Nature Boy takes a drive

Work sent me across the state to do a project in Idaho Falls. I went in for the morning shift, then hit the road about noon. I wanted to get here before dark and potentially rush hour.

Not that IF is such a frightening place, but I’m not overly familiar with it. I elected to cut across the desert. There is a freeway option, but it’s quite a bit longer.

I saw antelope all around Fairview, which is pretty normal. It’s also big game migration time, and I expected a few deer. The deer didn’t show. What did show was a badger out in a stubble field. He was booking along, trying to get to his burrow somewhere.

I was fairly content with seeing something unusual, but then I got near Sun Valley. My highway crosses the one up into SV. There is a stop sign, and usually quite a bit of traffic.

Drivers were starting to accordion as they approached the intersection, and I may have slowed down a bit too much. I think I irritated the guy behind me. My reasoning was the herd of six elk that just crossed the road. Five cows and a six-point bull directing where they went. I don’t think he even saw them, and they were standing in short grass as we drove by.

I wanted pictures of all this stuff, but the traffic never cooperated with me. I know how to call a badger back up from his hole, and have done it many times. I have some beautiful photos from back in my 35mm days. I just didn’t have 30 minutes to spare. This is a work trip, and I really didn’t want to get here in the dark.

Nature wasn’t finished with me, though. About two miles past the intersection, there were two raccoons grabbing for something out in a stubble field. You don’t normally see them out in broad daylight. I slowed to see if there was a parking area, but there wasn’t. I don’t know if it was grain, or some kind of bug that brought them out, but it was cool to see.

I turned back toward my drive, and a rooster pheasant stepped right in front of the car. It didn’t end well for the pheasant. I heard the thump. I never saw him in my rear-view mirror, so drove to the nearby chain-up area. Once around the car, and no sign of him. This isn’t my truck, it’s a small state vehicle, so I was a bit concerned about cracking a headlight, or damaging the grill. No damage at all.

I cruised through Craters of the Moon, and enjoyed the scenery, but the wildlife had called it a day. Other than one last herd of antelope near Arco, that was it.

It was a fun day, but I didn’t get any pictures. I may have had my best chance with the raccoons, but the pheasant threw me off my game. (Raccoons aren’t known for a rapid retreat.)

I need to surf through a couple of websites, then I may add some new words to my side project. Goodnight everyone.

Most of my adventures are like this

My wife and I are both off this weekend. It’s best to surrender the idea of doing any writing at all before it gets into my head. We decided to check out the huckleberry festival up in Donnelly.

Idahoans are crazy about huckleberries, and they have kind of a narrow window for picking them. Rumor is there are plenty about right now. Several years ago, I went up to McCall and picked a large baggie of them I made into fritters.

These huckleberries are actually blueberries, but don’t have that conversation with one of the natives.

We opted to leave the doggies home, because it’s been incredibly hot, and this was a day trip.

Hot wasn’t an issue at all once we got there.

Pretty scenery, though.

Donnelly was having a parade about the time we arrived and parking was non-existent. This place is tiny, but they even had a traffic cop on the main drag, which is also the state highway to more popular destinations.

We opted to drive to McCall and check things out later.

We had lunch at McCall Brewing. I had a lovely pastrami Reuben, and this Wobbly Man beer. It’s a smoked scotch ale, for those who are interested. It’s a wonderful beer and is occasionally available in Boise, where I seldom pass it by. McCall also makes a great Lemon Ginger Hefeweizen, and it has Ginger from Gilligan’s Island on the label. I passed on Ginger and had a glass of English Bitter as my follow up. I was pretty excited to even find a bitter, but it didn’t quite measure up to their more popular offerings.

After lunch, we decided to go a bit further and check out a campground, and possibly find a few huckleberries of our own. It’s a nice campground, but you could put all the berries in the palm of my hand. I think I’m in line for a huckleberry pancake tomorrow, but only one.

When we went back to Donnelly, it was raining like a mo%^*#F$@!er. Everyone got washed away, and boarded up for the day.

All the covers were down, and the vendors headed for shelter.

One stouthearted fellow operated out of a trailer, and kept his place open. I was looking forward to some pancake syrup, maybe a fritter, even some alcoholic concoctions. This fellow had ice cream and it was outstanding.

That was our day. Great lunch. Great beer. Pretty scenery. No huckleberries, but the ice cream was outstanding. As a bonus, I may have found a new campsite that won’t leave me hanging off the side of a cliff with my camp trailer.

