As the flight continued and the batteries on my laptop had died, I pulled my book out to read again.  The one about womanizing.  Marilyn read over my shoulder for about half an hour, snickering and laughing at many pages, but at others saying "That's true Sam, you should do that!"

But then the pilot announced we were landing.  So we put everything away, and watched out the window as we came in.  And then, we were in Boise!

Marilyn: I think that Sam could use some of the of the tips from the womanizing book but somehow I don't think that the book can turn him into an asshole.  Sam is too nice of a guy for that.  Maybe he needs to read a book on How nice guys pick up chicks instead, don't you agree?

Something was wrong in Boise though.  There was a huge pile of rubble right outside the airport window!

Well, I'm sure there wasn't really anything wrong.  Just some remnants from rennovations that hadn't yet been cleared away.  But still, it wasn't the most comforting thing to see right after getting off the plane!

Chad's flight wasn't supposed to arrive for another half hour or so.  Given that, Marilyn and I decided to go ahead and get our luggage, then we would come back and wait for Chad.  So down we headed into the luggage area.

It took awhile for everything to show up, but we got our bags.  Then we headed back upstairs to wait for Chad to walk through from the gate area.

Marilyn: Look at all of the crap that Sam brought with him. Well, two of those suitcases were mine but he packed enough underwear for three weeks. I guess Sam needs a few tips in packing. I am glad that I wasn't carrying all of that stuff. Well, if I run out of underwear I can always borrow a pair of Sam's boxers.

And then...  there was Chad.

Marilyn was happy to see Chad.  Chad remembers meeting Marilyn before many years ago in Pittsburgh.  Marilyn did not remember meeting Chad before.  But now they met for real, although they had emailed previously.

Marilyn: I immediately spotted Chad walking out of the ticketed area. I only recognized him from the picture I had seen of him. Sam is right. I had no recollection of our previous meetings before but cut me some slack, it was over ten years ago.

After collecting Chad's baggage, we went to get the rental SUV.  After some discussion, we decided not to put all three of us on as drivers.  It would end up costing like $80 more.  So, I would be the only driver for this trip.  Fine with me.

Then it was through the quickly darkening streets of Boise to find our hotel.

We basically just headed to our hotel, checked in and dropped off our stuff.  We were hungry.  It was time for a meal.  So we left again immediately.

Chad had seen a Mongolian BBQ place on the way to the hotel.  So we headed back there first.  The dine in section was closed.  It was carry out only.  OK.  Time to find something else.

Close by was a Japanese steakhouse.  Ichibann Japanese Steakhouse.   That would be it.  It was one of those places where they cool at the table.  Cool.

Marilyn: I agree. It was very cool.

And they set it on fire!

Then he finished everything up and served it out to us.  The food was good.  But watching the cooking was the fun part.

Marilyn: I always like seeing my food catch on fire and not be burned to a crisp. Somehow, I don't think that Sam should try this at home but if he does he is well equipped with a fire extinguisher that I made him buy at Home Depot.

Sam forgot to mention that the Chef saved a piece of shrimp for his last trick.  He threw it at Chad to catch in his mouth but Chad missed and the shrimp landed on the floor.  Maybe Chad would be better at catching popcorn in his mouth instead.

We headed back to the hotel to hang out at Marilyn's room for awhile.  They had upgraded Marilyn to a suite, and she wanted to show off her assets...

Marilyn: What can I say, Sam and Chad both enjoyed a cheap thrill at my expense.

Chad: I like that picture.

Oh, and there was the room too.  She had a big jacuzzi, a liveing room, a kitchen area, oh, and a board room table, just in case.

Marilyn: Am I special or what? I guess that the lady at the front desk liked me enough to spoil me with this awesome Governor's suite all to myself.

And of course we had to check out all the pictures so far and everything.

Then while I started working on the weblog again, Chad and Marilyn sat and watched Blind Date on TV, while Chad began quizzing Marilyn on her love life for awhile.

Marilyn:  I told Chad that I am not lacking in the men department.  So many men so little time.  :-)

Chad: I wish I had that problem.  I mean juggling too many women.  It's just not fair...

After a while, everybody agreed it was time to sleep.  Chad and I went down to our room and left Marilyn. Chad headed to sleep right away.

Marilyn: I sat and worked on the computer for about an hour.

Yes, it had been a long day and we were all very tired.

Then I finally crashed.  Aside from the hour or so on the plane on Day 0, this was the first time I had slept in over a day and a half.  When I lay down I was asleep almost instantly.

ZZZzzz...

