Idaho - Days 3-8 - in the Jerome campground

Twin Falls/Jerome KOA, Jerome

Sunday, 3 through Friday, 8 July 2022

Because it's next to impossible to get a campground reservation for the 4th of July weekend almost anywhere, when I found a vacancy in this easily accessible campground, I jumped at it.  But I hadn't intended to stay here more than the 4 days or so around that holiday weekend.  I changed my mind because I'd miscalculated the strain of a long drive like the one I'd done from Clarkston to Boise, and because I'd been too optimistic about how much of my blog for Washington still needed to be done before I could focus on Idaho, and because my campsite here turned out to be a pretty comfortable place to stay - including wifi access.

And I don't know why, but we never heard any fireworks on July 4th.  I had the AC turned on high (to drown out sound) and gave Dext a CBD treat to help keep him calm.  Fireworks were absolutely banned at the campground, so maybe we just got lucky.

So during these 5 days I got a lot done.  I caught up on Washington until Day 28 (a total of 6 posts).  I located various services and stores I needed - the most important one (brake repair) being the hardest to find without waiting till the end of the month; I finally got an appointment in Pocatello at the end of next week.  I made reservations at campgrounds between now and my appointment.  And I spent a day in Twin Falls.

I'd learned online that the main waterfall attraction in this area isn't the twin falls of the town's name but instead Shoshone Falls, which are higher than Niagara Falls.  The directions to a viewing point - Centennial Waterfront Park - seemed straightforward enough: as I drove into town I just turned right on Canyon Springs Road.  And almost immediately I saw a sign warning of a 10% grade - and the road did indeed head steeply downhill.  Nothing online had warned me about this.  I think that ghastly turnpike in Pennsylvania included a 10% grade (it felt like it anyway) and I saw no reason to suffer through that again.  And given my concern about my brakes, it seemed more than foolhardy.  So I managed to turn around in an almost nonexistent space where someone else was already parked - but what choice did I have?  I hated to miss the falls so they'll have to go on my list of things I want to see when I come back here.

I went on into town to a PetsMart, a gas station, a branch of Chase Bank, a grocery store, a JiffyLube, and a city park.  I also stopped at a CVS to get what I thought was a booster for my pneumonia shot.  I thought I'd gotten the first shot 6 months ago, and they'd told me to get a 2nd shot this month, which I cleverly wrote on my calendar so I wouldn't forget.  Well, the CVS consulted their computer and told me it'd actually been a year since I'd gotten that first shot (that's why I use them - because they're in most states and their computers are linked), and that instead of the Pneumovax 23 that I'd been told to get, all this CVS had was the 20, which wasn't a substitute but instead a new version of the vaccine (I think, but I got confused).  Anyway, the pharmacist told me this new version would protect me against pneumonia, which is what I wanted, so I decided to get it now instead of trying to find the 23 somewhere else in Idaho.

While I was waiting, another customer went up to the counter for her prescription refills and gave her birthdate as 9-30-24.  I'm sure that's what she said, though it seemed improbable; it would make her 97 years old, and she was walking without any support or any apparent effort.  In other words, she's what I want to be when I grow up: healthy.  Notably, she wasn't overweight, which I think is a key factor in living a healthy life, though one I'm having a hard time achieving these days.  But I haven't given up - especially not after seeing this woman.

Just getting into town in the first place required a lot of patience.  I had to cross the Snake River and even before the bridge, the traffic had come to a standstill.  It took me 45 minutes to cover 3 miles.  Fortunately, I'd heard about the blockage before I left the campground so I was prepared, except the radio had said the stoppage would end at 9:30.  I didn't even leave the campground until 10:00 so, obviously not.

Ahead of me at the JiffyLube was a car with the bumper sticker: "In case of rapture, this car will be unmanned."  Still.  I thought after the alleged rapture didn't happen at any of the dates that were declared the absolutely right dates, people became disenchanted with this idea.  But I guess not everybody did.

Actually, I was curious and looked it up and found a prophecy website from 2018 that said the rapture will come before 2025.  The writer based this on his assumptions, and said so: "We can observe the world is rapidly going nuts . . . so seeing the things happening, it seems reasonable to me to assume that the second coming is before 2035 and the Rapture is before 2025."  Among the terrible things he sees happening are these: "Humanistic foul-mouthed women with vaginas on their heads have no shame in protesting the natural God-given order.  Deranged Romans One women are aborting their babies by the millions."  I'm just reporting what he said.

That city park was very nice.  I saw a sign that told me the trees had been planted in 1905 (they were beautiful) and the municipal band first performed there in 1906.  There was a large bandshell that had been built in 1934, and I thought it was replacing an earlier one though might be wrong on that.

Downtown Twin Falls was billed on signs as the "historic downtown" though it looked relatively new to me (meaning, not old enough to be historic), but I might have missed the old part.

I noticed many flags around town were at half-staff, but the one at the county courthouse across the street from the park was at full height.  I asked someone about those flags and learned they'd been lowered because of that terrible massacre of schoolchildren in Uvalde, TX.  Don't know why the courthouse wouldn't be lowering its flags for that.

Heading back to the campground I had to cross the river again, and this time I noticed the bridge is name Perrine Bridge, after a man considered the founder of Twin Falls.  This trip I was able to get a view of the Snake River Canyon - and it's an amazing view.  The bridge is 486' above the river and is considered the US's 8th highest bridge.  That height made it a little harder for me to (be brave enough to) get a good look at the canyon - but even what I saw was spectacular.

The campground owned a very odd-looking vehicle labeled a Suzuki Every (that's the model name).  It had right-hand drive and was seriously truncated, and I should have taken a photo because I really can't describe it.  I tried to find it online and learned it's made in Japan strictly for the Japanese market.  I'm pretty sure I remember right-hand drive cars from the times I visited there, but it was so long ago I'm not positive.  But if this little guy was imported from Japan, that would explain the right-hand drive.  I couldn't find any photos online that show the exact style of vehicle I saw.  I should plan to go back to Twin Falls so I can take a photo of that car.  The campground used it to cart around cleaning supplies to the cabins and shower rooms.

California Quail

This campground had 2 nice dog parks, one of which was divided into half with both halves being a nice size.  I was sitting in one of them while Dext sniffed around and noticed 2 birds that I suddenly decided were quail.  Don't know why, I just did.  Since quail have that weird little thing dangling from the tops of their heads, I tried hard to see if these birds did.  They stayed in the shadows as much as they could, and they were fast movers when they moved, but I did finally get enough of a look to be sure that's what they were.  Back at the RV, the bird book told me they were California Quail, because that's the only species of quail that appears in Idaho.  Turned out that little topknot was hard to see, so I count myself lucky that I got that view of them.

So that was my 5 days here.