Southward to Boise
This has been a very long day: Got up at 6:30 am at the monastery, left there at 10 am and drove about 210 miles through completely different landscapes to Boise, the Capital of Idaho, in the South. It took us about four hours in total, but we made a couple of stops inbetween and, in addition, had a time change (from Pacific to Mountain time), loosing one hour.
The route continued along the Salmon River, through a lush valley, a very scenic route - at that time it was still dry and partly sunny. Then it changed: We climbed up to almost 5000 ft. again and suddenly had snow again (and heavy rain). Driving through the Payette National Forest, we reached McCall, an alpine village at Lake Payette. Must be beautiful in summer, but, right now snow was still piling up high and the lake was still frozen.
The drive over from McCall to Boise on SR 55 - the Payette River Scenic Byway - would have been much more "scenic" without the rain, but nevertheless... The route was winding down from the high plateau to Boise and progress was slow due to curves and slow traffic and rain. Finally, dropped into the valley, where Boise lays, and checked into our hotel at 4 pm to be picked up again for a short city tour at 4:30 pm. We'll return to Boise next week, so more about the Capital of Idaho then.
Our "worm farm tour" in the evening was pretty unique: in the basement of a restaurant owner Dave Krick is "emplyoing" thousands of red wiggler worms to turn kitchen waste and old paper menus (see pic) in a large metal bin into nutrient-rich soil, which is being sold. This kind of onsite composting is pretty unique. In addition, Krick is right now in progress to open a new craft brewery in the same block as his two restaurants, the Red Feather Lounge and Bittercreek Ale House, are located. We had a wonderfull dinner there with our friend Nancy from ID Tourism: a trio of Idaho potatoes differently prepared, local Idaho trout (filleted and served with polenta and asparagus) and local brews. They had a fantastic wine list, too!
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