Road Trip – Omaha to Seattle – Day 19 – Boise, ID – Jackson, WY – September 29, 2010

Woke up and surfed the net for a bit. Took my time. Starting to feel a tad sick. Hope its just a quick something or nothing at all. Maybe too much soda and shitty fast food. ??? Once I got going, I headed down towards Boise State University to check out the stadium and the campus. I stopped for gas on the way, I almost stopped at Jack in the Box to get some lunch, but I decided to wait. Probably the best decision of the day. I drove closer to the campus and saw a cajun place on the side of the road. It was called Chef Roland's Cajun Cuisine and BBQ. I basically screeched around the corner to pull in. None of the open signs were on, but a voice from inside yelled to come in. It was Chef Roland. He said he had just forgot to turn them on. He was quite the character. I was the only one there for most of my meal and we talked the whole time. He was a Vietnam vet who went to culinary school and moved to Boise to take a job. Eventually he started a food cart, and now runs this place. He was eager to have me and was just a great guy, offering me extras and larger portions. I took half of it home. The first course was 4 cheese mac and cheese. It might have been the best I've had. I think it had ricotta in it, that was what made it. Then, he gave me a sample of jambalaya, which I didn't order, but he wanted me to have anyway. It was great, too. Then came the sausage gumbo with a hush puppy. The sausage was perfectly cooked and the gumbo perfectly seasoned. The hush puppy I think was cornbread, with a crunchy outside and moist center. Mmm, Mmmm. Then, my actual entree. The crawfish etoufee came out and was phenomenal! I couldn't eat barely any of it, and added key lime pie on top of that. It was probably the best meal of the trip. I can't say for sure because I've eaten pretty well. I'm surprised I made it out of there without having to take a nap.
I went down to BSU and drove through campus on my way to the stadium. There were soo many bikes and skateboards, it was really cool. It made sense there, though. The campus was flat and not too big. Their field is unique there because it is blue. There have been rumors that they have to cover it when they're not playing because birds think it is a lake. Understandable, too, because Boise is what may be considered high desert. It reminded me of Phoenix. Dry and hot and brown. The field was not covered though. There was the women's track team working out on it, and the band was there for a bit as well. I took some pictures, then had an idea to walk around, find out if there was a photography program and see if they would blow off my image sensor dust or at least tell me a good place to go. On the way there, there was a bunch of interesting stuff going on. There was a class of special needs students playing some version of handball, soccer, and/or lacrosse. I also saw a man with those new shoes with the toes built in and asked him how he liked them. He said they were great. He runs in them and he says he gets a better workout, the only drawback is the smell with no socks, but we decided he could probably get the toes-in socks as well.
On the second floor of the liberal arts building was the photography classes. I couldn't find any teachers, but one of the students directed me to Idaho Photo in the mall. I walked around the building looking at the art hung up on the walls for awhile, then headed to the mall. I got a little lost and called the place, the guy was very helpful and told me the way. I got to the store and he said I didn't want to blow compressed air on it, but took a hand pump air puffer and blew it off, then he checked the photo he took after that on the computer to see if the spot was gone. On top of that he refused any money and wished me luck on my trip. Eugene 0, Boise 1. What a great experience. By this time it was about 4 pm, and I thought I'd push through to Jackson, WY, so I had to bolt.
Pretty boring drive the whole way. Around Pocatello and Idaho Falls it finally started to get a little landscape going and then it was dark on me. And just like the night previous, that was when the drive got interesting too. Winding roads, ascending and descending the mountains, pitch black. Kinda fun. More construction. I hate construction but I love smooth roads. What to do. Pulled into Jackson, looks like an awesome little mountain town just as I have heard. Jackson is just south of both Grand Teton NP and Yellowstone NP. The forecast is 80 for the high and mid to low 30s for the low. I think I'm going to go to Yellowstone first, maybe do 2 days of hiking and camping and then maybe 1 day in GTNP. My thought process is that I wanna see Yellowstone more, so I wanna do that before the weekenders arrive and flood the trails and geysers and such. Dunno. We'll see. Tired though, and my nose is still slightly stuffed and runny, and my throat a bit scratchy. Still hoping it passes. Please. Goodnight.