We hadn’t planned on staying in Twin Falls more than a day or two at the most but we were there for a week. That’s how it goes when you don’t make plans, arrangements or reservations. We fly by the seat of our pants and it works out for the most part since we prefer boondocking to RV Parks or campgrounds. Summer is tricky though because it means we need an RV park to survive the brutal heat we sometimes find ourselves in and we need to get into a park mid-week and plan on staying through the weekend to get a space among the hoards of other RVers out on their summer adventures.

Anything above 90 degrees is most unbearable in the Airstream. It becomes an oven and we become baked humans.

And so we found ourselves in Twin Falls, Idaho in a county park that is both beautiful and sketchy. There were equal parts big expensive RV’s and rusted out tin bucket trailers. There was a young couple with two small baby girls next to us. No vehicle, just an old trailer. Their story: they came from Utah after a job for the husband but the boss showed up drunk and the wife punched him out and there went the job. They had someone tow them out there, no vehicle of their own. They’re stranded. They fight, they play, the husband walks miles to the grocery store for food and sometimes the babies play outside with their kitten.

Everyone we met in Twin Falls was friendly and open. We heard a lot of personal stories within the first few sentences spoken. It was a little surreal and a big contrast to Boise where again we needed cool air. We found an RV park right on the Greenbelt where you can hike or ride your bike along the river for 25 miles or so. Parts of it are beautiful and well maintained and the rest of it isn’t.  We hit the Boise Art Museum and saw an interesting collection of the 20th century “Masters” like Pollock, Rothko and O’Keefe. It was the strangest show! I thought it all looked murky and sad. It could have been the lighting but it also felt like the artist’s least successful works. The O’Keefe was awful. I’ve never seen an O’Keefe I didn’t like! I have now.

We also went to the movies. I always look for the “hippie theater” in any town and Boise has an awesome one. The Flicks. It has an indoor and outdoor cafe with food and wine and beer and they were showing Maudie which was wonderful. Go see it!

very cool sculpture by Brad Rude at the Boise Art Museum

It was unbearably hot and I was happy to leave Boise for the Sawtooth National Forest where it’s cool and one of the most beautiful places we’ve been. Mountains and rivers, bike trails and hot springs, cell signal and town close by!  Everything. We were greeted by a hail storm, always a little unnerving when you live in a tin can. I’ve seen some big ass dents on some Airstreams made by hail.

We’ve met up with a fellow nomad and are camping together for a few days in a valley close to the town of Ketchum.

The clouds are moving in again.

And so it goes.