Day 10: Craters of the Moon National Monument and Idaho Falls, Idaho

Fun Fact #1: I slept until 10 a.m. today.
Fun Fact #2: I saw a Drive Thru Subway for the first time. Who knew such a thing existed? And who would ever go through a Drive Thru Subway? That's just ridiculous. I want to personally witness them mistakenly add black olives to my sandwich so that I can yell at them face to face.
Fun Fact #3: Arco, Idaho sits atop a dormant volcano waiting to erupt within the next 1,000 years.

Click HERE to see photos from Day 10.

Day 10 began with an unrequested wake up call at 7:45 a.m. I've never wanted to axe murder a prerecorded message more in my life. By the grace of God, we slept until 10 a.m. anyway. Once fully awake, I did a Mapquest search to see if there was anything worth seeing on the way to Idaho Falls and found the Craters of the Moon National Monument. Since this is the trip of ballparks and national parks, we decided to add it to the itinerary. It's not a well known park, but it was well worth the visit as can be seen here: Craters of the Moon is over 1,100 square miles (over 750,000 acres) or roughly the size of Rhode Island. It was formed by volcanic eruptions that started only 15,000 years ago (or maybe 6,000 depending on your denomination) with the most recent activity occurring 2,100 years ago. Geologists believe that the volcanoes will again become active within the next 1,000 years. I say we camp out and wait for it to happen. Who's with me?

We left Craters and drove through several thunderstorms, which rinsed the topmost layer of insect carcasses off of Indy Car 2007, which might have been the "green guts" layer. No big deal though. There are still at least nine layers left beneath that one. It's Joseph's amazing multi-colored dream coat of splattered bug guts, if you will.

We arrived at the Fairfield Inn Idaho Falls and the woman checking us in asked if we were going to the game. I guess the baseball jersey and hat I was sporting were pretty solid clues. It's amazing that she picked up on them. When I affirmed that we would, indeed, be attending the game, she gave me free tickets, which made me feel slightly guilty for the previously mentioned sarcasm. Anyway, that's another savings of $12!

Remember our great experience from Day 9 in Boise? You know, where we met Todd, the President/GM of the Hawks, and he showered us with great seats, food and a baseball? When he heard we were heading to Idaho Falls next, he told us to ask for the Chukars' GM. So we did. This guy gave us the pat on the head and said, "That's really cool. Have fun tonight. See you later." He didn't spit in my face or kick me in the shins, but he wasn't the most welcoming guy and really didn't give a rat's buttocks we were on a 5,000 mile road trip to see his team. I felt even better that we didn't pay for the tickets. Take that Mr. GM. It just goes to show that Todd from Boise was in a league all by himself.

They did have a new stadium that was very nice for a rookie league team and it was near capacity for a Monday night. They also have, quite possibly, the scariest looking mascot ever and nobody seems to know his name. It's a Chukar - a quail-like bird that Idahoans seem to like to hunt down and kill by the dozens. I didn't think it was possible to make a bird costume look this menacing, but they somehow managed. See the photo if you don't believe me.

Anyway, with the rain today, we weren't sure the game would happen and the shower before the game added to our worry a bit. However, it quickly passed and the game started promptly at 7:15.

Then all hell broke loose.

On the first pitch, the Chukars pitcher nailed the Raptors batter and complete and utter mayhem ensued. I, being quick on the draw with no off button on the genius switch, began filming the bench clearing brawl that unfolded before us. It's already been posted on YouTube and I've embedded it here for your viewing pleasure.
Notice the pile of bodies and flailing fists within the first 30 seconds or so. Nice, huh? Good family entertainment. Listen to the fans egging them on like they are at Monday Night RAW.

After ten minutes or so, the umpires cleared the field and took some time to make sense of the chaos and disorder. About 25 minutes later, nine players and the Raptors pitching coach had been ejected and escorted from the field. The game picked up where it left off, but as you could imagine, with drastically different lineups. Julia's score book looked like a three-fingered chimpanzee played dyslexic sudoku with a #2 pencil.

I kept the camera around my neck like a super dorky tourist for the entire game in case pandemonium erupted again. Alas none did, but I did my usual scouting the crowd for fun photos of joy, which can be seen HERE.

Next stop: Day 11 in Preston, Idaho (home of Napoleon Dynamite) and Ogden, Utah.

Day 9: Boise, Idaho

Click HERE to see the photos from Day 9.

Fun Fact #1: We eclipsed 3,200 total miles for the trip today.
Fun Fact #2: We paid a record high $4.49 for gas in Cascade Locks, Oregon. Their gas is more expensive because you can't pump it yourself, so they have to pay the full service peeps somehow. Thanks Oregon.
Fun Fact #3: The state of Oregon employs only three police officers, for that is the precise number we saw during our entire 600+ mile jaunt. Fortunately, no $389 fines were incurred as in Statesville, Georgia on our southern swing two years ago. Like 82 in a 55 is so bad.
Fun Fact #4: Since Idaho Falls is a mere four hour drive from Boise, we get to sleep in tomorrow! Woo hoo!

