Vacation to Idaho, 7-10JUN03

I was having some trouble uploading pics from my phonecam, but it turns out I shouldn't have been able to do this in the first place as I wasn't signed up for that service. So they signed me up and I sent out the last couple dozen pictures and now this gallery is complete.

This is my father, Gene. I see him every couple of years, and when we meet it's usually to converge upon Idaho where his father, my grandfather lives. People like to say we look alike.	This is Gene's wife, Shirley, my step-mom. Contrary to tradition for stepmothers Shirley is supremely cool and great to hang out with.	And this, of course, is my grandfather. He's 90y.o. now but still possessed of clear mental acumen. If I'm doing as well as he is when I reach his age, I'll reconsider my euthanasic policy.

This, of course, is the plane getting prepped for take-off. I hung out in the waiting room for the gate and looked suspicious with my little phonecam and solid-black outfit.	Here is the interior of the airport from Gate 6. People walking around, a golf cart, nothing to scream about.	Boise, ID, in the middle of the night! I flew in very late, there was no way to get a good picture of the city itself, not today.

Again, it was far too dark to get a good shot of this Mormon temple in Boise, but when I went to the airport two days later I got a better pic. You'll see.	This is a really, really old radio made by Matsushita. My grandfather has this in the basement, where I slept. No, I didn't think to try it out... sorry. But it probably still works.	I was poking around in the basement and found a couple really old 7-Up bottles from different eras. Interesting, isn't it? Well, I thought so.

White Magic! The one and only! I don't think this brand of fabric softener exists anymore, probably went out of business soon after Aryan Tornado liquid detergent.	This is an old-ass bar of Ivory Soap: this is what it used to look like decades ago, perhaps as far back as fifty years. Maybe more! It looks like something you'd find in a covered wagon, doesn't it!	This is just the back of it, very clearly manufactured by Procter and Gamble.

A box of holiday wrapping paper, I love the font on the side and how pitch-men used to phrase their slogans. The box reads: "WRAP IT WITH KAYCREST . . . THEN GIVE IT WITH PRIDE". It just tickles me.	Here is my grandparents' knick-knack shelf, a popular attraction for me when I was very young. There are wood carved figurines of rural Japanese folk, a souvenir photo-plate from Japan, some jade eggs from Africa and some bronze sculptures made by my father, among other things.	This is the back of my grandparents' house, with the guest bedroom and bathroom off to the left, and a small office ahead. The bookcase you see was my favorite location when I visited as a child.

The first sample of the wide open rambling Idahoan countryside, somewhere between Payette and Weiser.	A large barn and attendant tin-roof shed out in the middle of God's country.	Someone's homestead out in the fields, before the foothills. It was actually much brighter, I just shot this through a tinted window 'cos we had the AC on.

Beautiful golden foothills, completely unalike anything available to us in Minnesota. I loved looking at these off in the distance, surrounding us.	Difficult to see but, yes, those peaks are yet snow-capped even in Idaho in July.	Just a shot of some building structure as we entered New Meadow.

Yes, this is it: the world-famous Sagebrush BBQ, with "Texas-style" cuisine - the pride of cattle country, Idaho! Oh yes.	A shot of the town of New Meadow. There were more buildings on the other side of the street, but not many.	GO, MOUNTAINEERS! Emblematic of the local highschool basketball team, this hung on the wall above our table with an old basketball uniform and a very modern bleacher cushion.

Just as we were leaving a pack of Harley riders pulled into town. Regulars? Just blowing through? The Several Horsemen of the Apocalypse? History may never know.	This is the school where Gene attended in his childhood. I didn't get close enough to see if the fence actually blocked the doorway, I was standing in someone else's yard as it was.	There, now, that is beautiful, pristine countryside. Barbed wire fences, a gentle brook wending its way between cattle farms, homesteads built by a hardy settling stock of man determined to survive and succeed.

Side view of the house my father grew up in (Council) before grandpa bought the nice house on the hill in Payette. We didn't stop to wander around inside, just drove around in the gravel driveway and talked and pointed.	Ranchhouse where my father worked during the summer. That big white house is nothing but a dozen bedrooms to the people who run the ranch - my father actually bunked in a small red building (behind me as I took the picture) in a room with two other guys, and three more rooms like that.	Gene and grandpa were very keen on making sure I got a shot of the zig-zag split-rail fence. These fences ran all over the Idahoan cattle country in the plains between the mountains, and were much older than me, probably as old as my father. Yes, those same rails. Historic.

