24/50: Idaho

After spending quality time in Washington (STATE 23: WA), we continued southeast to Idaho, a state we admittingly knew very little about beyond their reputation for growing some damn good potatoes.

Our “50 States” project for [HAS HEART] took us to the state capital city in Boise, where we partnered with the AIGA Idaho chapter to work with designer and educator Mike Bartlett and U.S. Marines veteran and combat photographer David James Blake. Although this project hasn’t yet been launched, be sure to bookmark it because it was one of the more meaningful stories we’ve been able to help share — and it was fun because of the great people we collaborated with.

Out of our ignorance, we had such few expectations in visiting Idaho for the first time that it didn’t take long for us to be pleasantly surprised. On our drive alone from Walla Walla, WA, we had to pull off the highway and take in the panoramic views of the countryside. From then on, Idaho became one of our favorite “underdog” states.

Again, out of ignorance, all I knew about Boise was that their Boise State University football team had a blue field — which I tried to get a peek of, but it was out of season and locked up.

We were very pleasantly surprised by downtown Boise. Being the state capital (which I remembered from my exemplary elementary school education), the views of the capitol building looked historic. The rest of our exploration around town was full of restaurants, a handful of shops and boutiques, and even a strong Basque culture, complete with its Basque block.

I mainly know of Basque Country, which is uniquely an autonomous community in northern Spain, because Kendra and my brother-in-law is from Bilbao, Spain. Kendra first recognized the Basque cross proudly stamped into the sidewalk and flown on street post flags.

Come to find out, Boise is home to the largest concentration of Basques outside of Spain. Historically, Basque families began to migrate for better opportunities in the late 1800s but then fled in droves to the Boise area during the reign of Francisco Franco in the mid-1900s to avoid persecution. Nevertheless, the area has continued to celebrate its cultural heritage, which we were quick to text our B-I-L, Iker, with plenty of pictures and newly discovered facts of ours.

What we were not expecting in Boise was the heat. It was HOT. While we were there in early June, the temperatures quickly jumped into the high 90s and topped off in triple digits.

Worse, our air conditioner stopped working on the first day of camping at the Ambassador RV Resort. So all we could do during the day was open all the windows hoping for any breeze to flow through and blast the two small fans we had.

Poor Noel and that full-time fur coat of hers.

Thankfully for us, our air conditioner was at least still under warranty, and there was the Airstream Adventures NW dealership nearby that could fix it. The bad news was that they had to diagnose the problem with the air conditioner manufacturer and then go through Airstream corporate for warranty work approvals. So it wasn’t a quick fix by any means.

One nice thing was that we could stay on site for free with full hook-ups while they were going through the process. We couldn’t help walking through some new floor models, including the high-end and extra-long Airstream Classic model, which is like a private jet on wheels, and the tiny little Nest by Airstream that had just launched.

There was something unique about being surrounded by so many Airstreams, even if parked in their lot.

We stumbled upon downtown Caldwell, ID, while we were out and about, about 30 minutes west of Boise. You could tell the town had seen better days. Certainly, Main Street was a victim of the suburban sprawl of the Walmart and chain department store.

I found a military surplus and historical collectibles store called D&J Enterprises, which boasts the largest in the state. I was able to nerd out on some utilitarian gems, jackets, bags, and more. I would have loved to take home an old footlocker or some of the storage containers they’ve collected over time, but I only had room for a small goodie bag of vintage finds.

Meanwhile, Kendra discovered her little gem of a store that brought back her childhood memories from Mexico. The local Mexican market was stocked full of some of the treats she grew up on and also housed a bakery that we eagerly supported by purchasing some delicious baked goods.

At this point in the tour, we continued onto STATE 25: WY, then to STATE 26: MT, and then looped back to STATE 23: WA so that we could attend one of my cousin’s weddings in Seattle. Afterward, we flew out from SeaTac airport to STATE 27: AK.

Months later, we found ourselves back in Boise after making that loop. We had some more warranty work that wasn’t able to get fixed previously because some of the parts were on back-order, so since we had to drive through Idaho to get to our STATE 28: UT project anyway, we stopped back in for some more Boise fun.

Luckily, we were in town for the Spirit of Boise Balloon Festival, a colorful site to see and appreciate safely on the ground.

After the balloons took off, we thought we might be able to get a higher perspective from on top of Table Rock, a 900-foot high sandstone butte (3,650 miles above sea level) that provides beautiful views of Boise and the greater Treasure Valley below.

Apparently, this area of the Boise foothills was recovering from a fire, which is the new normal for many western states. So it was sad and upsetting to hear that the cause of this fire resulted from fireworks.

We stayed again at the Airstream Adventures NW dealership. We arrived during the weekend, so we had a couple of days to work and enjoy some looming storm clouds.

While they were making the final repairs on Monday, we had to take Noel out of the trailer for a few hours. So what do you do, and where do you go with a cat? Starbucks, of course.

We first sat outside trying to wait out the repairs, but it was becoming way too hot, and we lost shade as the morning sun shifted. We had no other choice but to slip her into her space pack carrying bag and bring her inside to air conditioning. Although she seemed miserable and cramped at times, she was a trooper and didn’t get us kicked out before our Airstream was ready.

The next day, our Airstream was like brand new with a handful of warranty repairs complete and we headed to our next stop, STATE 25: WY.