In the morning I was awakened by a loud phone ringing.  It was Marilyn.  She was all excited and peppy and had been up for hours.  She was so excited she hung up on me.  And called me again.  And hung up again.  And called again.  By the third or forth time she called, she had woken Chad up too.

Anyway, it was time to get up.  I got up and showered quickly and got dressed and headed up to Marilyn's room while Chad followed and got ready.

Up at Marilyn's, I set her up with the Day 0 log, now with my comments complete, and got her to add her own comments.  When she was done, I started getting it ready to upload.  This would take awhile.  Marilyn went downstairs to hang with Chad for a bit while I did that.

Soon Chad was calling back upstairs impatient for me to finish up and get going.  Chad can be very impatient sometimes.

Anyway, I finished up, and it was time to leave the lovely Red Lion Suites.

Marilyn: I didn't mean to keep hanging up on Sam.  I just kept moving and pulling on the phone cord by mistake and had to call back several times.  For some reason, I didn't sleep well and woke up before the sun was up and was ready to start the day.  I am more of a morning person that I was several years ago.  I am usually up by 8am even on the weekends.

I forgot my toothpaste and went to visit Chad and brush my teeth.

Hey Sam, I was the one who said that Chad was impatient first.

We loaded up the truck again and got ready to head out.

Marilyn wanted to be sure we got a picture of the licence plate, because for the last month or so, everybody had been bugging us about Idaho Potatos, and saying things like "Why would you go to Idaho?  There's nothing there but potatos!  Bring us back a potato!".  So far, the licence plate was the closest thing we had seen to an actual potato.

Marilyn: Well, Sam did find a potato in the grocery store that he suggested that I mail back to John.

Marilyn ran to check out.  Then as she was running back, something possessed her hair.

Marilyn: I am so angelic, what can I say? The light of the angels follows me everywhere.

We went to the Trolley House for Breakfast.  We'd heard from people int he hotel that it was the best place for Breakfast in Boise.  It was pretty good I guess.  Marilyn and I wanted to eat on the outside patio.  Chad wanted to eat inside.  We ate inside.  Chad wanted a pancake, so ordered one in addition to his egg meal.  The pancake was bigger than his head.  Something like the size of a hubcap.  It was huge.

Marilyn: The trolley house was a greasy spoon. I would have preferred to eat outside too. For the rest of the day, my hair smelled like a grease kitchen. Yuk! I could have killed Chad for making me eat inside. Next time I am not listening to his suggestion.

Chad: you're forgetting all the times you didn't take my advice, and regretted it...

After eating, I needed to set up all the gadgets.  The GPS was already set up, but I needed to enter in the random spot, and where we were going in Ketchum.  And I needed to get the XM radio and iPod set up.  I took a long time.  Chad and MArilyn went to a nearby grocery store for some basic supplies. 

Meanwhile, I spent almost 20 minutes rooting through my luggage looking for my FM Transmitter dohicky thing to get the audio from the iPod and the XM into the car's audio system.  I just could not find that thing.  Eventually I found it in some pocket I had slipped it into.

The XM radio didn't work though.  The antenna was flakey.  I had known it was flakey a few days earlier, but was hoping it would work.  I may try it again later, but I think it is dead or dying.  I will have to order a new one.  But not while I am here.  We can do iPod only for now.

Anyway, once everything was settled, it was finally time to head toward Ketchum.  Chad was getting quite anxious to leave by this time. If there had been any more delays, I think I would have been subject to some pain.

Marilyn: Yes, Chad was very restless and complaining that Sam was taking way too long.

Sam, Chad would have kicked your ass and I would have had to save you and nurse your wounds. :-)

Chad: Marilyn, you are high on crack!

With everything settled, it was time to head out of town.  We started to head through Boise...

We saw the Capitol building in the distance, but we did not go there.

About this time Marilyn remembered that her company had a local office in Boise, and she wanted to visit it.  So we got its address and stuck it into the GPS and before long we found it.

Marilyn spent ten minutes posing in front of the building.  Here is one shot.

Marilyn: Wesco here we come. Too bad it is a weekend. I wanted to meet the people that I talk to over the phone and check out the new phone system that I help to get installed.

I am the company Vannna.

But you know, if they are the "extra effort people" they could at least clean their sign.

Marilyn: The sign was really rusty at the bottom. I guess that forgot to take the extra effort to clean it.

Then, within minutes, we were out of town and in the countryside.

Then Marilyn started running away down the street.  Don't know what was up with that.  But it was OK, we caught her again later.

Marilyn: I was checking out the cool view. The scenery is just awesome in Idaho.

And Chad started climbing things.

