The air was thick with excitement, as thick as creamy vichyssoise. We were as anxious as a basket of hand-cut potatoes just waiting for their deep-fry bath. We’d been looking forward to this moment for an eternity, or at least 15 minutes. Finally, we were going to visit the Idaho Potato Museum.
It did not disappoint.
Yes, folks, the tiny town of Blackfoot, Idaho hosts an entire museum dedicated to that which makes Idaho famous: the spud. Idaho produces 13.8 BILLION pounds of taters each year. That’s a lot of hash browns. This museum chronicles the history of potato farming and the significance of potatoes to modern civilization. Even more important, the museum documents the rise of American cultural icons like Mr. Potato Head:
And the culinary contributions of Pringles potato chips — the world’s largest is on display:
Best of all, they “give free taters to out-of-staters” so we went home with a couple of packages of freeze-dried hash browns. Yummy. Bet they’ll be as yummy as the Spud candy bars we tried – chocolate marshmallow center, dark chocolate coating sprinkled with coconut.
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We were completely charmed by the wonderfully friendly Idaho town of Pocatello. Surrounded by foothills, the area reminded us vaguely of Southern California, but within an easy drive of Yellowstone. The town’s old buildings have aged gracefully and provide a nostalgic glimpse of the past.
Pocatello was the perfect spot to take a break and mingle with the locals on the mini-golf course. After several very pleasant conversations, we were thinking about retirement. Bill could teach at Idaho State University and Paula could seek out Spud candy bars. Maybe we could call this place home.
Doubts began to creep in when we stopped at the grocery store and saw large bags of salt on sale. Not the kind that goes in your saltshaker — the kind that is used to melt snow and ice. But it’s July. The cashier informed us that snow is often on the ground for 8 months. This would explain why another local told us his favorite thing about the area was skiing. On second thought, maybe we’re not quite ready for retirement yet. Considering that we filled our kitchenette hotel room with smoke while cooking dinner and broke a dinner plate as well, the nice folks of Pocatello were probably just as happy to see us go.
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Most of Idaho is lush and green, but we skipped all that beauty and instead visited the Craters of the Moon National Park. Beautiful it is not, but awesome it is. Two thousand years ago, lots of volcanoes popped their tops and spewed rivers of lava throughout the region. Some of these rivers hardened into tubes, which are really just caves that can be explored by novice spelunkers like us.
We donned our cave exploration footwear (remarkably similar to tennis shoes), grabbed our flashlights, and headed beneath the eerie moonlike surface. Unlike other caverns we’ve visited that have nice big rooms and easy paths, the lava tubes were dark, narrow, and (surprise) filled with sharp, wobbly lava rock. We crawled, stumbled, strained and scraped our knees, but luckily the tubes were not terribly extensive so we didn’t require an emergency rescue. The tubes were great fun to explore, but the cell phone reception was terrible.
As we left the lava tubes, we were intrigued by the name of a nearby tiny town: Atomic City. Can you imagine the potatoes they grow there? Actually, this was the site of the world’s first nuclear power plant – and the plant was open for tours! We must visit.
In the 1950s, the federal government launched the “Atoms for Peace” program, which brought scientists to the middle of Idaho to explore nuclear power options. They were able to successfully power the nearby town of Arco, but after ten years and $1 billion, they gave up on their second project: building a nuclear-powered jet airplane that would’ve required a 10-mile runway and would probably have cooked the pilots. Turns out it wasn’t such a good idea after all. Ya think? Today, the area is home to the Idaho National Lab, which is one of Idaho’s largest employers with workers commuting to the middle of nowhere to work on nuclear and other scientific projects.
1950’s-era cutting edge technology
The ill-fated jet engines
Before leaving Idaho, we stopped at Scotty’s Drive-In for a burger and home-grown Idaho fries. Now this is a restaurant. Fifteen kinds of hamburgers, at least twenty different milkshakes, french fries AND tater tots on the menu. And everything is served with classic Idaho fry sauce, basically ketchup and mayo mixed together. Scotty’s is in Idaho Falls, located on I-15. Traveling through the Gem State, we also rode on highways 26 and 20.
3. Idaho
Taters