Taking Care of Business

2019-09-01 Sunday

We stayed put today in our campground in Rigby, Idaho, so we had some leisure time to take care of some of the more prosaic things which often we don't have time for. Joe's first priority today was to change the oil in the RV. He did an inventory of his supplies, and needed an oil filter, so he took the Jeep to a local auto parts store. Meanwhile, I was cleaning up around the "house", putting away stray items, making the bed, etc.

The oil change went quite smoothly. I was set up outside in a lounge chair, reading my book, but every so often Joe needed me to hand him something under the RV. It was only during the cleanup part, and the disposal of the used oil part, that I really needed to lend a hand. There were some inevitable spills, but we doused them with detergent and used the hose to spray away most of the evidence.

After that, Joey wanted to reorganize his tool boxes, which had gotten a little messy also. And we also decided to put up our sun awning, because the sun was coming in from that side of the RV. So that all took some time, and then we had a quick lunch, so we could go to the Museum of Idaho. This was one of several museums on my list of places we hadn't had time for last year when we came through this way. So I wanted to see at least ONE of them today.

We left Cassie in the RV with the fan on (it was noticably cooler inside than outside, in any case, and our site is shaded) and we drove 12 miles south to Idaho Springs. As we drove through town, we noted the beautiful Snake River and the Riverwalk, as well as the immense Latter Day Saints Temple absolutely looming over the entire city--by far, the largest, tallest building we saw all day.

The Museum of Idaho was very small-- I think because they were undergoing a new expansion. There was clearly a large, modern building there, but all the exhibits were in the original building, which was the Library of the city until it was turned into a Museum. There were three exhibits--one on the history of Idaho, one on Idaho's nuclear energy contributions (the first nuclear energy plant was in Idaho in 1951), and the current special exhibit on Archimedes. (Last year, the one we missed, was about Steampunk, which I thought sounded fun!) The first two exhibits seemed pretty abreviated, although they were well done, especially the Idaho history exhibit. The Archimedes exhibit reminded me a lot of the one we saw last year in Iowa, on Leonardo da Vinci. There were a lot of models built according to Archimedes' discoveries, some of which we were able to play with. We spent about 90 minutes or so in the museum, I think.

Our next mission was to hit the Walmart--we had a long shopping list with everything from face moisturizer to potholders to an oil filter to groceries. But on the way, we decided to stop and see the falls which the city is named for. They turned out to be right on the route to Walmart, so it was perfect. We got out of the car, and there was an ice cream place right there. Both of us were actually feeling quite tired, and I think I was dehydrated as well, so we went and refreshed ourselves. Then we looked at the falls, read the historical signs, and took photos. The river really is beautiful there. Originally the falls were a series of rough rapids, but there is now a diversionary dam in the river which makes an area that is almost like a lake, and then allows the waters to cascade over the rocks in a number of places. They aren't high falls, certainly not as impressive as Shoshone Falls, which we saw last year, but they are beautiful anyway, and the city is smart to have that  beautiful Riverway park along them for quite a distance.

We then drove another 3 minutes to the Walmart. Both of us were really tired by then. We got through the non-food selections on our list, and then Joey begged off and went to rest in the car. I did the food shopping (it must have taken at least 45 minutes... Shopping in Walmart takes forever because the aisles are so big, and it's hard not to miss something, so you always end up going back and forth a couple of times. Tiring!) Joey came in when I was ready to check out, with a second shopping cart to help (mine was overflowing due to all the water bottles and soda.) We finally got home at about 7pm, and rested for a while before having dinner.

Tomorrow we have to be out of here by 10:30 (campground rules). We will be heading up to West Yellowstone, to the Madison entrance of Yellowstone NP. We'll be looking for a campsite for the next couple of days, and then if we still have the energy, we'll take the Jeep into the park.