Marilyn:  Since I have been on this trip, I have noticed a pattern here. Chad really likes to climb things that are high up especially rocks.

Chad: You ain't seen nothin yet.

And there was a train.

Marilyn: i got a neat picture of the front of the train as we were going something like 70 miles an hour.

After a bit, we had to stop so Chad could take care of business.

Marilyn: Sorry Chad I didn't get a picture of the stream, maybe next time.

Chad: That would've been awesome!

We were definately starting to see some hilly terrain.  No mountains yet, but some pretty hills.

Marilyn posed with a flower.

Marilyn: I just can't pass up a picture with pretty flowers.

Then Chad had to get into the flower action.

Marilyn: I think that I go better with flowers than Chad. Maybe we should have Chad pose with a potato instead.

Chad: Do any of us even know what a potato plant looks like?

Later as we were driving, we saw some Elk.

Marilyn: Sam asked me to take a picture of the Elk and I didn't do too bad of a job.

There were amazing views all along the way.

Then we started seeing cattle.  In the very first herd we saw, this bull just stood there and stared at us.  Chad was facinated by the size of the bull's... well...  you know.

Marilyn: Yes, more like obessed with the bull's nuts. He wanted me to get an up close and personal shot but this was as good as it gets...too bad Chad.

Chad: I know that Al and Chris would want to see the closeup.  Sam, you are just lazy.  You could have enlarged the picture in photoshop.

For the most part we were heading on back roads and not the main roads.  A lot more interesting.  For awhile we were going on something called Castle Rock Road.  We came across something that must have been Castle Rock.

The view around Castle Rock was typical of the sorts of road we were going on most of the day.  Beautiful dirt roads through amazing countryside.

Marilyn: The views were amazing and really worth seeing.

Of course, while at Castle Rock we had to climb up a bit.  We didn't make it to the top.  Too steep.  But we went up a ways.

Marilyn: I think Chad could have made it if he really tired. Wimp!

Chad: It was a pretty tough climb.  I thought better of it.

After getting our fill of climbing on the rocks, we kept going.

Every once in a while though, there was a cow who was sure the road was theirs.

Marilyn: Do you think Mike and Jamie are still together?  Chad and Sam didn't think so.

This one REALLY was sure the road belonged to it. 

Marilyn: Fortunately, the cow moved out of the middle of the road and let us pass.

It didn't move until we were a couple feet away.

Chad: I suggested a game of chicken, but I was overruled.

There were bails of hay too.

Marilyn: Chad didn't even attempt to climb the bail of hay. I wanted to but we had to keep going toward Ketchum.

Around this time I started freaking out.  We were of course navigating via GPS.

Marilyn: And of course, we had to take a picture of it. No, not of Sam freaking out but of the GPS.

Well, with all the vibrations on the rough back roads, the screen on the GPS was starting to flake out.  It would go all staticy.  A thump would bring it back.  But I was afraid it would stop working entirely any second.

But by Chad holding it in his lap and thus insulating it from the vibration a bit, we were able to keep it working OK.

I guess we were in or near the Magic Reservoir at the time.

The GPS wanted us to go on the road below, and a bunch more like it.  But we followed a rule that if the road was blocked by a closed gate or a fence, we probably should not go there.

Marilyn: I was not in any mood to get stuck in the middle of nowhere Idaho. I would have kicked both of their butts if they would have done something stupid like that.

We passed this guy on a horse.  He was friendly and waved.  Marilyn chopped the horses head off in the picture, but got the wave.

Marilyn: Well, at least I got the guy waving at me. We were only going 50 miles an hour at this point.

When we got into Hailey, we saw this teenage girl tooling around on an actual Segway! It was the first time any of us had seen one in person. She was spinning around and going in circles and such in the sidewalk right next to us for about a minute before she crossed the street and went on her way, but this was the only picture we got.

Marilyn: I didn't get a good picture of her on the Segway unfortunately. I wanted Sam to buy me one so that I could look cool and pick up men.

Chad: that chick was totally checking me out.

At this point we were almost there.  Just a little more driving to go.

A few minutes later we were in Ketchum at the Base Mountain Properties office to check in.  We were after closing, so expecting to have to use the after hours check in lock box thing they had told us about.Marilyn: We we only 15 minutes late and Bob was very nice and gave us lots of brochures with things to do while in Idaho; But Bob was still there.  With his lizard.

After getting our keys and talking to Bob for about 20 minutes about things to see and do in the area, we left the office to go find our condo. 

As we were driving from Ketchum where the office was to Warm Springs where the condo was...  Day 1 ended.

Marilyn: And what a day it was full of adventure and Idaho back roads.