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.
Entertaining Stories 