April Not In Paris But Idaho--Part Three

I never understood what a large state Idaho is across the panhandle until this trip. We left the Curtis’ home at 11:00 a.m., and did not arrive in Idaho Falls until 4:00 p.m. It was mostly a flat, ugly scenery. As we passed one valley after another, Dorey made a great suggestion. She proposed that we turn these valleys into solar farms. You could put huge solar panels out there, and catch the rays for at least half of the year.

Other than this brilliant suggestion, we did little. I sang, annoying everyone in the car. I played with my parent's gps system, with the same result. We did a crossword puzzle, which Sharyn could complete in about two minutes. Now I was annoyed. So I sang even louder.

We stopped for lunch at a Mexican place–Garabaldis–in Jerome. It was standard Mexican food, and caused me to fart across the rest of the panhandle. I was not as smelly as our friend, Steven Wood, on a memorable December trip back to Utah from California. We stopped at Taco Time in Elko, and by Wendover, Steven was lighting up the car. It was too cold to roll down the windows, so we suffered, trapped in a Chevy with a bad venting system. Dorey and I still compare bodily smells to Steven's gas. We have never reached that zenith (or nadir) in 25 years.

Jerome seems to be a real pit. We stopped for gas in American Falls, which is not much better. Other than that, we plowed on.

As we approach Idaho Falls, we called Christian and Kate, asking where they wanted to go to dinner. Christian suggested a Mexican restaurant, which after lunch was a no go. We decided finally on Wingers. It should have been a no go, as the food there is pretty bad. Not only that, the wait was about an hour. While we waited, I walked in the parking lot. I felt really stupid, walking up and down in front of Wingers like a sentitel. But I was able to get my 10,000 steps for the day in my military mode.

Christian drove up in his car. His car was packed for the move. It was more than packed. It had a ton of stuff. Embarrassing lot of stuff. I guess that is what you accumulate in fours years of school. When I graduated from BYU, we filled a U-Haul. But I was married with a child. We pulled that U-Haul to California. It was so slow that we had to stop in Reno to sleep.

Jacob was able to get away from work for a few minutes, and was able to join us for dinner. It was the second time Jacob had met my parents. The first time was in Fentons in Oakland, which was just as loud as this place. So they had never talked to Jacob. Oh, well, he's a nice guy. In fact, he knew our waiter from school--who must be one of about five Africans attending BYU-Idaho.

For years, I have been telling my parents that there was nothing in Rexburg. I think that they thought I was exaggerating. Nope. I finally was able to show them that there is nothing in Rexburg. I would have hated going to school there. But our kids seem to like it.

After dinner, we drove down to the Fairfield Inn in Idaho Falls. Anything for Marriott points.

Now the stats: Yesterday, I walked 14,162 steps. As of this moment, 7:46 p.m. on Saturday, July 25, 2009, I have walked in total 357,708 steps in 20 days.