Day 32

Matthew!.......

Our last morning with Rich and Del in Idaho Falls. It has been a terrific visit. Just as comfortable and laid back as when we lived here.

Time spent on the Lido Deck has always been some of the best times and  still is.

So up early on Sunday morning and off to breakfast at the North Highway Cafe. A delightful little old timey greasy spoon.

One of those must try places when visiting the Falls area. Reading the posters with old jokes hand printed on them that have been submitted for competition. Watching the old guys who have been sitting on the same stools for so many Sundays that they are now a custom fit to each other. And eating favorites like HiWay Goo.

2 slices of toast covered by 2 fried eggs and smothered in sausage gravy.

Mmmmm.

Or the pancakes the size of a dinner plate, order the small size and you just get 1 instead 3.

Good old American Cooking.

Chaa-ching  another 5 pounds.

Sure glad we had reservations on the Slash bus leaving Idaho Falls and heading for Salt Lake City, Utah.

Arriving at Salt Lake Airport at 4 PM we had nearly 3 hours to fritter away waiting for today's Big Event!

Thank heavens for electronics. Time just flies when you have e-mail to check and Face Book to update, to say nothing of my favorite invention, Kindle.

Looking back time just flew by, but at the time it seemed that I was checking my watch every 3.72 minutes.

And then he was here! Having taken his very first solo flight and ready to join The Grand Adventure!

He looked fairly calm coming off of the plane,, and down right tickled when he saw that I really had shown up to meet him. Though one of his first comments was "where's Pop Pop?"

Since TSA would only allow one of us to go thru security to meet him Pop Pop got stuck guarding the ever expanding pile of luggage. But boy were the two boys glad to see each other.

Note the matching Mexican Dress Shirts.

Great minds thinking alike. 

OK, check. Matthew is here, now we have to keep him entertained in Salt Lake City on a Sunday night until the train pulls out at 11:30 PM

Of course Wanda came to the rescue with the suggestion that we take the baby train (light rail) to the outdoor Gateway Mall for a pizza dinner under the stars.

What a smart idea. And what could possibly top a pizza better than Frozen Yogurt for dessert.

Time appropriately wasted off we go to the Real train station.

Matthew was quite surprised to learn that Wanda and his best friend Walnut had known each other for years and had a lot of catching up to do. So they both climbed into the newly acquired train bag and we all got in line for boarding.

As exciting as this has been, it has also been a really long day.

So it was nice to arrive in our Family Sleeper and find that there was sleeping space

all set up for 5 people.

Bruce and I called the big bunk on the bottom. Matthew called top bunk right above us, but no! There was no electrical outlet for his tablet! Top bunk over the table? Felt pretty good but still no outlet. Oops! Train has pulled out of the station and what?  No window? Unsat! Move to the lower bunk with window, sans outlet.

And this bunk is just right. 

Good night my little Goldielocks, tomorrow the adventure continues, for all of us.

day 31

Still Alive and Kicking....

     

And on the road to Big Sky Country, Wyoming.

For no other reason than to enjoy good company and beautiful scenery.

Blessed with weather that just made the trip that little bit more special.

First week in September is rarely this warm. Every where we have traveled we have heard people commenting on how odd the weather has been. 

There is no snow on the mountains, and Palisades Resovoir is at 12 percent capacity.

That doesn't bode well. This is high desert. All of the water comes from snow.

Scary.

Last winter was dry. Very little snow fell, so its old ice and snow in the mountains that is melting in the high mountains this summer.

I remember a time when I first moved to Idaho that the snowfall had been light (relativly speaking) and by the end of summer peoples wells were drying up.

And yet, there is no water rationing of any kind. People are just supposed to act responsibly on their own.

Let's see how that works out for them.

Tomorrow we are rolling on the rails again. Sorry for the lapse in story telling but it will all come clear in a short time.

Day 30

No Pictures Please........

We are officially old. We were awake until 11 P.M, last  night and today we are exhausted. I did manage to get a load of laundry started, which Del bless her finished up for me.

Bruce and I had a couple of errands to run and a couple last friends to visit. We are starting to run down.

Back at Del and Rich's by dinner time for wonderful Salmon dinner. Del really is a terrific cook. She enjoys cooking and feeding people. I love her. She is my friend and I love her.

Afterward we slugged around on the couch and watched re-runs of Downton Abbey. The perfect end to a quiet day.

Tomorrow, road tripping to Wyoming,

YEEHAW!!!

Day 29

PARTY!!....
   
     Bruce is back in town, let the party begin.

The start of the day was Bruce and Rich heading to their last place of gainful employment. Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.

Also known as EIRMC.

While the boys were off visiting Del and I got my fancy vacation finger nails updated, did a little jewelry shopping and stopped for a Latte. I feel so dern urbane. 

We met up with the boys at the local Thai restaurant for a bit of lunch and home for a bit of rest before the partying began.

Meet Wanda's new best friend 

Wolfie.
Owner, operator, designer, conceptualizer, brewer and a whole lot of other job titles for Idaho Brewing Company.
Wolf had always dreamed of building a brewery. So when he retired he bought a defunct ice house and started building. Problem, he never wanted to run a brewery, just build one.
He now has a very busy brewery with his brews being served in a number of establishments in town and a really popular tasting room. Thats where we come in.
With Bruce having lived in Idaho Falls since 1982 he had a lot of friends to catch up with. Instead of trying to go see all of them, we brought them to Idaho Brewing.

