Friday, September 3, 2021 - We drove for five hours from Joseph, Washington to Caldwell, Idaho and the Abundant Life RV Park. The drive was uneventful, which is how we like them. We were able to easily park the RV at the park and setup went well. The people running this park are very nice and helpful.

We contacted our friend and fellow model airplane flyer, Ryon Owens, to let him know that we were in the Nampa area. He suggested that we stop by his store, The Sportsman's Warehouse, where he is a manager to visit with him. We went by the store and were glad to see Ryon again. He was pretty busy at the store, so we did a little shopping ourselves and then visited with him when he had a break. Sure great to see Ryon again and we are anxious to see his wife, Sue, too.

NOTE: There is lots of smoke in the Boise area due to forest fires to the west of us. It is pretty thick and some of the worst that we have seen on our trip. We are hoping that we will drive out from under it as we move on to Idaho Falls next Friday.

Saturday, September 4, 2021 - We got up early (4:30am) to head into Boise to the Ann Morrison Park where the City of Boise was hosting the Spirit of Boise Balloon Classic. The day was to start with what is called the "Dawn Patrol" at 6:00am. Three balloons were set up in the dark and ready to be launched and flown before the sun came up. With official sunrise at around 7:30am, it was still dark when these three balloons were told to begin "Cold Packing" which is when they blow ambient air into the balloons with a small propeller unit driven by a small gas engine like a lawn-mower engine. This air begins to fill the balloon and the balloon begins to take the shape of a flying balloon, but cannot reach the vertical position. Once the balloon gets inflated to a certain point, the operator of the balloon then turns on the propane-powered burners and directs the hot air into the balloon. This heats up the air in the balloon and it begins to rise until it is hovering above the basket with the crew in it. All three balloons do this simultaneously. It was the perfect day for this as there was no wind and the temperature was in mid 40s. Each time the burners were turned on to inflate the balloon, the entire balloon would light up like a colorful lightbulb. It was truly beautiful. After all three balloons were standing tall, the command was given for all three to light burners and ascend together in a small cluster. The balloons were literally touching each other as they ascended. These balloons also have a string of lights hanging below the basket because it is still dark and when the burners are off, they cannot be seen. These lights warn other aircraft in the area that the balloons are there. All flyers in the area are informed that the balloons will be flying in the area. It is fun to watch these balloons light up in the darkness. After these balloons have risen into the air, all of the other balloon teams come out onto the grassy area and begin to set up their balloons for launch. All of the remaining balloons are scheduled to launch at or just past official sunrise. It is fun to be right in the middle of these balloons as they prep to launch. They all begin to "Cold Pack" at the same time and then they launch at "almost" the same time. It is truly spectacular to watch. There are lots of families and all the children are standing there looking into the skies. There were some unusual balloons such as Mickey Mouse, Kermit the Frog, Bucky the Beaver, an apple, and more. Beautiful in the skies since, with the low winds, they did not just zoom away from the park; they just hovered above us. It was a pretty cold morning and were cold, but not freezing, while we watched. At around 9:00, we decided that it was time to go find a restaurant for breakfast. We attempted a couple of eclectic places in Boise near Boise State University, but they were too packed and the waits were long. We then went to a place called, "The Griddle," that was a little closer to our RV. The wait was 20 minutes, but we were able to eat and extinguish our "Food Low" lights. After breakfast, it was back to the RV to prep for our next activity.

We decided that we needed to take care of some chores that have been building up on us. First of all, the laundry. We had lots of riding gear and clothing that needed to be washed, so we used the RV park laundry to get our wash done. At the same time, I began to work on this blog to add photos to the gallery and create some of the videos that show what we are doing in the best way. We also went to wash the truck and make it look a little more presentable. All of these chores took us several hours, so after lunch, we decided that we needed to go get some exercise.

The staff at the Abundant Life RV Park suggested that we ride the Boise Greenbelt Trail. This 25 mile "paved" trail (there were two small sections that were not paved) extends all the way from Eagle Road in the town of Eagle to the north through Boise to Sandy Point at Lucky Peak to the south. Since it was late in the day, Lisa and I decided to ride the northernmost ten miles of the route on the first day. We drove to Eagle and got on the trail to ride into Boise. There were many places on this part of the trail where roots had pushed up the pavement making for some pretty rough riding surfaces. At one place on the trail, Lisa hit some root-bumps that knocked her cell phone off the mount on her e-Bike. Luckily, the phone did not sustain any damage. We also found the two sections of the trail that were not paved. Luckily, they were not too long and the surface was packed well enough that I could easily ride through it with my 700X25 narrow tires. We rode all the way to Boise where there is an awesome park right on the Boise River. We arrived at a location where a small diversion dam had been built across the river to allow surfers to surf on the water flow over the dam. We got some excellent photos and videos of these surfers, so check out the photo gallery. It was getting late, so we "high-tailed" it back to our truck before it got dark. We decided that we would go back the next day and ride the remaining length of the Boise Greenback Trail.

