Travel Map

Sunday, 29 July 2012

Boise, Idaho 2

This photo nothing to do with Boise
So let me talk a bit about Boise as I didn't know the town at all before I came through. Boise (pronounced boy-see or boy-zee if you're not a local) is a small city with a population of around 210,000 people. It contains a fairly large university, which seems to make the population fairly young. It also means there is quite a good amount of night life, bars and pubs around. For some reason that no one could exactly tell me, Boise has a very high population of females compared to males. To me Boise seemed to have a very relaxed pace, was fairly open, had low amounts of crime and poverty and the natives I was lucky enough to meet were really friendly people.

On the streets in Boise
On Sunday the 29th, I needed to do some laundry first thing. After not being able to get a seat in Capri, then having the worst maccas breakfast I've ever had (the hoecakes were dry and pretty sure they were not heated up), I punched "laundry" into my iPhone GPS and set off. On the way I noticed the weird way Americans sometimes reseal a road, which sucks for motorcyclists. It seems like they spread loose gravel onto the setting tar, and then use the weight of the traffic to "bed it in". Presumably they later come back and brush the remaining gravel away. Anyway, it made it slow going on the motorbike.

After this a very friendly Boise resident - who I met as a friend of a work colleague of someone I met in the hotel bar - offered to take me around to see some of the sights of Boise. Kim is a lovely young lady who although she looks in her younger 20s is actually a year older than me! She is an ex-Minnesotian, which she tells me makes her sound like she has a Canadian accent. Kim currently works as a professor of psychology in the Boise State University (BSU), where apparently she often gets confused one of the students.

Our destination: Table Rock
Apparently hiking is the thing to do in Boise, so we walked up a trail to Table Rock; a popular Boise attraction. This goes past the old penitentiary up to a square looking rock formation (plus a very large controversial religious cross on top, this being America). It was quite a hike for me, being as out-of-shape as I am, and some parts were very steep. But the view from the top was pretty spectacular, where you could get a glimpse of the entire city and the surrounding mountain ranges. And although I stupidly did not put my water bottle lid properly back on and wet my wallet in my backpack ("why is my back so wet, I don't usually sweat this much"), I had a fantastic time!

Kim and I on the top of Table Rock
Afterwards, we headed down to BSU to see the famous collage NFL stadium which is the only one in America to have blue AstroTurf - which the locals call "smurf turf". We also saw the Boise river that passes through the university. A common pastime in Boise is to float down the river on small inflatable boats and tubes, and that day there were many people doing just that. The heat probably helped, it was 99 degrees Fahrenheit that day (37c). It looked like a lot of fun, but unfourtunately we had no boats!

After that we went and had dinner at a really nice, er, beer house I guess? There's not much like it in Australia, well Canberra I guess. But due to the heaviness of the food I'd been eating lately, I opted for the salad. According to Josh I'll get teased if I order a salad in places like Oklahoma City, so I was a bit wary!

Mountain sprout playing at the saloon
Afterwards we went to a saloon downtown, which just happened to have really good live music. The band was called Mountain Sprout, who play bluegrass music with awesomely vulgar lyrics. It was the first time I've seen a band anything like it, they played with a banjo, guitar, fiddle and double bass. I'm not sure how common bands like these are in America. But I had a pretty tough time wiping the smile off my face the for the whole set. The music is so energetic and the lyrics are hilarious, but most of all it was so American! So far the best thing I've seen in the states yet!



1 comment:

  1. Phil is more than impressed about your bluegrass experience - and it is good that you have done something physical after all that riding and eating what seems to be burgers..... looks great weatherwise though so hot....
    Glad you are having a tops time

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