Guns, God, Old Glory and Wendell

 

 

We just had to stay in this small Idaho town called "Wendell" in deference to Paul's conservative, tea-baggin', Fox News viewin', Glenn Beck listenin' ex-Marine buddy Wendell. While Wendell was a mere lowly lance corporal, Paul went on to command the troops as the Assistant Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. But we digress.

Now back to Wendell.

This is a statue of Wendell (the Idaho version) holding a whip since it seems the whole town is into San Francisco-style bondage.

Note this bear with a rope around its neck.

You'll see plenty of signs like this which begs the question does the Constitution protect bondage? We say "yes". That's what freedom is all about.

Who wants to know?  Remember, this is the land of Old Glory, God, and ...

Guns.  Like Obama noted, so many small town Americans cling to their religion and guns. But we love 'em anyway. They are solid. They are red, white and blue. And you won't find MSNBC on the local cable system.

With tensions building between Russia and the U.S. over some snotty little leaker/traitor, Wendell will become ground zero in the new Cold War. This is the first of twenty missile silos that will be buried in the ground here in southwest Idaho's high desert.

But seriously, folks, we were having brake problems with the all-new for 2014 1885 Lance travel trailer and this guy, owner of the local "Intermountain RV Park" jumped to the fore and expertly made repairs and at no charge. Are these solid, middle Americans great or what?

If you're cruising along I-84 we highly recommend Intermountain RV Park* in the town of Wendell. Quiet, well kept, shady large pull-thrus and only twenty big ones a night if you're a Good Sam member.

*I was walking through the park and met a couple sipping wine outside their RV. My kind of folks. They live in central Utah and drive over the border to buy cheap, plentiful wine in hard-drinking Idaho. Their rig was filled with wine (18 bottles at last count) that they were taking back to LDS country.

And speaking of Good Sam, just down the road Sam Walton's homage to our insatiable appetite for cheap stuff from China: WalMart. Good Sam, incidentally, was started by Sam Walton, who was John Boy's* sibling on Walton's mountain.

*Remember the classic "Tonight Show" with Johnny Carson? One night Carson promoted the latest episode of "The Waltons" where "John Boy discovers his lap". Ed McMahon laughed so hard I thought he was going to have a stroke.

After buying $87 worth of Chinese-made junk we towed through the city of Boise. Paul said he did a story here about twenty years ago and kept referring to the city as "Boy-zee". He got a call from some clown who said he was tired of these idiot newscasters calling the town "Boy-zee" when it's actually pronounced "Boy-see".  Paul said, "Look, when you command the microphone you can call it 'peanut butter' for all I care. But as long as I command the mic it is what I say it is." End of conversation.

Traveling along the freeway through Boy-zee, you see nothing but a sound wall. Looks like the city is one big correctional facility. As Ronald Reagan said, "Hey Boy-zee, tear down this wall."

Here's yet another hoarder moving their hoard into Boy-zee.

Crossing over into Or-eh-gone, we gave the Prius and rig a rest and stumbled upon something RVers might find useful. If you're stuck without a place to sack out for a night, Oregon allows you to stay for up to 24 hours in a parking space at official rest stops (your rig must be "self-contained"). You can do the same at many WalMart parking lots.

From here it's onto bad water in Baker City.

Bye bye. Buy Starbucks.  Another shameless plug.