After running from the storm in Rome we made early tracks to Boise, Idaho. Idaho is famous for its potatoes and wine. We got to sample some of the latter during our stay, but more on that later.
We were lucky enough to be staying with some old friends of my family, John and Andrea, who have lived in Boise for 7 years. After a stop at Dicks sporting goods and cabelas for some sports socks and to oogle at all their awesome hunting gear, Hoff finally dragged me away to head over to John and Andreas.
On arrival our first job was to do some washing. I’d already run out of pants although I blame this squarely on Hoff, who during the packing process told me that ten pairs was too many – despite packing 14 herself. We had a relatively relaxed non-RV afternoon, wandering around their neighbourhood, playing ‘soccer’ (aka football) with their kids, and drinking lovely local wine. John fired up their BBQ and we had awesome home made chilli beef burgers, before retiring to a huge bed (after having our first proper shower in a week).
The next day I was up even before the sparrows had thought about farting, leaving the house at 0400. John took me to his local gym, run by another John, a former body building champion. Body building John has created something awesome. A better collection of gym equipment I have never seen. After a two hour ‘leg day’ workout I managed to grab another hour of sleep before we scoffed pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Then I earned our keep helping John to do some ‘yard’ work before we headed off to the Koenigs Vineyard for a picnic lunch and wine tasting. The views were spectacular and we scoffed cheese and salami looking out over the snake river valley.
I must admit that we felt rather dosey as we drove back to Boise that afternoon and I can’t say either of us were looking forward to our planned evening event. We’d signed up to a 9/11 memorial 5km run happening around the corner from Boise. Over 700 participants came along to remember the tragic events of that day by running through the foothills of the Eagle mountains. Despite the hot evening it was poignant event with markers every couple of hundred metres dedicated to those who lost their lives that day.
It therefore felt appropriate that later that evening we concluded our stay in Boise with that most American of pasttimes – an evening at the shooting range. Although it wasn’t Hoff’s favourite of things to do, she still gave it a go, and we both were amazed by the cross section of society represented, all there enjoying an evening blasting away the stresses and strains of life.
Before we knew it it was back to our monster king size bed where we passed out and slept like logs. We were up early again and, fuelled by a breakfast of crepes and maple syrup we saddled up Ronda (the name we’ve given our RV) once again and, complete with clean clothing and a couple of bottles of Snake River wine kindly donated by John, got back on the road, Yellowstone bound.
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