In other news, the dogs got a new toy from Nylabone. They’re both crazy about it, but Otto takes the best photos. (Frankie never stands still long enough.)

He looks like a towel rack or a door knocker.

Field trip and a bit of luck

My paycheck job sent me to Idaho Falls for a couple of days. We avoid work related topics, but it puts a damper on my blogging ability. That’s the main point here.

Fortunately for me, two of my guest appearances posted while I was absent. That allowed me to keep some fresh content on my site, and I managed to deal with comments after hours. I think I answered everyone, but I’m going to surf back through the host sites to make sure after this goes live.

I have things to do today. (I always have things to do.) I’ve just come up against a wall of “I don’t wanna.” A big part of this involves driving, hotels, and all the rest of it. Driving across Idaho is not like driving across Vermont. It takes about five hours to drive across Idaho, and I did it twice. Bonus though, I got to see about 200 antelope, and one really nice mule deer buck. I also saw an elk rack that did not fit completely in the bed of a pickup truck. I know we’re all supposed to hate hunting and everyone that partakes, but I do not. It was impressive, and that was one of the biggest racks I’ve ever seen. If the rest of him was that big, someone is going to need a bigger deep freeze.

I’m going to have to sacrifice most of my planned word count for now. The stuff I need to do involves commitments to other author friends. I’m not going to let them down. There is one small bit of critique work I have to get to. Thank God for my Apple Pencil, and its new ability to work with Pages, my word processor. This speeds things up a bunch over the old redline versions.

I have two Lisa Burton interviews to work on. One has returned his questionnaire, and I’ll address it soon. The other is in a holding pattern until I get the questionnaire back. Still, it’s good to know there will be more “broadcasts” from Lisa’s trailer in the woods.

Yesterday was payday too. This means we might pull off a date night tonight. Old Chicago Pizza sounds good, but there is a BSU game tonight. Both things are good, but sometimes it means the place is SRO. Never know if we don’t try. I can be content with the MLB playoffs too, so I’m not picky as to whatever. We’ve talked about a backup plan that might involve a total absence of sports.

As a State employee, I get Monday off too (Thanks Columbus). Lower on my list is a cluster of critique pages of my own work. They aren’t going to spoil or anything, but if I get my commitments dealt with, I’d like to find time to slick up my own story.

It isn’t a huge list, and all of it is possible in three days. I just have to figure out how to deal with the “don’t wannas.”

Sunday, hope I covered everything

I'm having some connectivity issues here today. Everything else seems to be hunky-dory, but my iPad is acting up. I hope this doesn't mean bad things for my precious baby.

I have a post scheduled every day through friday now, with the exception of wednesday. If nothing else, this will give me one day to make some kind of adjustment. I might have an announcement to make, but that involves a team effort, and I need to hang tight. I can always post a picture or two from my field trip for work.

My friends and I, over at Story Empire, have a month long scavenger hunt going on. There are five separate scavenger hunts to check out at our Paranormal Bar & Grille page. We're taking our books on a huge tour, and there is a grand prize to be found there too. You have to play to win, and you could win as many as five of the regular prizes. We weren't exactly ready to pull back the veil, but I already have one entrant so the time is now. Go down to the bottom, and the highlighted names will take you right to the scavenger hunts.

Story Empire is growing, but we can always use more followers. You might want to check out the blog page while you're there and see if it might be for you. Right now, the content is directed more toward authors and contains tips and advice that's pretty helpful. It may evolve over time, most blogs do.

In other news, I bought the new iPhone. My old one was one of the 16GB models and it was full. No more music, inability to get my documents off the cloud, etc. Other than that, it was wonderful. I would have kept it, but I just needed more room.

Well, a new phone needs a new cover. This model is so new, there aren't many to choose from. I usually choose something macabre and creepy. My old phone had a full moon with bats flying across it. This time, I decided to have Zazzle make me a custom one. What do you think?

I really want to get a box of coffee mugs with something similar. They aren't cheap though. That way, I can include a mug when I have another scavenger hunt, or get involved in something with prizes. Would that kind of prize interest any of you? I would include some kind of promotional link on it too.

One of the other things I'd like to do is get some stickers made. I have a lot of Lisa Burton art right now, and could hand out stickers to various people. This wouldn't be guerrilla sticking, but to those who want something like that. Even sticking one on the back of my iPad could get someone to ask a question.

Back to the grind tomorrow, and on the airplane Tuesday well before sunrise.