PURE OREGON

BITE OF BEND

Arrived inadvertently in the midst of a food festival.

THE ROAD TO BEND, OREGON

BOISE: THE PROBLEM WITH OLDER CoWS

And they had just got married.

BOISE: NOCTURNAL ARTIST

Tony Caprai

Boise is vibrant, colorful and artsy.

BOISE: JUNIPER

Junipero @ Juniper:  Distilled in the USA

There are many hangouts from which to choose along the 9th Street pedestrian precinct and environs.

Juniper is my favorite.

So is Junipero gin. 

An inspirational zone for new ideas
(or to percolate existing ones)

BOISE STATE CAPITOL

No fanfare, no hoopla.  No security or paranoia.

Just a well-run state government in a very well-run state capital.

The folks in DC could learn something from Boise and Idaho.

BOISE: SIGNS FROM ON HIGH

BOISE: COLORFUL CHARACTERS ABOUND

BOISE

As it was.

As it is.

The old and the new blend into a tasteful melange.

IDAHO: "BE BOLD IN BOISE"

Preparing to enter one of the finest cities I have ever visited in the USA.

Boise.  Who would have known.

BLISS, IDAHO

There's a lesson to be learned here:

Never trust bliss...

...unless it is a saloon.

PEEK-A-BOO MOO

At a filling station in rural Idaho.

(Hopefully not going to slaughter.)

MONTANA: A ROAD OF ONE'S OWN...

...and a clubhouse with a (changing) view.

BUTTE, MONTANA

Butte is beat.  Battered, baked and butt-kicked. 

Either Anaconda's copper ran out or the townsfolk got ripped off by the copper barons.

They could learn a thing or two from the people of Jerome, Arizona.  Like, how to revive an old copper mining town.  Maybe with ghosts, maybe something else. Build a myth, they will come.

Currently, Butte is symptomatic of everything that's wrong with America, and humanity in general, which, in this city, seems like a tumor bent on killing Mother Nature.

Couldn't, wouldn't  stay in Butte.  Had to roll 20 miles west to the Fairmont Resort...

MOODY MONTANA

The road less traveled

IDAHO: LOCAL HERO

Engine trouble on Highway 20.

Enter our hero at Elk Creek Station in Island Park.  

He quickly identifies an oil leak.

Our hero wheels himself beneath the CoW and  identifies why:   Graham Chevrolet neglected to tighten the oil filter whilst conducting their recent first service.

The vibrations of over 800 miles in two days at speeds often challenging the posted limits loosened it further.

It might have been catastrophic.

"It's your lucky day," says our hero.  

He finds a tool, re-wheels himself under CoW, and tightens the filter.  

He concludes the operation by pouring two quarts of oil into the engine.

Engine trouble resolved without hoopla, much time, much money.

Here is Elk Creek Station's creed...

Amen.

ASHTON, IDAHO

The world's finest root beer, grilled cheese & ham and tater tots.

Battered & buttered

IDAHO

JACKSON, WY: MORNING