May 11-18, 2004
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Welcome to the tackiest trip photos page that I've made yet. In lieu of actual inspiration, I tried to mimic the yellow and green colors that are prevalent at Yellowstone, but if Yellowstone were actually this color, no one would visit. However, once I got used to looking at barfy yellow and dark green, I found I didn't want to change it, and so this is it. And I'm slacking on the layout too. But, anyway, the picture are nice; they're all from when I went visitin' to Pocatello, Idaho to see Claire.
May 11 For once I flew out of Ft. Myers, though the flight left at 6:50 a.m., so that took some of the thrill out of it. However, the flight was not crowded, so the middle seat was empty, and I felt less like a sardine than usual and more like, say, a herring. After a switch of planes in Houston (where I talked to a guy who was just as worried about having possibly to sit next to the four-child Texas family as I was), I made it to Salt Lake City at noon, mountain time. Claire had arranged a shuttle for me to take from SLC to Pocatello, but it didn't come until three, so I dashed around assembling an airport meal before I left the security area to fetch my baggage and spent a dazed three hours chillin' in the lobby area and reading The Da Vinci Code and feeling vaguely nervous that a Mormon would attack me for the blasphemy of it all. But I used my best cover-hiding techniques from middle school and nothing happened. On the shuttle ride north, I recovered from my stupor to enjoy the scenic greeness of Utah and Idaho, which is apparently more usually brown.
On your left, note the excitin' SLC airport, complete with the Mighty Wasatch Mountains mostly obscured by sandy haze. On your right, enjoy the Utah state route signs, which are supposed to be beehives, but also look like a) Jell-O puddings, or b) that part of the female anatomy featured in this year's Super Bowl that so offended the FCC.
Claire met me at the shuttle stop, and we spent the evening mostly trying to figure out what the heck the weather was going to do, inasmuch as it was currently snowing in Yellowstone. We also sampled the wild Pocatello (that's Pokey to you) nightlife when we made a side trip to Applebee's for a "blond" brownie.
May 12 The dynamic opportunities for entertainment and education kept us in Pocatello and its surroundings the next day. Also the fact that it was still snowing in Yellowstone. We hung out in Pokey that morning, and ended the day at a Mexican restaurant in Idaho Falls.
The day began in scenic Pocatello. It was a cold, drippy day so naturally Claire and I spent a lot of it outside. Here is the top of Red Hill, a (surprise!) redddish hill that abuts the ISU campus. The strange Grecian structure was placed there, Claire explained, to represent the four classes at the university, but the beam connecting the last column fell off, so the school came up with the explanation that "the seniors stand alone."
On the way back down the hill, we looked at neat rock with pink stone in it and lichen growing on it.
After making plans to go to southeastern Utah first, and then Yellowstone later in the week, hopefully when the weather was better, we ate lunch at a groovy soup-oriented restaurant in Pokey's happenin' downtown district. There is nothing like hot chicken and broccoli soup and warm bread on a cold day. Then, we got back in the car--we would spend a lot of time in the car--and drove north.
Our first stop was Blackfoot, your typical run-down western town. Outside Blackfoot is a public park where you can grill underneath pavillions, swing on the kiddie playground, try to boat in the dried up lake, or play frisbee golf. We played frisbee golf, which is also known a disc golf, but it's obvious that the discs are just frisbees. The object is to throw the frisbee into the basketlike recepticles that would be holes on a normal golf course. You can see one in the distance. Claire and I suck at frisbee golf.
Next we drove into Blackfoot proper to see...the Potato Expo. It's a small museum all about...the potato. There Claire and I learned more about the potato than we probably ever wanted to know, including that in the potato chip manufacturing process there is a stage in which the skin is "exploded" off the potato. Naturally we took pictures of the giant potato outside the building.
Here is Claire being creative when having her picture taken with the giant potato.
Inside Claire was amused by this wall. Hopefully, she will not be living in Idaho much longer, as she is not a fan of life in Pokey.
Farther north is Idaho Falls, which is larger and has more amenities. Like a Barnes and Noble and a park alongside the Snake River where Claire and I discovered scads of Canadian Geese with a few mallard ducks tossed in for good measure. Also there was sunshine.
I helpfully point out the geese. Claire takes pictures of things with people in them, whereas unaided, I usually forget to take people pictures.
Claire inspects a goose.
I noticed one of the roads we drove on was named after me.