POCATELLO

Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone Indian tribe...yes we found ourselves in Pocatello, Idaho, last weekend. We needed to make a trip to Bear Lake to interview 2 prospective renters (we chose one and so we're giving renting another try) and after noticing that there was an Easter Egg Scramble for geocachers on up the road, we decided to mix a little pleasure with business. First we did some geocaching on our own (found 9 caches and a travel bug), ate dinner at Ruby Tuesdays and stayed overnight at a Hampton. We were up the next day to start the hunt at 10:00am. We raced around Pocatello (putting about 50 miles on the CRV) until 3:00pm and found 10 of the 12 hidden eggs. I think we came in 4th place out of 6 teams and enjoyed some trails and view points and parks and then met with everyone for a late lunch at Uncle Jim's Family Diner. It was a disadvantage to have had no experience in the area...there were lots of one-way streets and dead-ends, plus every other team had more than 2 members to help solve puzzles and look for some pretty tricky hides, but it was still a lot of fun. We didn't have time to take photos...the scenery shots below are from the caching we did on our own. The temperatures were nippy in the morning (with a few snowflakes even), but it got better as the day progressed. Good times and noodle salad.
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View of the Portneuf River from a cache.


Mr. Geo Idiot at a cache (hidden in that cedar tree, Autumn!) in the Mink Creek recreational area of the Caribou National Forest.


Mrs. Geo Idiot at the "Dragon View of the City" Cache quite close to our motel...steep with deep ruts. We were wishing we had Elle the Rubicon.



Oh yes, we spent some time driving around Chubbuck (on the northern end of Pocatello) the home of chubby cats...Maki's birthplace!

The gathering place for the hunters after the Easter Egg Scramble.

BIRTHDAY DINNER & WILDLIFE & BICYCLE

Last weekend was a beauty, weatherwise. Dad & I spent most of the day cleaning out the pond and getting it back in working order since the Weber water is on again. It's a big job, but worth it to hear and enjoy the waterfall for the summer. Sunday after church the hungry visitors arrived to celebrate Airie's birthday with salmon in lemon-cilantro butter cooked in a foil pan on the grill. Shrimp cocktails, baked potatoes, a summer & zuccini squash & snow pea pods veggie dish, and pesto or garlic pull-apart bread made for a pretty tasty meal. Before dinner the grandkids had a great time running around the yard and checking out the pond. We enjoyed ice cream and cookies and presents. Happy Birthday Zoogie! I'm including photos from the spouses' bicycle-building event in Phoenix and some wildlife seen in the yard this week.


Checking out the pond as the sun was going down.


Colby could have stayed guarding the pond indefinitely.


The weather was warm enough to enjoy sprawling on the lawn in a sundress. (Actually she was recovering from racing up the hill, around the top of the yard and back down the front slope about a dozen times...what a lot of energy!!!)

Like son, like father (with diet lime Coke, of course!)

Ready to chow down.

The Stansbury Barker Bunch.

Anxious for those shrimp and veggies.

The Birthday Girl...still have the cake and "pear-scented" green candle provided by Briton.

Presents.

A deer dining on my raspberry bushes!!!

Posing (shedding the winter coat).

Two more deer roaming around the back year...3 total.

And the bandito! Monday night, Dad saw 3 raccoons in the bird feeder and 1 more on the deck around midnight. So he set out the trap (with apples and 12-grain bread with Adams Peanut Butter--only the best!) and caught a big one by Tuesday morning, another one by Wednesday, and a third one by Friday!!! We caught two last year and one the year before, so we've already set a new record in one week.

Some of the spouses with the Boys & Girls Club director who came to pick up the 5 bikes.

Debbie (from Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada) & Paula and the giant card to go with the bike for Julia, an underprivileged child on an Indian Reservation.

Debbie & Paula making the card.

Installing the handle bars on the pink "Twirl" bike.

Adjusting the seat. This may actually be the first time I've ever used a wrench!?!?!?!

