Notburningman - Blogabond

153,124 miles on the ole Carolla to start the day.
gas $4.88/gallon
8:49am

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

There are about 3 towns between Winnemucca and Boise, none of them worth mentioning, but the hills, oh the hills. and the wildflowers. And the lone tree every 10 minutes. You gotta wonder how such a lonely tree got there out by itself.

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

But let's get back to the theme for the day. Do you remember what that was? That's right: Basque. All through the drive, Basque this and Basque that kept creeping onto signs and names of streets. Someone posted on my blog yesterday that Boise should have some Basque food, so thanks to my handy Knowledge Box (my iphone) i found an AWESOME Basque place for lunch, Gurnika Bar. Lamb stew and these croquettes (they pronounce them croquettas with a long a) that were oh my god good.

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