Joe’s Idaho Memories
I was met at the airport in Idaho
Falls by the Andersons. I arrived a
little early and waited at the curb for them to arrive. It is a small comfortable airport that allows
you to do that right outside the door.
When I saw them coming down the lane in the Armada I got excited and I
saw kids inside getting excited also.
Evan, who had been very mommy clingy the last time I saw him, was
waving, giving me a big smile, and easy to hug.
He, Ally, Jayce, Leah, and Shawn just filled up my spirit when I saw
them all together. We went to their
home, first time I had seen it, and disembarked. The house is so comfortable with stone and
brick work all over the place. The back
yard is small and cozy and neatly done.
I got a room downstairs right by the bathroom. I think I evicted Jayce for my stay. There is a big entertainment room right
outside my bedroom door.
An immediate attraction was the
salt water fish aquarium. It drew a lot
of attention and I was amazed at home much everyone knew about the several
different residents.
We drove over to the Snake River
area across from the Idaho Falls Temple later in the early evening. Ospreys were diving down to catch fish and it
was important to watch your step because of the large flock of Canada Geese
that were there. I mostly enjoyed
watching the kids interact with each other, just being themselves without
company manners on.
Just past the Anderson backyard
is a large wheat field. It had the old
fashioned irrigation system that requires workers to dismantle and move the
irrigation pipes every few days. I
watched them do this task once and realized how lucky eastern wheat growers are
to have rain in due season.
I walked around the development
where the Andersons live. It is new and
homes are still being constructed there.
I enjoyed the no-humidity-outside time and also enjoyed checking out the
different plants, both ornamental landscaping ones and the native plants
growing on vacant lots. Most of the
vacant lots had a Shawn Anderson Realty sign on them.
Next day, Sunday, I used Shawn’s
Maxima to drive south on I-15 to meet Eric White’s mother, Sue. She was bringing Eric and Christy up to join
us. They had flown into Salt Lake City
earlier and spent some time with her.
She and I left about the same time and met each other pretty close to
the Idaho/Utah state line. Enjoyed the
drive back. Nice to have the time with
Eric and Christy.
Sunday night some friends of the
Whites joined us at the Anderson house for dinner. Leah did pork loin burritos and salad and
some other stuff. We watched the kids
ride and play in a big outdoors kind of way.
Next day we loaded up both
Anderson vehicles and drove to their mountain cabin at Island Park. They have a partnership with two other
members of Shawn’s family. It seems to
work out really well with all of them getting to use it about as much as they
want. Although, one of the partner’s,
Shawn’s sister’s family, is in Australia with work for a year. So, they don’t have to share with her very
much :).
The cabin is big, open and very
spacious feeling. It is on three floors
with bedrooms on all three as well as large game/gathering rooms on all
three. The community they live in is
made up of owners who live in their own cabins—no rental property here. Although, you can go a few roads over and
there will be some rentals. The roads
are graveled, all utilities underground, and the vegetation is mostly made up
of stands of lodgepole pine with various understudy plants. Despite seeing lots of blooming plants, I
never saw the first honeybee.
The other four adults had a
morning run each day we were there. I
often went walking on my own or with Jayce.
We saw a mule deer one morning.
They have four wheelers
there. One day while only Leah and the
kids and I were there, we took them on a long journey through some cattle
country that adjoins the residential area.
Apparently the cattle were on BLM land leased to ranchers. We drove the four wheelers through their
pastures as apparently others do all the time.
We only had to open and close gates.
It was comforting to see the good looking Angus cattle in their mid-day
rest under the shade of the lodgepoles.
Another day we went down the
Henry Fork of the Snake River on some rubber rafts. I think my presence stifled some of the rough
housing that Shawn and Eric would have liked to engage in. I guess my age is showing. I wore my blue jeans but did wear some of
Shawn’s sandals. Got sunburned feet of
course. Along the float/paddle trip we
saw many moose and various water birds.
Large trout were all around us.
The stream is pretty wide but not very deep. Some places we would get stuck on the bottom
and have to disembark and drag the raft over the shallows. We stopped about midway down and ate a picnic
lunch. It was about a 3-4 hour trip.
Another time we went to the Big
Springs area that feeds the Henry Fork.
It is a small lake/big pond fed by multiple large springs of water. It is naturally impounded in this area with
the overflow becoming the Henry Fork. Always
cold, always trout water, always pretty!
There is a cabin on a hillside overlooking the impound built by a German
in the early 1900s. He lived there until
very late in life. He was very
inventive. He built the house, the
furnishings and equipped it with gravity fed running water. He also built a turbine that generated
electricity for the house.
There was an entire day of
touring Yellowstone Park. We saw sooo
much! The bison herds were very large
and the bulls were fighting each other all over the place—including on the
highway. We saw lots of elk, a wolf, but
no grizzlies. We saw Old Faithful erupt
and also saw numerous other geysers. We
rode a lot, walked a lot, and ate out of Leah’s picnic basket. We did not have any mosquito trouble at all.
One night at the cabin we built a
fire outside and roasted hot dogs.
A highlight was attending the
dinner/theater to see “Cowboys and Petticoats”.
The Andersons treated all of us.
The three Anderson kids had a ball watching the show. It was full of old country & western
classic songs done by these young players. I enjoyed the show but enjoyed
watching the kids enjoy the show even more.
Someone said they thought they may be students at BYU-Idaho.
Too soon it was time to saddle up
and leave for home. Shawn and I went
thru Rexburg for a real estate stop he needed to make and then on to the
airport. I LOVE THAT LITTLE
AIRPORT. We left on time. After arriving at SLC we were delayed leaving
because of storms in the Midwest. I was
a couple of hours late getting home. On
the flight to Nashville I sat by an Indian (as in, from India) who lives in
Fresno, California. He was going to
Nashville for a Subway franchise meeting.
He told me he owned 12 of them in the Fresno area. He said his mortgage payment was $25,000 per
month. Paying out that much money he
said he was lucky to clear $1,000,000 per year.
Poor guy!
