Tuesday p.m. in Idaho Falls, ID (still?)

Yes, after watching Margaret's recovery (or lack thereof) last night, I realized it was foolish to try pushing on. She needed sleep (which she got all day today) and no-stress of traveling. So I extended our stay here for two more nights. At the moment, it is my plan to depart Idaho Falls on Thursday (10 August).

All was not lost, however, I rented a Jeep 4x4 Liberty today so I could shop (groceries - wine, mostly). Tomorrow (Wednesday) I am going to try a short trip to Craters of the Moon National Park (about 70 miles west of here - near Arco, ID). Not sure what's there, but it sounds interesting.

Idaho Falls is a pretty little town. I say little, but they do have a Sam's Club and 3 State Liquor stores. The young man at Enterprise rental says they don't get hot weather (97 degrees last week vs 108 degrees in Salt Lake City). Eleveation here is about 5000 feet. Evenings are coolish - low 50's. The Enterprise guy says that new homes don't even come with air conditioning. (And the snow melts by 2:00 in the afternoon.) I'll take his word for it.

As I mentioned, Idaho Falls is another town on the Snake River. However, I was incorrect in several of my thoughts. According to www.wikipedia.com, the Snake River got it's name from the local indians gesturing with a waving motion to indicate the swimming of salmon spawing up the river. The motion looked like a snake (or so folks believed). Secondly, I thought I had read that the Snake was the last remaining American great river without a dam. Wrong. There are (again, according to wikipedia) more than 20 dams. There is an attempt to tear down the last four dams at the south end before it enters the Columbia (as its major tributary).

Even though we're not in Utah, there is a large Mormon Temple here in Idaho Falls, right on the banks of the Snake. Not surprising I guess, given our proximity to Salt Lake (about 200 miles to the south).

I found the dam here in Idaho Falls to be rather unusual. They ran a spillway down the river, splitting it in two. So the "falls" occur over a long stretch (sideways) of about 1/2 mile. The final leg runs through a small power plant before rejoining the main stream. Hard to believe that this is the same river we saw in Teton Nat'l Park and the one that Margaret, Carol, and Ryan went white-water-rafting on just a few days ago.

More after my great adventure tomorrow.
Wayne

p.s. If you believe anyone else might want to read of our exploits (such as they are), feel free to pass along the web-site. Again it's FernandinaBeachTravelers.blogspot.com - - (no www.)