My niece, Keeks, who is eleven, gave me crap for the fact that we've been consistently getting up at 6:30 a.m. on this trip. The thought apparently boggles her little Camp Rock loving mind. How could her Uncle David rise and shine so early, so often? On most weekends, if I get out of bed, it's not before 5 p.m. due to my obsessive relationship with abbreviations - DVR, DVD and HD. Sue me. Who is this little bad kid to give her favorite uncle lip? She will pay and pay dearly come Christmas when I buy extra presents for her older, less-lippy, large-footed sister.

That being said, the alarm was again set for 6:30 this morning as we not only had a seven hour drive from Portland to Boise, Idaho, but we missed a couple of sights yesterday - the "Welcome to Oregon" sign and Multnomah Falls. Yesterday's Oregon sign on the way in was small and dumb and not even photo worthy, but we took a different road en route to Boise today and saw this out of control sign.
As for Multnomah Falls, we planned to visit yesterday, but it was so packed that people were parking on the other side of the highway and walking over. It was such insanity that we drove right on by and decided to stop on the way out of Portland this morning at 8:30 a.m. (We were almost thwarted again today when Karen decided to cease giving us directions between the buildings of downtown Portland, Karen being the name of our Australian GPS lady. Karen and I didn't speak for a while after that.) But I digress... What's so cool about the falls is that they (and Vista House) are located less than 30 miles outside of Portland and are easily accessible by way of a super narrow two-lane winding road of death. We didn't die though, I'm pleased to report.
Here's some quick background on the falls:
Multnomah Falls is a waterfall on the Oregon side of the Columbia River Gorge along the Historic Columbia River Highway. At 620 feet, it is the second tallest year-round waterfall in the United States after Yosemite Falls.

The legend of the Multnomah people explains that the Native American tribe was infected with a disease that, once contracted, killed its victims in a single day. (I'm guessing it was a super strain of the dreaded Prairie Dog Plague that proved non-responsive to the medicine man.) The daughter of the chief went to the top of a cliff and prayed to the Great Spirit to stop the epidemic. She was told that she must sacrifice herself by jumping from the cliff. (I think she was hoping to be told to set many prairie dog traps and to stop licking their fur, but alas, that was not the case.) As instructed, she jumped and died. The chief found her body at the bottom of the cliff and cried out to the Great Spirit for a sign that this sacrifice was not in vain. At that moment, water began to fall from the top of the cliff forming Multnomah Falls. Legend says that under the right conditions, her face can be seen in the waterfall. Well, I didn't see her, so it must not be true.

Fast forward seven hours and a trip to Wendy's later and we arrived at the Fairfield Inn Boise and then left for the game. Indulge me by rewinding to yesterday for a moment: I failed to mention that Julia was talking to the guy next to her at the Beavers game last night and mentioned our road trip. What she didn't know was that he was the team's banker, so when the VP (Ryan Brach) of the team came over, he told him about our road trip. I guess Ryan thought that was pretty cool because he talked to us for about 1 1/2 innings until the game was over. It was not only cool of him to sit with us, but to hear him tell some "behind the scenes" stories about running a minor league franchise. He inquired about the rest of our itinerary and when he heard that we were going to Boise, told us to find Todd Rahr, the President and GM of the Hawks.

Long story short, (not really), once we got to Memorial Stadium, we found Todd and told him about meeting Ryan and about our road trip. For being the President and GM of a baseball team, he could have easily listened to our story, patted us on the head and said, "Thanks for coming." However, he took a sincere interest in us and even upgraded our seats to the front row just to the first base side of home plate! Not only did these seats absolutely rock due to their proximity to fervent joy of America's Pastime, they were accompanied by free eats and drinks. That's $30 for the seats and another $15 worth of free grub! He also gave me an official Northwest League baseball - add another $20 to the tally for that and we're up to $65 in free stuff just for talking about our trip. He also let me sample a deep fried Twinkie covered in a flour, egg and coconut batter, which was actually NOT the most disgusting thing I've ever eaten.

It was a fun game to watch and the Hawks ended up winning in the bottom of the ninth, so it was a great night of baseball in Boise even with a game time temperature of 100 degrees. There's something to be said for the "dry heat" because I, being the biggest whining baby once the mercury tops 85, was not covered in sweat nor did I need to be carried even with temps that high. Thanks to Ryan in Portland and Todd in Boise for two great nights of baseball!

Time to settle in for a lengthy night's sleep. In case you were sleeping 1,133 words ago, HERE is the link to our photos from Day 9.

Next stop: Sleeping in past 6:30 and Day 10 in Idaho Falls, Idaho.