Sunday, September 5, 2021 - We decided that we would ride the part of the Boise Greenbelt Multi-Purpose Trail that we had not ridden the day before. Due to the Labor Day Weekend, it was pretty crowded on the trail in the middle of Boise. We could not go fast and had to dodge walkers, scooter-riders, bicyclists, dogs, kids, and more. It was fun, but you could not be in a hurry. Once we left town, we were in more open country and could make better time. The marking of the trail is sometimes "non existent," especially when you move onto some residential roads, so you have to be on top of your game to keep from getting lost. We did take one wrong turn and, after about a mile and a half, decided to reverse our route and ask for directions. We did finally arrive at the Lucky Peak Dam on the south end of the trial. The trail is about 25 miles long and their are a couple of small lakes in the Lucky Peak area for swimming, floating, and kayaking. It was a nice day with temps in the low 90s and not too hot. We could not go too fast in town, but we could "open it up a little" once we got out of Boise. On the way back, we stopped at a little coffee shop for a lunch break and some "R&R" (rest and relaxation). It was a fun patio lunch and a welcome break from the riding.

We coordinated with Ryon Owens to go to dinner in the Caldwell area. We went to a great little steak house in Caldwell where the food was great and the conversation was outstanding. We had to wait for about 45 minutes to get our seats, so we went for a nice walk around the town square.

Monday, September 6, 2021 - TODAY IS LISA'S 65TH BIRTHDAY. SHE IS NOW ON MEDICARE AND GETTING CLOSER TO APPLYING FOR HER SOCIAL SECURITY INCOME. YAHOO!!! We had a busy day planned for Lisa with roller coaster riding and a float trip planned down the Boise River.

I inquired about a location where I might be able to do some climbing on my bike. We were told about the road up to the Bogus Basin Ski Resort. It is a twisty road with a consistent gradient of around seven to eight percent, so I thought we would go drive the road to check it out. We were also told about a fun ride at the ski resort where we could both sit on a small car on rails and be taken up the mountain for a fun ride down. We decided to go to the top and ride the glide cars. Since this was the Labor Day weekend and also the last weekend for the ski resort to be open for its many activities, the traffic was a little more busy than normal. It's still a rideable stretch of road for me.

When we arrived at the ski resort, we bought tickets for what is called the "Glade Runner Mountain Coaster." On this ride, you can be a single person or sit two people one in front of the other. There are two handles that are tied together and if you want to go faster, you push them forward; if you want to go slower, you pull them back to activate the braking system. That's all there is to it! We bought our tickets and went to the boarding location. I thought that we would take a lift to the top of the mountain and then ride down the main hill on this long path, but it was actually more of a ride that you would find at an amusement park. Like a roller coaster, we climbed up the hill quite a ways by cables and were then turned loose to let gravity do the rest of the work. It was a lot of fun and we went fast through a series of S-Turns and circular tracks. I was able to get the entire ride on the GoPro. I will be adding a video of the ride on our blog shortly. After the ride, we walked around the resort to check out the other activities going on. There were lots of downhill bicycle trails to ride (you ride the ski lifts to the top with your bike and then come down), inner tube runs, climbing walls, bouncing harnesses for the kids, and more. We checked it all out before heading to the food area for a very nice lunch . It was a lot of fun, but time to head down the hill. We had planned a rafting trip on the Boise River, so we needed to make tracks to the start point of the drift.

