June 24th-June 30th, 2018

Amber waves of grain

Moving weekly in order to make this dream of traveling the US a success we miss out on being part of a community. When you have servant hearts it leaves an empty place that can only be filled when you help others. We have tried along the way to find places to help the local communities. It takes some advance planning but it’s worth it.

We decided to reroute our original map after we watched an episode of Returning the Favor by Mike Rowe. The episode was featuring a family in Twin Falls, ID that started an organization to make and deliver beds to children that were sleeping on the floor. They call it Sleep in Heavenly Peace. I contacted them to see if we could volunteer while we were in town. We set our GPS for Twin Falls and headed that way.

Twin Falls is a town of 50,000 people and 400,000 diary cows.

We stayed at Oregon Trail RV Park in Kimberly which was 4 minutes from the SHP warehouse. Mark might be the friendliest campground host we have met. I highly recommend this campground.

Monday AM- the girls and I checked out the I.B. Perrine Bridge. The first crossing of the snake river in Twin Falls was the I.B. Perrine Ferry in 1903, then a wagon bridge was built across the river replacing the ferry until a rim to rim bridge was built in 1927. This newer bridge was built from 1973-1976. It is 486 feet above the Snake river.

This is the only place in the US that you can legally BASE jump without a permit. The Visitor Center at the Perrine Bridge is a great place to find information on local attractions and learn more about the bridge, the rim trail and BASE jumping history.

PM– When Chris got off work we picked him up and headed to Shoshone Falls. Shoshone Falls is 212 feet tall, taller than Niagara Falls and is often called the Little Niagara of the West.

We hiked the Canyon Rim Trail along the Snake River Gorge, the entrance was tricky to find, it’s behind the bathroom/concession building. The Snake River is 1,078 miles long, it is the largest North American river that empties into the Pacific Ocean.

You can hike to the Evel Knievel jump site via a paved trail. Round trip from the parking lot at Shoshone Falls it is about 4 miles. It was a long trail with an elevator climb but we had eaten dinner before we left and had plenty of water. We were very excited that when we reached the Evel Knievel site there were 3 teenage boys selling cups of lemonade. We had 2 each and that gave us the boast we needed to make it home.

In 1974 Even Knievel attempted to jump the Snake River Canyon and failed because of a parachute malfunction.

TuesdayAM- The girls and I took our school books and lunch to Dierkes Lake. The girls had to take a swimming test to swim in the lake. They of course passed but then Mackenzie thought it was too cold so she never got back in. Abby had fun jumping off the diving board and swimming out to the middle dock.

PM– We were so excited when Jami emailed me back with an opportunity to deliver a bed on Tuesday night. We had seen Jami on the episode that airs on Facebook. Check it out here to see why we had to help serve with these people.

Volunteering with Sleep in Heavenly Peace

We met the Butlers, the co-chapter presidents, at the warehouse and they gave us a tour. We loved seeing how the magic happens. We saw Mike Rowe’s autograph on the headboard.

The girls and I had fun shopping for bedding for the children we were going to deliver a bed to today. The first build was a bunk to two deserving kiddos. If you find yourself in Twin Falls, volunteer your time or money to this great organization! Here is their website https://www.shpbeds.org/

It was late so the Butlers invited us to join them for dinner! They even surprised us by inviting the Mickelson’s to meet us at the Mexican restaurant. Thank you Butler family!!

They invited us to help with another delivery as well.

At dinner, Scott asked if we wanted to go see a Spud Cellar and I of course said YES! I explained to him that upon driving in town I wanted to find a potato farm for us to visit. I drove past the Driscoll Brothers Farms and wrote their name down to call and ask about a tour. I had not gotten around to contacting them because we’ve been so busy. Would you believe that he called his friend at Driscoll Brothers and Landon Driscoll met us there at 8pm at night! The hospitality of these Idaho folks is the sweetest we’ve seen across this country.

They sure do grow them big out here! Walking on the 30,000 pounds of potatoes in a cellar that was 46 degrees was something we will never forget. They store the potatoes at different temperatures based on how long they will be stored and how the consumer is using them. He educated us on potato farming until the sunset. Landon let the girls pick out a potato each to cook up for tomorrow nights dinner. Check out the size of these potatoes.

Wednesday Twin Falls is not a Twin Falls anymore, they have dammed up the other side. Not as spectacular as the Shoshone Falls for sho!

Thursday We visited the Minidoka National Historic Site. We read this book, Baseball Saved Us, years ago- so long ago that I remember having to read it to Mackenzie so probably 7 years ago. But the story stuck with us. We wanted to visit the site where Baseball helped the Japanese American’s stay sane while they were encamped.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, panicked people believed every Japanese person could be a potential spy so a few months later President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed an executive order that moved 120,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans into 10 isolated war relocation centers in Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming. This is one of those 10 sites.

Saturday– Fishing on Snake River…again with the generosity of the people out here in Twin Falls. The Mickelson’s invited us out on their boat to go Sturgeon fishing. We got up early on Saturday morning and headed down to Centennial  Park to hop on the boat. We drove out to Pillar falls and casted away. We caught 3 at the same time. It took me about 10 minutes to real mine in, it was about 5 feet. I held the record for the biggest one until Abby reeled in a 5 1/2 foot one, that’s bigger than her! We were just doing catch and release so we kept the fish in the water for pictures. We caught 6 large sturgeon that day.

We parked the boat and Hiedi took us up on the falls to explore a little. A hidden treasure for sure. If you get a chance, take a kayak and get out where you can’t go any further at the falls and walk around. Be careful because if the water is flowing fast it can get slippery and dangerous. Thank you Luke and Heidi for taking us out on the boat… a perfect Saturday. A real highlight of this adventure.

Centennial Park. On the drive down the gorge, to the boat let in, there is spot where you can see the back side of water. The entrance is hidden but if you park and look hard enough you can see the path that leads to a beautiful waterfall and walk behind it getting a slight bit of mist sprayed on you.

Chaboni  factory is the world’s largest yogurt factory. I have been eating Chaboni greek yogurt every morning for breakfast for 8 years since I found out I can’t eat eggs.

Windshield was hit by a bird while driving here so we will need to get that replaced because the crack is just growing. We called and the closest place will be Billings, MT.