We hit the road around 8 AM and our plan is to get to Idaho Falls around lunchtime, have lunch, visit one of our must-sees and check into the hotel. Of course it doesn’t work out quite like that. As we are nearing the Idaho border we spy a billboard advertising the Museum of Clean in Pocatello. What do you know? On the way to Idaho Falls we are passing right through Pocatello. The Clean Museum is too much to pass up!
Luckily John thought to bring along our Roadside Geology of Idaho and as I am driving he regales me with information about Lake Bonneville and the strangely missing Mesozoic rock in the area. All this is super interesting except I got very little sleep last night and know that I cannot keep driving. We switch drivers and, I never do this, I fall asleep until we reach Pocatello.
As we pull off the highway I wake up and we make our way to the Museum of Clean, the brainchild of Don Aslett. Don Aslett made his fortune by starting a cleaning company when he was attending the nearby Idaho State University. It expanded across the United States.
He has housed his museum in a refurbished 1915 architectural gem. Only the front facade is new.
We are greeted at the door by two robots made out of various cleaning paraphernalia and a lovely older lady who is really into the whole concept of the museum. She explains about various tours but we beg off. First, though she must show us the inside of an overly-stuffed garage. If we can name five things that we have in our garage we will pass the test and receive our choice of a book about cleaning. We win!
We walk around the museum seeing early vacuum cleaners and carpet sweepers. There are old toilets and old toilet paper. Washing machines and early irons and manglers are all on display. We take a short break.
An hour is about enough and we head into Pocatello for some lunch. We find a place, Efresh, that sounds promising but is meh.
We have one more stop before getting into Idaho Falls. It is called Hell’s Half-Acre and is appended to a rest stop. It explains about a lava flow that seeped out of the earth about 2000 years ago. This was just an ooze not an explosive volcano. It spread out over the surrounding countryside often to a depth of hundreds of feet. The site we are looking out is 17 miles away from the main source. We take a short trail which is dotted with informational placards. It is very hot.
Finally we make the rest of the trip to Idaho Falls. After another short nap (Oh, I am so exhausted today) we make our scouting, shopping, and dinner plans. First we find tennis courts so we can play tomorrow morning. Next we find the Idaho Brewing Company where John would like to try their beers, third we buy a bottle of wine for our dinner at Chef Shane’s Perspective. Then we have a glass of wine at the Blackrock Fine Wines and Craft Beers in downtown Idaho Falls. We have misjudged our timing and need to kill about a half an hour until our reservation.
Finally we arrive at Chef Shane’s where we have a scallop appetizer and some pork entrees. Mine is super salty and kind of dry. John likes his although I think the pork belly could have been seared and caramelized like we had in China.
