Mountain Home to Ontario, OR
We took full advantage of the Sleep Inn’s late checkout policy, and left at noon, rested and refreshed. Rather than hang around in Mountain Home, we kept ourselves going with Goldfish Crackers and set course for Boise. Boise is of course named after the character in popular TV comedy series Only Fools and Horses — and in case you’re as ignorant as we were, that’s how you pronounce it. For a while we got so used to calling it "Bwass", as a joke, that it because automatic (we had the same problem calling Yellowstone "Jellystone") and we had to force ourselves out of it.
I had been having problems with my camera, and decided that a new battery might solve matters, so I identified a camera shop in Boise, which turned out to be at the "Towne Square" mall. At the word "mall", Debbie’s eyes lit up, so this is where we headed.
We ate at the food court — surprisingly good tacos from Taco Time ("it really isTM") — and negotiated some time apart for Debbie to shop. I lasted about an hour, but eventually I have up, got a book from the car, and sat on a bench reading to kill the time. Before that, however, I learned a little bit about Boise. In Boise, either you’re conventional or you’re punk. There don’t seem to be any other acceptable styles in the mall. This was clear both from looking at the shops and the people.
In Boise, they like manga. The bookshop I went into wasn’t a specialist, but it had two shelf units of nothing but manga. In Sam Goody (a CD/DVD chain), they had loads of anime, and a section dedicated to hentai!
Also, I was amused by a kid who’s t-shirt read "Your girlfriend is on my buddy list".
When we left the mall, it was hot — a new holiday record of 103°F.
We negotiated the tricky one-way system of central Boise, and found their Basque museum. It may amuse you to believe that I was expecting a museum of saucy corsets (I’m expecting the Google ads for this page to include lots of girdles and corsets), but I’m afraid I was forewarned. The Boise area has a large Basque community, and Boise itself has a Basque Block, where we had missed some sort of festival last night, and where the museum is. Like minority groups all over the world, the Idaho Basques are very keen on preserving their culture, and they keep up the dancing, the pelota playing, the chorizo eating, and so on. The Basque immigrants were primarily "sheep herders" (shepherds to you and me), but of course they do all kinds of things today, and the museum showcased Basques with various business achievements, as if this was some kind of surprise.
I was very interested to learn about the lives of the Basques when they emigrated here, so I was a little disappointed that so much of the museum concentrated on the Basque Country in Europe, but it was still interesting, and as long as my museum contribution doesn’t end up with ETA, I’m happy.
We left Boise on the 20, bound for Vale, meaning we were crossing into Oregon. There was exciting weather visible across the plain, but which never reached us.
On the way, we stopped for petrol and drinks. I found a nougat bar that must have been made with me in mind.
Actually when I chose it, I had misread it as "big chunk". It made my chewing muscles ache.
On the way to Vale, there’s what appears to be a volcano — although I can’t be sure. Vale itself has a distinct smell of sulphur — pioneers stopped there to bathe in a river warmed by hot springs.
We had chosen Vale because Road Trip USA mentions a Bates Motel. Unfortunately the Bates Motel was full. Mrs Bates (I assume) told us that Ontario (15 minutes back East) or Burns (2 hours West) held the best chance of a room. We chose Ontario.
For the second night running, we’re in a Sleep Inn, and our room is disorientingly similar to last night’s too. The differences are just subtle enough to confuse me; light switches and power sockets are slightly differently placed. There is a guest laundry, and as I type, Debbie is laundering. It’s a very fair division of labour.
We ate at Winger’s next door — some beef stir fry for Debbie, some surprisingly meaty ribs for me; great stuff, and convenient.
On TV: a funny episode of Family Guy, two of the worst episodes of The Simpsons ever (although one very funny gag — they are in Shelbyville. Lisa wants to go and see a play, Bart doesn’t. Homer says "OK, OK, we’ll compromise. We’ll go and see a play …. that Lisa doesn’t want to see.")
Now, on the Discovery Channel, edutainment. A docu-drama about a hypothetical super-eruption in Yellowstone, killing most of America. Debbie’s seen it before, but it’s topical for us, and it’s new to me. So I’d better stop typing and watch it.