It's a made up name.....

Since July 23rd our motor coach has only been in two states.....Montana and Idaho.  Friday we entered Idaho again in our coach heading south towards Salt Lake City.  I have always assumed that Idaho was some sort of Indian name.  As it turns out, at least according State Symbols USA and Wikipedia it was a made up name by a man named George M. Willing.  He claimed it was an Indian word whose English meaning was "Gem of the Mountains".   Before the deception was discovered the name caught on, and it is now part of  history.

The temperature at 7 am was 23 degrees.......ugh.....time we were further south for sure!  We departed Fairmont Hot Springs around 9:50 am after dumping our waste tanks, and filling up our fresh water tank.  We merged on to I-90 for 11 miles, then on to I-15 southbound towards Idaho Falls.  Our driving distance for Friday was 210 miles.....a little further than we normally drive, but most, if not all of the campgrounds between Fairmont Hot Springs and Idaho Falls were closed for the season.

We crossed the Continental Divide once again on our way south at 6,873' then we crossed one more pass called Monida Pass at 6, 870' as we entered Idaho.  The skies were clear, and temperatures were warming up as we edged further south.  At about the 100 mile mark we pulled off in a roadside "Parking Area", which was perfect for our purposes.  The only amenity was a single pit toilet, but that's no problem for us....we just wanted to take a break and have some lunch.

From the top of Monida Pass we descended 2,000 feet to Idaho Falls, our destination for the day.  Originally we had planned to stay over night at the Snake River RV Park, but we made a "game time decision" to pull in at the local Super Walmart around 2 pm.  We both needed haircuts.....I hadn't had one since early September, or late August and was getting a little shaggy.  TLE had her last trimmed about the same time.  Right in the parking lot of the Walmart was a "Great Clips" which TLE had used before, so we both walked over and got seated within about 10 minutes.

Once that was accomplished it was closing in on 3 pm so we decided to walk about a mile downtown to a new micro brewery called Idaho Brewing Company to check out their offerings.   Yelp gives them 4.5 stars....I would put it closer to 4 stars, but what is 1/2 a star between friends, right?   TLE had a Black Lager and I a Wolf's Oatmeal Stout.....both were very good, but since they only serve beer (not a bad thing, of course) and we were getting hungry we decided to head back the other direction about a mile to Snow Eagle Brewing and Grill to check out their micro brews and have a couple of appetizers.

Along the way we stopped to take some pictures of the actual Idaho Falls......they are beautiful!  If I was rating them on Yelp, they would get 4 stars at a minimum.

We arrived at Snow Eagle shortly thereafter and found ourselves the only ones there except for two other couples.

My view at Snow Eagle

TLE's view....the falls are across the street....great view!

Yelp only gives Snow Eagle Brewery and Grill 3.5 stars, but our rating would be 4.5.  I had a pint of their seasonal Pumpkin Ale, and so did TLE.  We ordered two appetizers which just blew us away.....the Navajo Nachos and Italian Stuff Grenades (Poblano Peppers).....the portions of both appetizers were very generous, and those stuffed peppers set my mouth on fire.  We found out as we were finishing our first pint of the Pumpkin Ale that the second one was free.....well, who can turn down a free pint?  This is a very nice micro brewery and we both recommend it very highly.....mostly because they serve GREAT food with their great brews, plus the ambiance is superb!

We walked slowly back to our coach enjoying the warmth of the afternoon air.  TLE needed a few food items (tomatoes, lettuce, cilantro) so we went into the Walmart and transferred some money, and then headed back to the coach for the evening.

We watched a few pre-recorded TV shows (Revolution, CSI and Elementary), watched Master Chef Junior live, and then headed off to bed.....yes, we decided to dry camp in the Walmart parking lot as the weather guessers were saying it would only get down to 33 overnight.....they were wrong....it got down to 27 last night!

Friday was a pleasant day, and as we continue further south we are looking even more forward to warmer temperatures.

Thanks for stopping by!