We got up relatively early with plans of driving a hefty amount (6+ hours) through eastern Oregon and into Idaho! It was the 4th of July.
Ok, really, we had no idea where we were heading. We were a day or two behind and we just knew we needed to make up some ground... it was time to get out of Oregon. We'd been there for an entire week! To recap... Medford sucked. Bend was phenomenal. Newport and Rogue sucked. The coastal drive and Portland were both amazing. To all you travelers... pick your spots in this state carefully.
We figured we had enough driving stamina to make it a bit east of Boise... mapping the area and looking through our guide book, CP found a town - Glenns Ferry. Why not? It was said to have "true small town charm". Sure, we’re in!
Once into Idaho and finally through spotty cell reception, CP called ahead to a campground. They sounded great! For $20, they offered full hookup (electric, water, and sewer). And, they made it a point that they were less than 5 miles from the winery with a free shuttle to it. "Whatchu talking about, Willis?" A winery? In Idaho? In the town we planned on staying? Are you kidding us? CP was inspired to dig a little further and do some more research... turns out in one compound - Carmela Vineyards - there is a winery, a golf course, and an RV PARK. Um, yes please! Sign us up!
We blew off the first campground with bus service TO the winery in favor of staying AT the winery. CP gave Carmela a ring and they had ample room to accommodate us. The RV is not big enough for gymnastics. So CP and SM just did some mental back flips and a few high-fives at the chance to stay at a winery and golf course RV park. Are you kidding us? We got to the address only to find we were in a $20 RV spot literally stuck in the middle of a 9 hole golf course and a vineyard! The grounds were absolutely beautiful.
As we set up camp, we were told that there would even be fireworks in town at 10 pm that we could easily seen from the fairway of the 4th hole... score!
After freshening up, we meandered through the vineyard and over to the winery for a little tasting. WOW - it was GOOD! After being “loosened up”, we bought several bottles to bring home and enjoy later. The main winery building included a tasting room/gift shop, a restaurant, a separate bar, a function room, and the golf course pro shop. We settled in to the bar for the last hour it was open (It closed at 8 pm). We blogged while drinking more wine! The only sane way to blog... :)
After feeling a sense of accomplishment, we headed back to our campsite to throw together a little home cooking. We grilled some sausage (whats the fourth without a BBQ, right?) and had some garlic sauteed snap peas, and bread and cheese from the Newport farmers market.
Just as we finished dinner, the fireworks began. We dragged our fold-up chairs out to the 4th fairway and enjoyed. For a small town, the fireworks were pretty decent - 45 minutes long! And for not having any sort of plan to start the day, we really think we had an unbelievable experience this 4th of July! Exhausted but happily satisfied, we called it a night.
Since we were actually staying ON a golf course, SM rolled out of bed and onto the course to play 9 holes. SM - It wasn’t a very long course - a 2,410 yard par 34. Let’s say that there were some interesting holes. Among other things, the local rules on the score card read... 4. Hole #5 (men’s tee) and hole #8 - any shot hitting pole or power line, rehit - no penalty. And 11. Aerial OB on hole #3, stay left of tall white poles on tee shot. I’d never heard of aerial OB, but it was put in place to discourage golfers from shooting over the more than right hand angle of a dog leg right. The green was almost closer to the tee than the hole’s tee shot landing area. Clearly this course was an afterthought in developing the winery. I think it was carved into excess land around the vineyard, more as a hobby for the owner and a favor for the locals than an actual course. Besides the telephone poles and power lines running through it, the course was a beautiful space and a nice morning walk. I shot a 41.
CP and Murph went for a much-needed run around the vineyard, getting their exercise for the morning.
We sadly departed Glenns Ferry, Idaho and pointed east towards Jackson, Wyoming as our final destination. Along the way, we had to refuel our bodies. The guide book we have recommends local places to eat and avoids mentioning any and all chain restaurants and fast food places as you can get that type of fare anywhere. We were deep in the heart of the southern part of eastern Idaho and the guide book listings for food were pretty sparse. When we could not stand the stomach grumblings any longer, we pulled off the highway into Pocatello - home to Idaho State University. We figured there had to be a few good food joints in a college town...? We drove down a four-mile long stretch of road in Pocatello, Idaho (has a cool ring to it, huh?) to find every chain restaurant known to man.
The book mentioned a local place called Oliver’s Diner. OK - it can’t be any worse than Applebees, right? We pulled into the parking lot and the place looked like a diner from 1973. A nondescript cinder block exterior, and an interior with walls of wood paneling and booths sporting plastic leather cushions and faux wood laminated formica tabletops. What had we gotten ourselves in to? SM got (of all things in a greasy spoon!!) a cobb salad and a bowl of pepper soup and CP ordered the eggplant parmesan. The soup came first... surprisingly good. Things were looking up, at least for SM. Carolynn’s parm was... eh. After looking at SMs food - to quote CP - I wish I got a salad. If you can believe it, the salad was yummy!! SM - in places off the beaten path, we haven’t been so successful in scoring fresh veggies. I think I cornered the Pocatello veg market in this one salad. I so needed the ruffage... nuff said.
Back in the RV, we pulled out out atlas to determine our best route to Jackson. We could have taken the quicker highway route there, but we had decided early on in our trip that we would take the road less traveled when confronted with a mapping decision - unless of course it took us hours out of the way. This day, we decided to take a side trip to Lava Springs, Idaho. After our more than cool experience at Mystic Springs in Utah, we had wanted to hit another spring for comparison. Lava Springs, population 530, was a trip in it's own special way.
We arrived on the main street of town, a hill really, only about 3/4 of a mile long. A river wound under and along side the road. Two things we noticed... groups of people, young and old, walking up the hill carrying inner tubes and groups of people looking over the river bank. It was a natural water park! People were walking to the top of the hill, jumping with their inner tubes into the river just after a waterfall, and letting the rapids carry them through the town. They kept walking back up the hill to do it again and again. It looked so fun!
We also found the hot springs at the top of the hill. They were very different than the ones at mystic springs. Lava springs was a fenced-in, well-manicured, pool deck (for lack of a better description). The pools were of (faux?) rock and man-made, fed by the natural hot springs. The pools also had canopies covering certain sections of the pools to keep people in the shade, if desired. Our bodies were a bit tired and sore from driving so many miles over the past few days. So, we bought two “one trip passes” to the hot springs and climbed in. HOT. Very hot. But once we got used to it, we sat for about 10 minutes (all the time they recommend). Quite satisfied and now sweating (air temp in the mid 80s), we decided to go back up to the road and watch the people ride the river. Even more so now, it looked like such a blast. So, we (mostly encouraged by CP) decided to rent a two-person inner tube and give it a whirl. The woman renting the tubes asked “You sure you want a two-person? They’re harder to steer. You can flip much easier on a double. You may want two singles and tie them together.” Hell, if we’re gonna go down, we might as well go down together. :)
We plunged in with our two-person inner tube. It was COLD. How this river could be so cold and also be located right next to the hot springs being so hot, who knows? Once we were sufficiently numb, the ride down the river was an absolute trip! Sort of a cross between white water rafting and a water park. There were some pretty rough and fast spots along the way. And, we had to keep lifting our butts from the bottom of the tube and steering toward the middle so we wouldn’t get all scratched up from the river’s rock bottom and rocky banks. One time just wasn’t enough. We walked back up the hill and took another run. We would have loved to stay and spend the rest of the late afternoon riding the river, but this was an unexpected side trip and it was getting late. Reluctantly, we returned the inner tube and hit the road with still quite a ways to go to get to Jackson, WY.
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