Great Road Trip of 2017.......Part Eleven/Day Ten

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

We were up at a decent hour at Kim's daughter's house(ie-we slept in) and were fed a big breakfast.  I could get use to this. ;-)

Some food items needed securing so Kim and Joel took us to........

It was my first visit to a Winco Foods.  Being a maven of food shopping, visiting a new-to-me supermarket is exciting.  What can I say?  I am a nerd.

This is my first in person sighting of "Tillamook Cheese".  Woohoo!  Of course I couldn't buy any being so far from home.

After that brief errand Kim, Joel, Hubs and I headed out on an adventure. 

First Joel wanted to show us the fish hatchery.........

Lots of big fish!

I'm no Ichthyologist and I don't know most fish species from another but I do know when I see a BIG FISH!lol

A State Hatchery sign.

And one of the many "pools" of little fishes before they grown up to be big fishes. ;-)

Here's  a pond next to the hatchery we saw leaving the facility.  There was a big white long legged bird in it....can you see?  It looked like an egret or heron to me but what do I know about birds of Southern Idaho?

Before this road trip I had read about some guy who had brought alligators into Idaho.  Gators can survive an Idaho winter if there is a hot springs source in their body of water but they don't naturally come to/inhabit Idaho.  This pond is the sort of brackish water you'd find a gator.  Joel said there was a fish farm near where we were that raised alligators back in the 1990's but we didn't see any here.

We were in search of the famed "Hagerman Horse".  So we set off but unfortunately someone let Kim be the navigator.  Uh oh.....

Here is what Kim's phone GPS said when we supposedly got to the Visitor's Center.

And here is what we saw........

Nope! lolz  So we drove around a bit then saw an interesting ravine so we stopped to check it out.

A river etched into the rock below.  And a roadway built over this section of it.

Another view of the river rushing waaaay down there.......

So we drove on a bit more down another road and found a dangerous canyon rim.

And another better place to view this river........

Don't get too close to the edge.  That's a long way down!

Me taking a selfie with the water.  Exciting, I know......

Back in the car and we headed back into the little town we had come through to find a place to use the restroom.

I had noticed this art installation as we breezed through town before so I made Joel stop so we could see it.

It's the Hagerman Sheep Monument(though I didn't know it at that time).

Here is Kim making friendly with the sheep herder.

This area of Idaho has a long history of sheep herding but the Golden Era for sheep was back in the 1920's.

I found it strange that some of the sheep were laying on the ground.  Did they mean to do that because sheep did die too?

Me petting a sheep.

Hubs with the shepherd and his horse.

More sheep and one that is slightly off kilter and about to go down.

And of course a genuine sheep wagon was part of the piece.

Once we got back to Kim's daughter's house I googled what was up with this art installation/monument and found this news article.  Evidently some miscreant had run a pickup truck into the monument and plowed over some sheep and caused tens of thousands of dollars in damage to the monument!  It happened about a month before we were there and you could still see the tire marks from the truck AND they had arrested the perpetrator a few days before we were in Hagerman.

So much for my thinking those "dead and dying sheep" were planned that way. lolz

We hit a gas station convenience store in town to use the facilities and I saw they were selling snacks and hot food.

Boudin Bites out HERE?!?  No way.....

And while we were stopped we got drinks.  Coke was putting names on bottles that Summer and I found these two perched next to each other.......

My daughter had a teenager's crush on this heartthrob/singer back in the day.

What a shame he became addicted to drugs and had mental health problems.  He died last November at the age of 34.

Oh Look!  The Coca-Cola company must have known Kim was addicted to Diet Coke because I found a Diet Coke, literally, with her name on it! lolz

Back in the car and we found the Hagerman Horse displayed in the Hagerman Historical Society Museum.  It was an unassuming little building near the public library.

They say the Hagerman horse roamed the earth about 3 million years ago.

Hubs standing next to the recreated skeleton of the horse.  These were little guys as far as modern day horses go.

They had other fossils dating way back as well that were all dug up from the Hagerman 

Fossil Beds.

Another view of the replica of the Hagerman horse skeleton.

Of course they had a small gift shop in there and I had to tell Hubs he was not buying this picture book about Potatoes even if we were in Idaho. lolz

Me with the horse skeleton.  Who looks more emaciated? lol

You can read about the Historical Society Museum HERE

A selfie with the H. horse.  Bye, bye little fella........

Then we were back in the car and driving back towards Twin Falls.  Kim wanted to visit the local Mexican food store in town.  We were greeted by  a bevy of fried tortilla bowls.....

Then I saw these bakery racks of massive colorful cookies....

Kim in her "happy place".  Bakery display cases 6 foot tall lining one wall of the store.  She had a cafeteria tray loaded down with cookies and pastries.  That's my Kim! lolz

Massively large Chicharrones or fried pork rinds over on the meat counter.......

Jars of unknown substances here, much like many convenience stores in the South(pickled pigs feet anyone?). ;-)

And the obligatory wall of Peppers........whatever type your little old heart desires.  I make my own enchilada sauce(when I make enchiladas, etc.)so these peppers spoke to me.

Sadly the only thing I bought wasn't peppers(as we still have quite a bit of trip left to go)but I did pick up some Hibiscus Agua Fresca powder.  It use to be very hard to come by so that made it into my suitcase for the ride home to PA.

We got back and Kim's daughter wanted to treat us all to a buffet dinner out.  Who am I to say no?

And she also ticked off another state for us on our "go to every state" mission.....

We all drove South into Nevada for dinner......Jackpot, Nevada to be specific.

Kim says this is where all the Mormons in Southern Idaho go to gamble. lolz

We had our choice of dining spots.....Horseshu on the right and Cactus Pete's on the left.

And plenty of liquor stores and bars too.

Hubs and I in front of the Cactus Pete's sign.  Gosh darn it!  We missed the Lee Greenwood concert there by two days!

And hidden inside(or rather at the back of the casino)was a very nice buffet restaurant.  We loaded up our plates and chowed down.

I was seated catty corner to Kim's grandson and he kept wanting things off my plate in between his mother feeding him stuff off of her plate.  I had something lemon flavored(can't recall now what it actually was)and he wanted a piece so I gave him one.  From his face you get the feeling he didn't like sour flavors much when he was a toddler(I missed the intial grimace he made from the taste)but then again, what todddler does? lol

I noticed this slot machine on the way out of the restaurant....a Big Bang Theory themed one.  No, I didn't put any money in it.  There's a reason they call slot machines "one armed bandits"......

We wandered through Cactus Pete's gift shop on the way out.  Here's Hubs holding a novelty Ginormous "One Cup of Coffee a Day" mug.  I think they need to make those with "Diet Coke" substituted for Coffee and I'd buy that for Kim. hehehe

We drove back North to Idaho as the sun set.  Our time in Nevada was brief but it still counts, right?

And home to Kim's daughter's house and bedtime for us all after a busy day.  

This closes out Day Ten on the Great Road Trip of 2017.

Sluggy