Idaho

What a difference a day makes.  Yesterday morning, in southern Utah, the overnight low was 74º.  Today, it was noon before it got up to 70º.  Yesterday I woke still tired from the day before and a poor night’s sleep.  Today I woke up refreshed.  Such is life.

We drove north into Idaho.  The terrain changed near the border, which made me wonder again how the state borders were determined.  Some places it is obvious — a river or mountain range.  But others are not so obvious.  I remember in my grade school Michigan history lesson that when Michigan was becoming a state, both it and Ohio wanted the lake port city of Toledo.  It was given to Ohio and Michigan got the consolation prize of the Upper Penninsula, which at the time seemed like getting a slice of the moon.  And I read somewhere that Iowa wanted to have its northern border at the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers, where Minneapolis sits, but Congress thought that wouldn’t leave enough land to form another state (Minnesota) between Iowa and Canada.

Still, in many places the land will change at the border, even though the land formations wriggle across the land and the borders are straight.  Such is the case coming from Utah to Idaho on either I-15 or I-84.

On the way north, since this would be a short driving day Andrea asked what we were going to do in the afternoon.  Being silly, I said: We can go to the potato museum.  To the surprise of both of us, we discovered there is, indeed, an Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot. 

I wondered if it would even be open on a Monday, but it was.  And there were at least 20 people there, going though the small museum.  We spent a half hour inside and learned more than we were ever curious about regarding potatoes.  We are definitely in Potato Country here.

I’m always fascinated by the lava fields.  We couldn’t stop to get a good picture of some basalt cliffs, but we were able to walk around some lava beds.  (Potatoes grow really well in loose volcanic soil.)

We are in Idaho Falls tonight, in a beautiful room overlooking the Snake River.  The Idaho Falls Temple of the Church of the Latter-Day Saints — the first built in Idaho — is across the river.  We walked down the greenway to look at the falls.  It is a beautiful afternoon.  This is the first place we’ve been in a while that Andrea declared: “I could live here.”