ARIZONA--LAST DAY

I guess you're saying, "Finally, the last day!" I know I am. But it has been fun to remember and share the trip. We spent the last night in Las Vegas and enjoyed eating dinner at The Paris, Cafe Ile St. Louis, of course. (The Coq au Vin was no longer on the menu, but the Chicken Marsala was excellent.) We watched the Bellagio fountains that night and the next day. I'll never get enough of them. We also spent a lot of time in the Conservatory (greenhouse) at the Bellagio. All of the beautiful flowers in bloom on Easter morning made a lasting impression of renewal and rebirth.


Looking across the Bellagio Fountain Pond to The Paris.


Looking into the lobby from our room in the Pyramid.


The Obelisk.

The Sphinx.

OK, OK, I know it's dumb, but I took my tiny shamrock sprouts with us on the trip. I figured all of my other plants could make it without watering for 10 days, but the shamrocks had to come along and get pampered. Here they are at the Luxor! (click and enlarge)

The fountain on a gorgeous Easter Sunday...70+ degree temps.

Inside the Conservatory at the Bellagio with the water globe centerpiece.

Daffodils and orange tulips.

Purple/blue hyacinths.

Pink fringed tulips.

Yellow and orange tulips.

Red fringed tulips.

Butterfly House...there are probably 10 butterflies in this photo.

Big butterfly with metallic blue wings when seen in flight...Blue Morpho.

Red Carnation Ladybug

Snail made out of roses (click and enlarge)

I'm walking to the butterfly house under the arching streams of water...no tubes...just water!

Dad and the giant watering cans.

The happy travelers, reluctant to leave.

Back home with my 2 souvenir cacti.

ARIZONA DAY 9--ROUTE 66

It's Saturday, an overcast day with one little sprinkle of rain, but still warm and pleasant. We woke up in Kingman, Arizona and went to the Historic Route 66 Museum first. Then we were off to finish the CARS caches (ha!), and on along Route 66 to another old mining town called Chloride. ..what a hoot! I can't resist sharing 9 photos of this ghost town that has a few inhabitants and some very interesting structures and "displays." Then we pressed on to Hoover dam and Las Vegas.

Inside the Museum...can you see Mater?

Old Studebaker with an evaporative cooler in the passenger window and old Burma Shave Signs.

On the road (a Travel Bug called Tennesee Caving Dude is pictured at the top).

An original Route 66 Diner...just for Autumn.

Just for Briton...taken from Route 66 as we were driving by.

Cheesecake Rock, just outside Kingman.

Ramone Cache...#5...no clue.

Fillmore Cache #6...we found Tow Mater there. Now this is the part where we live up to our name, The Geo Idiots. After finding all 6 CARS Caches and collecting the extra coordinate clues, we put them all together to find Lightning McQueen. All 6 caches were within about a 2-hour stretch of road from Oatman (Sally) to Hackberry (Fillmore), with Kingman (Doc Hudson) in the middle. We were in Hackberry and wouldn't you know it, Lightning was all the way back beyond the Sally Cache (that we had already been to twice) at Oatman. We needed to back track to Kingman to press on to Vegas anyway, but we couldn't quit without getting Lightning, so we spent another almost 2 hours to get #7!! Luckily it was the most scenic part of the road through a winding canyon and when we arrived a little rainstorm had just ended and the desert smell was heavenly!

We found him!!! and took a Red the Fire Truck "Radiator Springs" sticker.

At the McQueen Cache, lots of little desert flowers had opened up after the rain.

Another photo of the rocks in the canyon on Route 66 that surely were inspiration for the movie setting.

OK, here it is...Chloride. What can you say about Chloride??? Hopefully these pictures will tell the story. This town seemed about the size of St. Charles with about 300 residents. Mostly you'd call it run down, but it had a peculiar kinda almost-charm, too. We drove around it like we were looking at Christmas lights. Here's the fence at the entrance to town decorated with an eclectic collection of rusted junk.

The kitchen utensils tree.

The boot fence.

The bottle window and wagon roof.

Blue house with trees displaying blue bottles and other rare treasures.

Porch with birdhouses.

The Old Red House.

The Gas Station. Looks like a train can fill up!

And the Yellow Bank.

Winding our way down to the back of Hoover Dam at sunset.

Front of Hoover Dam...I couldn't see the bottom.

Looks like they're building a new sky-high bridge over the Colorado River just beyond the front of the dam.