One Night Stans

Sun Valley, Idaho 4/4/09

That’s what we’ve decided to call all of the good people we meet and get to know for a single day along our way. Their locations, backgrounds and occupations have been as interesting and varied as the stories they tell and local advice they give. And I hope that they are all as nice as the ones we’ve met so far.

At the famed Sun Valley Pioneer Salon it was Tuck the IT guy, his sister Wendy, and their local friends - Mikey, a woman’s Skijouring Champ and her husband and a Semi Pro Hockey player from Latvia who is now a house painter in Sun Valley. Actually, I should tell you that we hadn’t even planned to go to Sun Valley. On Saturday April 4th we stopped for gas in Twin Falls, Idaho on our way from Salt Lake City to Boise, glanced at the map, looked at each other and said – you know – we are dangerously close to Sun Valley. Let’s Go! Patti searched for and found us a cute little hotel on her laptop in the car as I drove the 75 mile detour to the north. My secret personal motive was to find Demi Moore, my Roswell New Mexico Jr. High classmate and puppy love crush, and see if she would remember or recognize me at all. Before we headed to the local’s favorite hangout I flipped up my collar, put on my best smell good, trimmed up my new goatee, and reminded Patti that Demi likes Bad Boys you know. We had a blast with our new friends but unfortunately the closest I got to bumping into Demi was at the Pioneer Saloon where Tuck told us a funny story about a fender bender that he was in where the passenger, Ashton Kutcher, got out of the car all upset as he stood there looking at the damage in his full length fur coat. At least I met someone in a bar that ran into a dude that was driving the guy that is married to a famous person I once knew. Maybe some other time and place Demi.

The next day we had a classic blue bird spring ski day at Sun Valley. Afterward we relaxed in a cushy leather sofa by the fire in one of their fancy ski lodges with travertine bathrooms and real cobble stone veneers as we dined in our homemade PB&J’s. Hope I didn’t get any jelly anywhere. We decided to split at about 3 p.m. and headed north out of town toward Stanley, Idaho along one of the state’s scenic byways that passes through stunning snow blanket covered hills and mtn passes. We followed the beautiful Payette River for over a hundred miles as we continued through the steep rocky canyons with hot springs spilling into the river near Lowman, Idaho – the scene of a massive fire storm in 1989 that still renders the region with treeless mtn. tops. From Lowman we continued on to our next first rate romance low rent rendezvous near the Snake River at the Ontario, Oregon Motel 6. The day’s mountainous trek was a decidedly much better route than heading south from SV back through the desert to I-70.

The next day, April 6th, we headed out of Ontario west along the scenic byway 26 to Bend, Oregon - another of our favorite towns in the west that could be a top candidate for future permanent relocation. Ever Been to Bend?