I got to Winnemucca a little later than planned what with the deep fried detour and so missed the Basque restaurants. Did you know that Winnemucca is home to the largest contingent of Basques in the US? Well, now you do. Instead, I ended up eating at a Casino and had a Casino Monday night special. NY Strip, Fried Shrimps, mashed potatoes, asparagus, and all you can eat salad and soup bar for $18. Not too shabby, pretty good, and I lost about a buck fifty in the slots. Oh well.

Casino Specials

My day actually started at 1:30am when the fire alarm in the motel went off. I hurriedly threw on clothes, grabbed my bags, opened the door and smelled nothing burning. I hung in my doorway as people lazily sauntered around looking for the fire. There was no fire. There was a dusty heater that hadn't been turned on in months that set off the alarms. Joy. Back to bed.

The theme for today is Basque. After being denied Basque food last night, I was encouraged to seek out Basque breakfast. Alas, it was not to be. half a cup of bad coffee, or should I say continental breakfast jolted me down the road as I passed the same closed restaurants. Yesterday was Hwy 80. Today was a new one for me Hwy 95. What a beautiful drive.

Hellie in Winnemucca

Wildflowers in Oregon

to get from Nevada to Idaho you have to go through Oregon, though looking at a map you would wonder why. Nevada and Idaho share a border. After hundreds of miles cruising at 80mph, Oregon is a different story. 55mph and you better stick to it. So I did.

You know those ear worms you get? One of mine for a number of years has been the B-52s song and theme from the movie Your Own Private Idaho. I haven't actually heard the song in a long time, but during the drive, I played a playlist (a mix tape for those you who are romantic about such things) that Justine put together for me and that song popped on about 20 minutes from the Idaho border. Perfect timing alone on the road to Idaho. Who the ho? I the ho. It's just so much fun to say.

Welcome to IDAHO

Boise is fascinating. the downtown is awesome. A State capitol, a big college town, and Northwest spirit. Great shops, cafes, restaurants, you name it. 5 minutes outside of downtown Boise is SPRAWL with a capitol yuck.

Idaho State House

Gurnika Bar

After lunch I wandered around downtown and found their park which is about to undergo a centennial facelift. Justine I wish you could have seen it. It looks like it should be really nice. The onle thing that the park already has and I hope they are keeping is a beautiful rose garden. Huge. I was a bit confused by the drano blue fountains (water features, right Justine?) so I grabbed a picture of them. I took a picture of a rose, but only Justine gets to see it, cause it's for her.

Blue Fountain

I'll drive over to the couch surfer's I'm staying with in a little bit and fill you in on what happens with that tomorrow. I was going to stay in Boise tomorrow, but I think I just did the whole town in half a day, so maybe I'll hit the road.

Ha! I went a whole post without mentioning Burning Man. Oh crap. Well, here's a picture of me eating some corn from yesterday

Corn on a stick

written by  JRadhirsch on September 2, 2008 from Boise, United States
from the travel blog: The Great American Road Trip
tagged Basque, Notburningman and Drano
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