Drive To Boise Idaho - Wednesday

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Yesterday started out with more rain. We ended up with a 1/4 inch overnight on top of all the snow that is covering the farm. It made everything a sheet of ice. It was mid 30s F while we were out for our soak.

We managed to get everyone and everything packed and on the road before 10am. We headed down through Spokane and south towards Lewiston Idaho.

The Lewiston hill is pretty amazing with the views it gives out over the river valleys. The 195 and 95 merge and drop down off the bluffs above down to the clearwater and the snake rivers.

We chose to go this route so we could stop at a couple of the companies owned by @stryeyz boss. The first was Alpine manufacturing. They used to have an archery line but that sold last year.

It is a pretty killer machine shop with a number of really nice machines. Mills, Lathes, and cnc machines fill the building. They have a couple of Swiss machines that that are precise enough for making watch parts, but they have them making various parts for other industries. We got a nice walk around of the place and the boys ended up a bit bored by the time we were ready to leave, they are young and the attention span can be rather short at times.

Next stop was at American Turbine that makes turbines for jet boats. They are right on the river where the boats are rather famous, the Snake, Clearwater, and Columbia rivers are well known for the jet boats. The turbines are super slick and with a 400hp motor pushing one they can put out 4000 gallons a minute of water. There are fireboats that use them for their water cannons. There are even yachts that use them as bow thrusters.

After leaving the Lewiston/Clarkston area we continued south towards Boise.

We were to the southwest of McCall Idaho when the sunset blew up dramatically. It got rather dark oranges and pinks as the sun set. It was quite amazing looking.

It wouldn't be a Fleming trip without the boys getting carsick numerous times. They have an intense need to be doing something other than watching the scenery and that inevitably leads to nausea and generally booting. Luckily the last part of the drive was on the I84 and was smooth so they got a chance to eat before we hit the hotel where they both dove at their laptops.

@stryeyz had been trying to get a mitten pattern to work to whole drive and finally was able to get it going once we were settled.

We had the entire pool and hotub to ourselves and it was nice to soak after the long drive.

Today we are going to go to the Boise aquarium, the used books store right next door, I want to hit a music shop for a couple of mandolin books, then this afternoon we will rest up for the Tool concert tonight at the Idaho Center. We will be in the pool a bunch more as the boys are slowly learning to swim each time we stay at a hotel.