One of the more elaborate headstones in a small cemetary plot in Council. Grandpa walked around and updated himself with all the graves of people he knew.	A strange little headstone, fairly new: that's a stove on the left and a mounted cowboy and a pair of boots on the right. God-fearin' folk, now lain to rest.	This is the tourist town, McCall. Constantly updated from year to year, here is a shot of the lake used for windsurfing, sailing, and swimming. Very popular spot on a hot day like this was.

Another shot of McCall, all the tourist shops and nice clean restaurants, hotels, gas station, and everything else. It's a nice place to stop, and you've got to get a shake or a smoothie from My Father's Place, just up the street on the left.	Headed out of McCall, there was a large clear lake on our right. I thought the island in the middle of it was interesting enough to get a picture of, though I knew it would all be too small to see. It's more for me than anyone else.	Frequently the road, instead of winding around mountains, went straight through them as many days of labor carved out huge wedges through the rock, leaving striking formations of rock types like this reaching sharply up from the sides of the highway.

As we drove alongside a river once in a while it would erupt into whitewater rapids - very briefly, but still lovely to look at all the same. This river (I'll find out the name later) was very popular with kakayers and campers.	A field of cows, many of which are the delicious Black Angus. Fields like this were common, with traffic signs warning motorists to watch out for stock.	This was some crazy young outdoorsy couple, rambling around in a black truck with a skull and roses painted on the hood. I probably wouldn't get along with them, but I loved the sincerity and integrity of their motif.

The world-famous The Triangle restaurant; reckon as all you cowpokes and hired hands have eaten here oncet or twict. I had an enormous bacon cheeseburger with more fries than I could eat alone.	This was a genuine cowboy at The Triangle. He kindly obliged me in taking his picture, setting still upon his paint for a moment. Yes, that's a lasso hanging off the saddlehorn; yes, it's really a part of his job; yes, he's wearing spurs, and yes, that's really how he rode in while we all took cars.	Some more beautiful painted cliffs as we neared Payette once more.

Here's my aunt Louise, my dad's sister, picking spinach for dinner. I haven't seen her in 15, 20 years. I'm pleased she wears black jeans and boots - family starts to seem more familiar now.	Uncle Robert and grandpa, walking around the stallion pens. Seriously, you had to wear a hat in that weather. I had to borrow a cap, it was that serious.	Uncle Robert's horse (I'll get the name later!)

Aunt Louise's horse (I'll get his name too! Damn!)	Grandpa petting Carbone, a relatively new and untried horse but very well-behaved around people.	This is where the expression comes from.

Here we sit down to dinner on the farm: Shirley, Gene, aunt Louise, uncle Robert, and grandpa.	This is what's called a "freeze brand": instead of putting the brand in fire, you put it in liquid nitrogen and freeze-burn the skin and follicles, so the brand grows back in fine white hair. Reputedly much less painful for the horses, since they'll hold still for it for 15 seconds.	Aunt Louise is about to start training a horse to accept objects on its back, as well as to stop when things fall off (like a rider). On their farm they breed horses to attain specific breeds, and then they train them so they can be sold.

Hard to see, and the motion of the vehicle distorts the image to look like it's leaning, but it's a small building between Payette and Weiser, must've been an independent radio station or repeater station at one point. It looks much cooler than the picture reveals...	The Arctic Circle! The West's answer to White Castle! Except the recipe is completely different. I just mean it's a chain out there, like Jack In The Box, except it's slowly dying out.	This is a cannon in a park, salvaged from some war. I used to play on this when I was a little kid, in this very park. Like, toddler-size.

I used to play on this little fiberglass construct, too! There are stairs on the right, a slide on the left... what glee!	This is a monument that explains why this park was built or what it's commemorated to. I don't know what it says, but I used to play on it too. Funny, I remember these things being larger...	Lastly, we went out to visit grandma.

There, that's the Mormon temple I was trying to get a picture of before. Not that it's terribly easier to see now.	Here's the side of the parking ramp at the Boise airport. Try to contain your excitement.	And there's the wing of the plane I was riding in! Okay, now you can vomit with anticipation! We're done! That's my trip!