Nothing on the agenda today so this was a day to explore a little more locally. And explore we did. First off, our supply of fruit was running low, so we stopped at a few farms stands to see what they had. We’re discovering there are quite a few fruit farms around here, and we drove through some big orchards to get there.
The first farm did not appear to have its retail section open. The second had made itself out to be more of a tourist destination, with the hay-bale maze, corn hole games, and a whole bunch of other stuff for the whole family. And prices to match. This one was on a uniquely-named road: Chicken Dinner Road.
The third was a more traditional fruit stand. We picked up a supply of several kinds of fruit and some sweet corn.
On our drive we happened past a WinCo grocery store. Deb wanted to pick up a couple of things so I waited in the RV while she ran in to the store. She was gone a long time. When she returned she couldn’t say enough good about this store. Product, prices, cleanliness, this store had it all. So now we’ve found our preferred source for groceries for the next few weeks.
Next was Deer Flats National Wildlife Refuge. In the visitor center, we talked up the two guys behind the desk for a while and gleaned several tips on some local attractions we could visit. The locals always know best. Information on the Internet is useful, but doesn’t match what you can get from a good conversation with the locals.
They also filled us in on the local lore of how Chicken Dinner Road got its name.
We hiked the Observation Point trail here in the Wildlife Refuge. Almost three and a half miles of trail through dry grass to an overlook and back. The dry grass trail wasn’t all that exciting, but the view from the observation deck was very nice.
On a tip from the guys we talked to, we drove down to Walters Ferry to Cleo’s Ferry Museum.
Interesting place. Cleo Swayne collected a whole bunch of different things and they all are arranged along a path next to the Snake River. Birdhouses, gnomes, statues, just a whole bunch of stuff spread over nearly a mile of paved trail. A lot of it is accompanied by inspirational or devotional quotes, and it appears that Cleo Swayne was a devout Catholic. Some of the stuff borders on kitsch, partly because there is just so much of it, and partly because being outdoors has not been kind to it. The bronze statues have fared well, anything painted, not so well.
This place also sports a few dozen peacocks that strut around the parking lot expecting food. For a quarter, you can get a handful of food to feed the peacocks. It was hard not to run over a few of them on the way in.
We spent some time here, strolling the path and made dinner in the parking lot before returning to Hope House.
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