Vandrea Does America: Day 31 (Saturday 7/21/12)- Arco, ID + Idaho Falls, ID

After a restful night's sleep (I don't know why the lack of a police presence at the rest stop reassured us, having first tried to insinuate ourselves into the town of Ketchum at night on a back road behind a theatre only to have a cop circle around. Come to think of it, a teenager or two must have stopped there) I took the liberty of taking my time in the family bathroom at the rest stop as this allows privacy for washing hair. We then headed out to see the coolest thing in Idaho (in our humble opinion, of course). The Craters of the Moon National Park is a very special place and a definite must see. Though in Hawaii you can view many spectacular lava fields, this one is unique. All of the volcanic activity at Craters of the Moon happens underground where it oozes to the surface through the "Great Rift," a ridiculously long fissure where the lava escapes. The last eruption happened over 2,000 years ago and they are due anytime for another occurrence. A ranger explained how Craters of the Moon was created and had me almost peeing my pants as I helped demonstrate what underground pressure build up would look like when it explodes to the surface (Thus, were it not for her impressive self control, demonstrating twice what underground pressure build up would look like when it explodes to the surface) (To clarify: I was holding a canister full of liquid that exploded unexpectedly).

Our next stop was more a cultural experience than a sight worth seeing. Arco was hosting it's Atomic Days and the whole little town was out in full force, though that amounted to three coed softball teams, a grease pit on wheels, and some sort of wizardry school fronting as a dessert booth. Though the horse shoe pits were packed. I enjoyed a strawberry cheesecake/cake batter snow cone (that's right) and Isaiah choked down a burrito (I determined they have a preformed food sphere that they scoop from their garbage disposal that can be placed, your choice, on either tater tots, tortilla chips, or wrapped in a "breakfast" burrito-like all culinary and digestive rules are void during breakfast time) before we left the town of Arco behind. Once the bad karaoke started we had had our fill. An interesting side note is that Atomic days is a celebration of Arco being the first town where atomic energy was used for electrical power and not bombs (they celebrate by eating potentially radioactive slushies).

Rounding out our busy day we ended up in Idaho Falls. We found three things exceptional about Idaho Falls. The first is that a free golf cart service actually drives you to and from the library parking lot to it's front doors (we couldn't help but laugh about how close the library and it's parking lot are from one another but we rode the cart anyway).

The second is it's incredible falls are right in the middle of town. I know what you are thinking: thank god Idaho Falls actually has falls, right? The third is a family we met from Idaho Falls who will be mentioned in tomorrow's blog.

Safe for the night at the Idaho Falls Walmart.