July 20th 2010 Cascade, Idaho

Today was filled with excitement, we have been waiting for this day for months. We made our reservations to stay at the Dutch Oven Bed & Breakfast in Cascade Idaho. Oh wait! The drive up here through big rocky mountains, with the snake river along side the road, the 78 miles up from Boise was perfect! So beautiful to drive, we stopped and smelled the roses on our way and took a lot of pictures it was just overwhelming. We talked with people in this lazy little town called Horseshoe bend, took more pictures of steeples, barns, and a huge one lane old bridge. The little town was so cute, back in time, very old west like. Everyone sitting out in rocking chairs and enjoying the day, the river goes around the town in the shape of a hoseshoe, hence that's how it got it's name. We had such a good time on this drive singing and talking, I'm just so happy Katelynn is enjoying thia as much as I am, I remember driving across the states when I was younger with my parents and was so bored, I couldn't wait to get off the road. We arrived shortly after 12 noon and passed the B&B to take a look at the lake first. Small town....slow and very comfortable. The owner of the B&B greeted us, his name is John Warner, he is a chef. He showed us around and then we unpacked in our room, "the fishing room" it was decorated real authentic western...our room has twin beds and a rocking chair, dresser and we love it!!! John announces that dinner will be at 7pm. Katelynn and I decide to dress for dinner, and I'm glad we did because John made a formal meal and wore his chef coat and hat. We had blackened chicken with a tequila chutney sauce, fresh green beans with a little bacon and almonds, then Kate had roasted red potatoes and I had the garlic mashed, I took pictures:
Doesn't it look so yummy? It was the best, I practically licked my plate. John was so nice, he sat and talked with us as we ate, we welcomed it or I'm sure he wouldn't have, he was so polite and careful to make sure we had everything we needed. I loved his place, one of my favorite spots was on the front porch.

The whole front of the house has huge round logs, log cabin style, and a porch with chairs and tables, or chair to just sit and read or to enjoy the view of the river and mountains. This place was everything we were dreaming of, we didn't go to bed very early at all, it was too nice and we wanted to enjoy. Thank you Lord, for this experience, we will never forget.

July 19, 2010

Wow, today is hot! I'm so glad we have an airconditioner. We called the B&B in Cascade Idaho, thay are full for tonight so we made a resevation for tomorrow night.

Kate and are going to head towards Boise and camp where ever we fill like stopping. Parts of Idaho are really brown but nearer the river there's a lot of lush green places. Highway 20 was not what we expected at all, we drove through miles and miles of high-plane dessert, still so much to see. After a few hours we found ourselves in the middle of huge rocky mountains carved out by a river that stayed with the road but Idaho was elusive. We went through a time zone and we kept our eyes peeled for the sign "You are now entering Idaho", we went to the Piautte Indian Reservation as a little side trip off of the main road. That was truly sad, they looked so poor and oppressed. On entering the reservation there was a sign that said it was illegal to bring any form of alcohol onto the resevation. Some of their houses looked like little card-board sheds. Back to the main road, for a couple of more hours, then to the big interstate freeway (yeah!) which we knew was in Idaho, so God knows how long we really in Idaho, then there was the sign, "Welcome to Idaho", we were exhausted, we lost an hour with the time zone, so it was ow 5PM. It was strage, it was a different world, we were just in the most desolate areas, and all of a sudden we were in busy big cities, traffic everywhere...it didn't look like we were gonna get to camp. We got out our travel books to find a place to stay and we got into a BED!!!! in a Super 8 stinky motel, in Boise by the airport.
We arrive at the motel and I go to check in and couldn't find my ID, thank God Katelynn was 18 and had ID. I searched the car, actually, unpacked it and finally after a couple of hours of dumping everything...I found it. We ordered pizza then had an excellent sleep, we even woke up too late for our continental breakfast.
So on the road again heading for the B&B at Cascade, we left as fast as we could because the B&B owner said we could come early and go to the lake and it was a beautiful day.