The Wolfs lovely bride Robin was in attendance as was good friend Kimmon...

Terry and Dan, downhill bikers extrodinaire.
Their son just graduated from the Cordon Bleu. Can't wait for the dinner invite at their house. Hint, Hint.

Frank and Wanda hit it off right away, I wish Rochelle had seen them.

And of course Mick and Elaine were there.
It really was a terrific get together.  Good food, good friends, and great beer. Sorry we were such slack dogs when it came to taking pictures.
There were probably 30 + friends, and more showed up when we adjourned to Marcellers wine shop.

And that was party night in Idaho Falls. 

Day 28

Up To Our Necks In Hot Water......

one of the most wonderful inventions ever created,

the Hot Spring.

Pool after pool of geothermal heated water. Custom made for long days of soaking.

Ahhhh

Enjoyed by husbands and lizards alike

I haven't been this warm since I left Belize.

LOVE IT!!!!!

Lava Hot Springs is very special to us. Our first real date Bruce picked me up in his Cadillac and we road tripped thru Idaho into Wyoming and stopped in at Lava. For an East Coast girl it was a pretty exotic first date. 

Lava was also where we honeymooned.

Along with a number of our closest friends and family we took RV's and camped the weekend away. It was great. And having Tom and RE there made it all the more special.

It really is a pretty area.

Surprisingly their tourist season is in the summer. The river is a very popular tubing spot. I would have thought that the hot springs would have drawn a big winter crowd but not so. Even being there the day after Labor Day Lava had returned to its post tourist sleepy small town self. 

Hooray! No crowd in the hot pool!

And clear and pretty as the river looks, it used to be snow!

Not on your life would I put my delicate little self in there.

I will save my Polar Bear Plunges for January at The Ryders

in Belize.

Day 27

Free Taters for Out Of Stater's.......

Idaho is probably the most difficult stop on The Great Adventure. So many memories both good and bad. So here we go.

For those of you who are not familiar with the little critter in the picture, 

This is a Hummingbird Moth. 

Bruce and I brought one home from Home Depot (yes, the real Home Depot)

when we were putting in our first flower garden together. He was hiding in the flats of pereniels.

I was sure it was a sign of good luck. 

And here we are today, how much luckier could we get?

Arrival in Salt Lake was late so we stayed over til morning.

Our good friends Karen and Allen had called us enroute to let us know they "just happened" to have business in Salt Lake.

Turns out the business was driving 3 1/2 hours, staying over in a hotel and driving back 3 1/2 hours, so that we could spend the time visiting with them instead of sitting on a bus.

Friends like this are the good in Idaho. Without friends I would never have lasted 10 years in the great white north.

We chatted and chatted and giggled and laughed all the way to Idaho Falls.

Where they delivered us safe and sound to our other dear friends / adopted family Rich and Dell.

Note that we are barely feet on the ground and already we have food in front of us.

The 4 of us based our entire early relationship around food. Great food, good wine and fantastic companionship.

And the fun just kept getting better. If you are very lucky in life you will be blessed to find a couple who blend with both of you in a completely relaxed way. 

We have been so blessed in 2 different countries.

After filling our bellies we decided we needed a little after dinner adult beverage.

So off to Marcellers.

Our cozy little wine shop where everybody knows your name.

It was great getting to see Tom and Marilyn again. And while we were there we did some grocery shopping. A couple of bottles of wine, eggs and heritage tomatoes. It is Idaho after all.

There is still a lot of the old west here in Idaho.

And note the apparel in very early September.

Brrrrr

Tomorrow we do something warm.

Day 26

Rocky Mountain High...

       Or, why did this entire blog entry disappear yesterday and now I have to do it all over from memory and I am a day behind schedule!!!!

     Yes Elizabeth. I will take a deep breath now and start over.

Now, we fell asleep just outside of Ottumwa Iowa. Home of the famous Radar O'Riley.

From the long running TV show MASH.

And woke up to the conductor calling for passengers departing at Denver Colorado.

The Mile High City?

Sure looks flat from here.

But the station is right beside Rockies Stadium so it must be Denver.

 Yup, there's beautiful downtown Denver. So where are these big Rocky Mountains we here so much about?

According to the map we are almost there. 

And look who Wanda found! These are our official volunteer tour guides. The work for the National Park Service travelling from Denver to Utah describing the mountains.

and the valleys,

And the rivers

And even more mountains.

  

And a small town

With some very smart people who are willing to try to save a wonderful old Rail Road Station.

With a lot of history.

And then there were more mountains

Traveling by train is a great way to see everything, especially if there is a solarium car

The views are surpassed only by the company,

Stan and Barbara, you were a joy. We really enjoyed your company. And are hoping to hear that you really enjoyed each other company. Bruce wouldn't let me be the Train's Matchmaker. But if he had I would have introduced you to each  other right away. You are two very rare souls. And genuinely nice people.

Wanda said so.

We finally broke out of the mountains and followed the Colorado river into Utah. It turned south and we turned north headed for Salt Lake City. And the end of another long stretch of rails.

Good night Wanda, tomorrow we go to Idaho.