A day full of adventure

July 27 – The first thing I did when I got up this morning was to check on my newly hung bird feeders and there were two hummingbirds fighting over the feeder and there was a little bird on my seed feeder!  That’s better in one day than most of the summer at Greers Ferry Lake!

Mesa Scenic Byway

Although it was a bit chilly this morning the sun was out so we headed out for the Mesa Falls Scenic Byway.  It starts about 20 miles south of us and goes southeast about 17 miles.  The report was for 100% chance of rain later today so we figured we could see the falls and go on further south to Rexburg and have lunch, a movie and get groceries even if it was raining.

Original Building/Visitor Center

The drive was nice, no traffic, and is part of Harriman State Park and partnered with the Forestry Service.  There were bikers and a few RV’s along the way.  The Upper Falls is first from our direction so we stopped at the Visitor Center and parked.  The building was built between 1912 and 1914 by the Mesa Power Company with plans to build a dam and power plant but it never came to fruition.  Instead the building became an Inn as a stage stop

One of the exhibits

and hotel for travelers going to Yellowstone National Park.  Later the Inn became a restaurant, dance hall and scout camp.  The park service and Forest Service began restoring it in 1977 and after 3 years it was opened as the Visitor Center.  We really enjoyed it as they have animal skulls of all of the local animals as well as pelts that you can touch and test your skills at identifying them.

Upper Falls

It’s a short walk down to the Upper Falls and you can’t tell someone just how beautiful they are.  They are in a deep canyon and the falls are 114 feet tall and 300 feet wide.  Its flow is created by the Snake River which is where the

My main man at the falls

watershed for Yellowstone and everything south flows to.  We went to all of the view points to experience the entire falls.  The last points, where it empties down into the canyon are spectacular.  The walls of the canyon are beautiful. 

Unusual beast walking to the falls

Along the walkways are wild berries, huckleberries and raspberries but nothing was really ripe.

It’s only 2 miles further down the byway to the Lower Falls.  I thought it was a longer walk to it and didn’t wear

Lower Falls

appropriate shoes but it was less a walk than the Upper Falls.  It was nice but not nearly as impressive at the Upper.  Maybe it’s because we were not as close to it.  The valley itself is what is so impressive.  The difference in the elevation of the falls is quite drastic.

Now it was starting to cool off faster which was the warning that the rain was on its way so our timing was pretty good.  We headed on south and took the road over to Ashton and then south to Rexburg.  It’s not a very large city at all, actually more of a big town.  There’s a branch of Brigham Young University there so it’s a college town.  We went to Wendy’s for lunch and that was a challenge.  The driveway on the right is always the entrance so you can curve around the building to the drive-thru, well, not here it isn’t.  Bill realized before he pulled in and went to the next one, but then you have to go around the back and awkwardly try to get in the drive-thru or cut through the long line to get to a parking space.  The place was packed outside and in but luckily for us it was almost right in front of the movie theatre so we didn’t have to worry about finding it or driving far.  I normally get a chicken salad but since I was chilled I decided on a baked potato and a small chili to pour over it.  I asked the clerk if they had a bowl I could do that in and he asked if I wanted a chili cheese potato.  It wasn’t listed on the menu and I used to get it all the time years ago so I was excited that I could get it.  It was in the “pre-salad” years of fast food.  It was heavenly!  I so enjoyed my potato!

We had worse trouble getting out of the parking lot than getting it.  A truck and a car were both vying for a spot in the drive-thru line but the truck held back and let us cut across and we went around the dumpsters and out.  What a cluster!

The FatCat5 is a movie theatre, bowling alley, game room place so it was full of kids due to the nasty day it was.  We went to the 3D showing of Pixels with Adam Sandler.  The main reason we went was our favorite sports guy is Dan Patrick and he is friends with Adam Sandler and gets a small part in all of his movies.  This one he also let Dan’s broadcast crew, The Dannettes, in the movie.  It was funny and we did enjoy it.  It’s basically themed around video games from the 80’s like Pac Man and Donkey Kong.  So we got to see Dan and 3 of the 4 Dannettes.

We looked for a jeweler who sells and repairs watchbands but had no luck.  Bill’s band got all stretched out and he wanted it replaced but ended up dropping me off at Albertsons while he bought a cheap watch at Wal-Mart.  We didn’t buy much except for lunchmeat and produce.  Two of the things on my list they didn’t have so will carry them over to next time.

The road and some slush on the
windshield

It was clear when we left the movie but starting to get ugly when we left the grocery and on the ride home it got rainy again.  The further we went we started seeing lightning strike after strike in what looked like the same place over and over.  Then the rain got worse and we were pelted with hail/slush balls about 1 inch wide.  Then the roads looked icy as they were all white and we slowed way down.  The temp on the radio console registered 38.  It was really kinda scary since we don’t get much of this in Florida.  We just plugged along for 5-6 miles and it started letting up and turned back into just rain.

We stopped at the Trouthunter for dinner.  It’s on the south end of the 30 mile road of Island

Ice still on the car after dinner

Park and had excellent reviews.  When we got out the car was fine but ice had caked up around the lights on the bumper.

Dinner was excellent!  Bill had a filet with a huckleberry and red wine reduction with carrot mashed potatoes and veggies and I had brown butter and sage sautéed quail over rice chutney with veggies.  We didn’t leave a crumb!  The salad was excellent also with citrus vinaigrette.  She tried to get us to have some bread pudding but we had to pass. 

It was still drizzly out but by the time we got home it was just about stopped.  We had left windows open in the RV and found out later our neighbor closed them from the outside as well as he could.  He got them closed to the vent which then keeps the water from coming in.  However, it was COLD inside!  We both put on our flannels pj’s and turned on the heat!