Unexpected Trips

Had an unexpected trip to Idaho Friday night - specifically to Caldwell that night then Boise Saturday morning. Yes, I know Boise's first as the freeway drives, but that's the was it was planned. For me.

Yeah, it was for work. So I won't write about that part. What this is about isn't work related. So don't ask.

Suffice to say we rolled into Caldwell later than I had expected - about 11pm. It woulda been sooner but for freeway construction in Ogden and the out-of-the-way location of the job in Caldwell. Made for a great example of why I need a GPS device. The next day in Boise cemented that fact as we drove past the FedEx pickup location at Boise's airport not once or twice, but thrice.

Friday night (rather, early Saturday morning) we opted not to shop for a motel, but to find one that looked decent enough from the outside, and was a national chain. Marilee pointed out one called the Holiday Motel somewhere near Caldwell, but I said "No no-tell motel for us". The red-neon sign lit for all to see (from space, too, I'd bet) made it all the more unlikely, not to mention we'd already passed the exit and the next one was a mile away.

A Sleep-Inn was our choice; we'd made it to Nampa by then. That late (early), the only room available was a smoking room with only a full bed, but it was somewhere to sleep. And sleep I did.

Morning brought a raging headache a la hangover but I'd had nothing to drink. Nothing including coffee! I'd had a caffeine headache!

Oh gawd that last bit was boring. But so was the drive. Very thankful I had Marilee with me - we travel well together. We went to an Idaho state park, called Lucky Peak. Really nice family-oriented beach for sunning or floating for hours. We'd thought that maybe hanging out on the cool grass would be appealing, amongst the geese and goslings, but since we didn't have the cash for the $4 entrance fee, we turned around and decided on heading home.

Uneventful was the return trip, though as a side note, Idaho tourism would do well to add some travel rest stops before or near their state parks. Two attempts to stop for pit stops were met with screaming kids playing in the bathrooms at a couple gas stations in those areas. I can't emphasize how annoying that is when you're out on the road like that. We were happy to get home in one piece.

Hopefully next trip will include a bit more planning and not having anything whatever to do with work!