We arrived at Barber Park on the Boise River which is on the south side of the town of Boise. At this park, we could rent a four-person rubber raft with oars, and drift a distance of about five miles to the center of Boise (near Boise State University) to get out. What makes this convenient is that you park your truck at the start point, rent a raft, float the river, give the raft to workers where you get out, board a shuttle bus and get a ride back to your vehicle. The mechanics of the float trip are pretty easy to handle. Since this was the Labor Day weekend and Labor Day is the last day that the float concession would be open, it was a pretty busy day on the river. We had seen the parking lot on the day before (Saturday) as we rode by on our bike ride, and there were many more cars parked there on that day. We got on the water and began the float. The conditions were very easy to navigate with mostly calm, flowing water and only an occasional rapid to negotiate. There were three "diversion dams" to go over, but we managed to survive all three. Lots of college students from Boise State were on the water along with lots of families too. There may have been some drinking, but, overall, it was a pretty mellow group. The drift took us about two hours to complete and it was pretty and a lot of fun. It was nice, cool day on the water.

We decided that we were both tired, so we decided not to go out for dinner for Lisa's birthday. We had just been out with Ryon and Sue, so we decided that that would suffice for the BD dinner. We had leftover steak and salad for dinner; diets always on our minds.

Tuesday, September 7, 2021 - We decided to take a day to get caught up with chores and upload some videos to YouTube on the Internet. In reality, I was a little "too tuckered" to do the bike climb up to the Bogus Basin Ski Resort, so I decided to put it off for one day.

We still had not seen very much of Ryon and Sue, so we decided to try to extend for another two days in the Boise area before heading for Idaho Falls. We could not stay in the Abundant Life RV Park, since they are full for the next two days, so we managed to call and get a slot at the Ambassador RV Park nearby. This is another very nice RV park.

We went to a Starbuck's to use their WiFi, but, after purchasing food and coffee, we found out that their WiFi was not working. We then drove to a laundry to wash some rugs. These laundries normally have WiFi too, and this one advertised that they did. Unfortunately, it did not work either. So, we called the Nampa Library and they had WiFi available for use. We went to the library and began uploading the videos to YouTube so that we could put them on the blog. This is a slow process, especially since one video is a very big digital file. We managed to get two videos uploaded before heading back to the RV for dinner.

We are trying to figure out how to move the trailer tomorrow morning if I go to ride the climb to Bogus Basin. I may have to delay another day to make the bike ride. Tomorrow, we could go to Idaho City which is a, sort of, ghost town near Boise.

Wednesday, September 8, 2021 - On Wednesday morning we prepped the RV to move it to the Ambassador RV Resort in Caldwell. We could not extend our stay at Abundant Life RV Park so we called the Ambassador RV Park and they had just had a cancellation. This allowed us to make the move and stay in the area until Friday. Ambassador RV Park is a very nice park. Spaces are huge and the swimming pool is excellent. They have a spa at the pool too. This site has won an award as the best RV Park in Idaho; it is deserved. Access is very easy and it is known for being great for big rigs.

On Wednesday afternoon, we drove to the small town of Idaho City. This town is about 50 miles southeast of Boise and is a kind of ghost town. Essentially, old buildings that have been retain and renovated as well as possible. About 450 people live there. They have a museum, but they were not open on Wednesdays. We walked all around town and then had ice cream at the local ice cream shop. It was a nice drive to Idaho City and a fun visit to the town for us.

Thursday, September 9, 2021 - I decided to take my bike and drive to the start of the road that goes up to the Bogus Basin Ski Resort. This is a 16 mile ride with 3600 feet of vertical elevation change. The gradient is a pretty consistent seven to eight percent, so it takes a couple of hours to get to the top. The morning was cool and the traffic was very low. This made it nice. The ski resort is closed until the ski season begins. We were there on its last open day which was Labor Day. The park was completely vacant. The ride down the hill was fun and fairly long. I enjoyed the entire experience.

After I returned to the RV and had lunch, Lisa and I did something that we do not do very often; we went to the swimming pool and relaxed by the pool. It was fun in the pool and the hot spa was great too. We actually spent a couple of hours at the pool relaxing and visiting with other patrons.

After the pool experience, we went back to the RV to relax and work on the blog. We had dinner plans with Ryon and Sue to eat at a nice Italian restaurant. Ryan had treated the last time we went to eat, so this time it was our treat. We went to a place called, "Louis' Italian Restaurant," and the good was very good. We had a great dinner and great conversation. After dinner, we attempted to go to Dairy Queen for dessert, but the dine-in part of the DQ was closed. We finally found a Sonic Burger that was open and we stopped there for desert. It was fun and different. After dessert, Ryon dropped us a our RV and we told them that we hoped to see them again very soon. In the morning, we take off for Idaho Falls to explore that area and spent some time with Brian and Lorrayne Graham, good friends who are hosts at Red Rock RV Resort near Island Park, Idaho.