More Sightseeing

August 24 – This morning we had the hotel's continental breakfast which was OK. It took the same two loads to put everything back in the car that we brought in last night. We left the parking lot just a few minutes before 9.

We stopped in Soda Springs on our way through and found someone working at the cemetery who was able to tell Bill exactly where the headstone was for the Box Wagon Family. He was pleased that we got to see it and got his photo.

Across the street was an Ace Hardware store so we stopped to get lubricant for our very hard to open windows. I had checked on line and had several items to pick from so we hope this will solve that problem when we get back to the RV.

Inside of the tabernacle

The main objective was Montpelier but we went on through it to Paris, Idaho where the Paris

Paris Stake Tabernacle

Tabernacle is. It was built over a 5 year period ending in 1888 by the Mormons. It is a beautiful building. We'd say it's a church but it's actually a Stake Tabernacle. It's a meeting place for members of the church. Weddings can be performed there but they are only civil ceremonies, not considered the same as being married in a Mormon Temple. The inlaid ceilings were beautiful as was all the

Only stained glass in tabernacle

work done in the church. All of the benches and doors are original although the benches had been white and were redone. Since they used mostly pine in the church which doesn't have a nice grain to it, there was a special tool used after the paint/stain was applied to create the look of grain. The gentleman who gave us our tour was at one time the mayor of Paris. He was very gracious and answered all of our questions even though some we maybe should not have asked.

1881 Cabin

We visited a little cabin in Paris that was built in 1863 and was shared by 2 families. That would be a tight fit!

It was lunchtime by now so we backtracked over to Montpelier and had lunch at an Arctic Circle. We'd seen them in places but had not tried one. It's basically a McDonald's type place but they have more kinds of ice cream and milkshakes. I had a lemon pepper chicken sandwich with sweet potato fries and Bill had a Big Mac equivalent.

Replica Oregon Trail wagon

Across the street is the National Oregon/California Trail Center, the reason we came there! Tickets were $11 each for seniors and we waited about 20 minutes for a tour. We were the only ones on the tour and were both disappointed in it. We thought it was a museum and we would follow along and see how life was on the trail. Nope! A grouchy man in costume who was the “trail boss” took us through several “stations” where we learned we'd need $1,200-$1,500 for our family of 6 to make the journey. Then we bought a Studebaker wagon and oxen to pull it and 6 months of supplies. Then he took us as far as Clover Creek. There a young girl in costume told us this was the easy half of the journey and we rested for 3 days and shoed the oxen and mended what needed mending and she explained the tasks of many of the people in the wagon train. We liked her much better. The guy seemed to rush and get rid of us, maybe it was his lunch time!  When I say we “did” those things, it was all just talk about what a family heading west on the trail would have to do and have to make the trip.   Anyway, it was OK but not what we expected.

BigHill

From town we drove further out to the Trail Portal at Big Hill. Emigrants by the thousands entered present day Idaho at this location traveling along the Oregon-California Trail. Emigrants on the trail encountered Big Hill, thought to be the steepest and longest descent found on the tip west. 500,000 people traveled the trail from 1840 to 1914. The last person to go went the reverse at age 92. 18% of the 500,000 who left St. Joseph/Independence, Missouri died on the way. Most deaths were from cholera, other diseases or accidents.

Log house with out house

Time to head back west and to the Mormon town of Chesterfield, Idaho settled about 1881. The village is on the Register of Historic Places and the buildings are brick and wood. It has been a ghost town

General Store

for a number of years but recently some descendants of the original owners have refurbished a few of the homes. This year 5 couples live in some of the homes while volunteering by giving tours of the buildings and maintaining the General Store which was open until 1956. You start there for a tour but we had Molly with us and it was getting hot out so we drove around to most of the buildings. Chesterfield is REALLY out there so you have to want to see it to go, it's not along any main road for sure!

On the way to Pocatello for the night we stopped at the Flying J and filled up. We found a Super 8, newly refurbished, that allows pets so that's where we stayed the night. We checked 3 other pet friendly motels in the area and decided this was definitely the best bang for our buck. The room was as nice as any motel we've stayed in with all new carpet and décor. They also have the continental breakfast!

For dinner we went to Old Downtown Pocatello with the intention of having Greek for dinner. Once we parked and got to it, it was closed. There was a big street party going on welcoming back the students at Idaho State.  Our second choice for dinner was a home style place recommended by the front desk, ButterBurrs. It was very good and lots of people. They serve you a “twist” with each meal that we knew was a cinnamon roll type thing so we said to serve it last. Well, I had cinnamon and Bill had the raspberry and they are about 8 inches long and thick and gooey and so good. I had thought about sharing a piece of pie until they brought those out. We barely managed to finish them off.

Molly hadn't eaten a thing while we were gone but finally decided she was hungry. She sits by the door of the room and wants to go explore.

We watched “Scorpion” and then Bill read while I typed my journal.