered on the drive to Jackson Hole, with no shoulder, narrow lanes and lots of curves. It appears that in eastern Idaho, that is pretty common. Once we reached the interstate, it was like pretty much any other travel day. It is interesting that the rest areas we have seen on the interstates in Idaho are all very nice and seem to be upscale from what we see in other places.
The smoke was really intense just west of Pocatello and we were getting concerned about the air quality we would find in Boise. As we approached Boise, the air cleared and it was very pleasant when we arrived.
Arrival
We arrived at the Boise Riverside RV Park and checked in with no issues. See The RV park details here. We set up and ran a couple of errands, then discussed the agenda for our stay in Boise. We decided to make this stop a time to regroup and get some things taken care of, such as laundry, errands, groceries, and some time to visit family here. Of course we would work in some activities.
Our Boise Experience
The first day, Sunday, we met with Liz’s son Casey and his wife Amelia for a hike in the Foothills. Later in the evening we all went to Amelia’s parent’s house for a nice socially distanced dinner.
Monday we took the tandem out for a spin on the Greenbelt, riding into town and along the river. In the afternoon we did laundry and some other grown-up stuff.
On Tuesday we moved our trailer to a full hook-up spot (see RV park details above), then went to meet Robb’s cousin Craig and his wife Konnie and daughter Morgan. We had a nice lunch at the Westside Drive-in.
Wednesday we had a quiet day around the campsite and then met up with Casey and Amelia for a mountain bike ride in the Foothills and then to their place for a take-out dinner.
We spent Thursday just chilling in the morning and the afternoon was spent running errands, and preparing for the long drive on Friday to our next destination, Florence, OR.
As the week went on the air quality got a bit worse, even the mountain bike ride was a bit smokier that we would have liked.
During our stay in Boise, we had a couple of first time experiences. We saw our first mask argument at an ice cream shop of all places. Boise was very good about enforcing masks and social distancing for the Covid-19 pandemic. The store had signs stating that masks were required and only one family in the store at a time. While we were ordering, a large family walked right in with no masks. The server told them they had to put on a mask or leave. Well, then the “This is America!” started, following with the family calling the server a Fascist and a Communist. We all got a good laugh at that! They did end up leaving and we got out ice cream.
The second thing was that night/early morning a couple across from us at the RV park decided to share the disagreement they were having with everyone in the park. This happened between 4:00 and 5:00 AM! They were literally screaming at each other, and not in a family friendly vocabulary. The argument went on for about an hour and at high volume. We were wondering how you could get into such a heated argument at 4:00 AM!
Anyway, it was an interesting last day and night in Boise and gave us something to talk about on the long drive to our next destination.
Conclusion
It was nice to catch our breath this week and see some family. We entertained the idea of kayaking the Boise River, but we will do that on another trip. We are looking forward to getting to the coast where at least at present, the air AQI index has been steadily in the green index.