When you travel a lot in the USA there are times when you just have to embrace quirky Americana….
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| Getting up close and personal with the Big Potato |
The first stop for today was only 30 minutes drive down the interstate at the town of Blackfoot, Idaho.Blackfoot is the (self-proclaimed) Potato Capital of the World so , naturally, we had to visit the Idaho Potato Museum. We’d learned about it from a great website called Roadside America, which has a mission to document all the interesting, odd, weird and quirky sites to be found across the USA.
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| Neil admiring the Worlds Largest Potato Chip |
Well, they didn’t let us down – the museum was a treat! We learned such a lot about the history of the potato and how they are farmed and distributed today, but on the quirky side we also saw the largest collection of potato mashers in the country as well as the largest potato crisp ever made ( Guinness Book of records approved!) The crisp was manufactured by the Pringle company in 1991 ( it’s starting to look a little cracked!). There were several people in the museum and they all seemed to be taking it a lot more seriously than Neil and I were! It was a little hard to take it to seriously when you stumbled across the display of the Superheroes, the Idaho Potato Force. I don’t really see them being a lot of competition for the Avengers 🙂
When we finished viewing the exhibits we were given a free packet of freeze dried mashed potato, garlic flavour – “Just Add Water!” Can’t wait to try that…. The gift shop was a beauty too, and Simon, Erin and Liam have some great treats coming their way. I know they’ve been hankering for a souvenir from Blackfoot Idaho . ( !?)
From Blackfoot we headed north through very dry country , dotted with the odd alfalfa crop until we arrived at Atomic City and then the Experimental Breeder Reactor-1. At 1:50 pm on December 20, 1951, it became the world’s first electricity-generating nuclear power plant when it produced sufficient electricity to illuminate four 200-watt light bulbs.. It is way out in the middle of nowhere and unfortunately the museum was closed for the season but at least we could see it from the outside and take a few pictures. These are for you, Dad!
Nearby were several fenced off complexes comprising the Idaho National Laboratories, where they continue to do nuclear research to this day. I must say I thought that Mum would have been glad that Dad spent his 2 years in the 1960’s working at Brookhaven National Laboratories near New York, rather than at these ones – this place is a bit like the ends of the earth!
We passed through the small town of Arco where they are proud of the fact that it was the first town in the world to be lit be energy from a nuclear power plant in July 17, 1955. At the Pickles Diner we could have sampled the Atomic Burger… but it was a little more radiation than we needed today, thanks 😉
About another 30 minuted drive from Arco we entered the Craters of the Moon National Monument. This area of Idaho sits atop a fissure in the earth’s crust called the Great Rift. Over a period of thousands of years a series of small volcanoes have spewed enormous quantities of cinder and lava out across the vast plain. It’s NOT a pretty landscape, it’s really very ugly but that has a fascination in itself. There is a loop drive around the area with several trails and lots of information about how the area was formed and how it is being affected by visitors and pollution. We were strongly reminded of our visit to the Big Island of Hawaii last year where we saw similar lava fields, except in Hawaii they are dotted with bright green man-made ( of course!) golf courses and resorts. There is nothing to break up the craggy blackness here except for the roadway and several low scrubby plants and gnarled trees.
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| Lava fields as far as the eye can see! |
From there it was only another hour up the road, and up in to the mountains to our stop for the night in Ketchum, Idaho. Ketchum and the nearby resort of Sun Valley is a massive magnet for skiers in the winter. In summer it’s popular too with hikers and bikers and fishermen. The town seems to consist primarily of bars, restaurants and outdoorsy outfitter shops.
The other claim to fame of Ketchum is that it was where Ernest Hemingway spent the last two years of his life. He is buried in Ketchum cemetery and we stopped in to see his final resting place. We’re obviously not the only ones because the grave was scattered with coins, American flags and the ultimate tribute to a hard-drinking man, several bottles of whisky.
We’re looking forward to our drive tomorrow up into the Sawtooth Mountains, an area that’s famoous for it’s beauty. Hopefully the sun will stay out, we’ve been feeling the change of climate after freezing in Montana it’s been very toasty here in Idaho.
Tonight we had a tasty meal at a Pizzeria downtown but it really was the fastest food yet. This time our main course arrived BEFORE our entree! However, that was fine we just ate our Thai spring rolls with our pizzas and they were all delicious… quirky Americana, gotta love it!