First Roadie of the year

We can say we have successfully finished the first roadie of the year.  This was a trip to the Old Boise State Penitentiary with some side trips to three mining/ghost towns.  First stop Silver City Idaho.  If you have never been next time you are in the area (or just plan a trip) stop by.  Plan to spend at least a couple of hours, we spent 2 and probably could have easily spent another hour or so.  We were surprised to find it still is inhabited full time.  The residents are working on restoring the homes & business's.  The buildings are being restored to how they looked while it was still an active mining town.  There is a working hotel and restaurant with a couple of stores that sell souvenirs and locally made trinkets. We weren't allowed to go look through the hotel beyond the lobby but I would love to know what the rooms look like.  Outside of most buildings is a little placard that gives a bit of history on the building and it's owners.  It's amazing to walk around and see how it could have looked 50-100 years ago.  The old cemetery attached to the town is a little over run at this point but the old head stones are a great piece of history. 

Next stop Boise State Pen.  Parts of the prison has been slightly restored but mostly it looks to have been cleaned up and organized.  There isn't a formal tour of the property you just can wander at your leisure and explore the buildings, just stay in the approved areas.  The portions we could see that are of limits look virtually untouched and if given the opportunity I'd be in hog heaven.  The self guided tour is really neat, there are areas from all sections available to see but not much access to the out lying buildings.  We left the prison just before 5:30.

Next stop Rocky Bar and Atlanta.  After we made our way out of Boise and headed in the right direction we were running about 2.5 hours behind schedule.  Not bad but means we are getting home later than we planned, on a Monday.  Eh, oh well.  We should have done a little more research on the easiest route, OK, I should have.  We drove through Lucky Peak recreation area, it is amazing!  I can totally see a camping trip there. It defiantly qualified as the "scenic route".  I swear we ended up on roads not on any maps.  For about 4-5 hours we wandered around the dirt roads looking for non existent signs trying to get unlost and find our towns.  Don't get me wrong, hours of bonding with Ryan & McKinna on a dirt road was great, but damn.  Stopped at a camp ground and asked for directions and the kid said we were another 60 miles away-on the dirt road!  Holy crap, at this point it's closer for us to continue on instead of turning around.  We finally reached Atlanta at dark, was able to look around a little.  Met two of the residents, super nice guys that love where they live.  I'm not even sure what time it was when we reached Rocky Bar.  Too dark to get a good look at the town.  A couple of the buildings were right off the road so of course we had to stop and look.  I would love to go back at some point and see both towns in day light.  

Headed home!  At 3:00 we hit the flat tire jackpot!!!! To change the  we need to pull prob 50 lbs of rocks out of  the cargo area.  Big rocks for my rock garden, hello. Slap on the 50/50 and lets roll.  Well 50/50 is half flat, that doesn't leave much air in the tire. I am sooooo grateful Ryan is basically an insomniac and doesn't mind night driving. We rolled into Layton about 6:00, no kidding.  Just in  time for Ryan & McKinna to shower and drive really fast to work.  I arrived home in time to "hey babe" as Mark was getting up at 7:00.  I have a little more flexibility in my job than Ryan or McKinna and had the luxury of grabbing a couple hours of sleep before heading in to work. 

After all is said and done it was a great trip (including needing 4 new tires).  We've done this 5-6 times and never had any issues. (Taking the scenic route to Bodie, CA doesn't count.) We had a blast, saw some really cool stuff and I'm excited for the next roadie.