Travels with Twinkles: Honeyville, Utah to Pocatello, Idaho

May 21-25, 2014:

It was about 60 miles from North Salt Lake City to Honeyville, Utah, mostly on Route 15 north. Route 15 is not much fun, rather congested and a major truck route. Honeyville is small Mormon town surrounded by farm country with lush green fields and pastures. We arrived at the Crystal Hot Springs and Campground at noon time. It is a mineral spring pool complex that was used by the indians for centuries and was opened as a resort in 1901. They claim that the water has more minerals in it than any in the country, I'm a little suspicious of that claim. They have several pools and hot tubs and a water slide along along with a picnic and camping area. It also has a nice view of a mountains and is in a beautiful farm land setting.

Crystal Hot Springs

The entrance sign
We set up camp and immediately went to the "Golden Spike National Historic Site" in Promontory, Utah. This is the famous site where the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads met to complete the transcontinental railroad on May 10,1869. It was an actual town for a short period of time when through travelers had to switch from the Union Pacific railroad to the Central Pacific railroad. Eventually an alternate route, the Lucin cutoff, was built across Salt Lake which ultimately brought about the closure of the original alignment through Promontory. The original Locomotives used for the famous ceremony were scrapped, however the Park Service had replica Locomotives built in time for the 110th anniversary in 1979. They have them positioned on track facing each other as was done for the original golden spike ceremony. This National Historic Site most likely would not exist if it were not for a very dedicated woman who campaigned for it for 25 years or so.

The rest of the story, in 1942 the rails were
torn up for WWII iron and they had a
un-driving of the last spike

Locomotive 119 replica

The Jupiter replica

The view from the visitors center

Thursday morning we took a ride to the town of Logan. On the way we passed through Brigham City with an interesting arch over the Main Street and several nice old buildings. All of these Utah town seem to have been founded within a few years of one another and they have impressive buildings that were constructed very well and have been maintained in good condition. Logan is a college town, University of Utah, immaculately clean and orderly as is the general rule in the Mormon way. Twinkles loves the town as it has a good fabric shop. We also had a great lunch at Great Harvest bread Company, which had good sandwiches, fantastic looking breads and pastries.

The Brigham City gateway arch

Yet another immaculate Mormon temple in Logan

An interesting jewelry store clock in Logan

Really impressive Temple in Logan

A relaxing afternoon at the campground mineral pool and hot tub, then sitting out in the campground in the lush grass, under a nice shade tree, looking out at the mountain, with the sounds of the birds all around me and the smell of the fresh cut alfalfa in the adjacent farmers field. Nice !!! Then a bird poop's on me from the tree above, such is life.

Friday morning we are back on the road traveling 100 miles to the Bannock County Fairgrounds in Pocatello, Idaho. It's a large open campground with water, electric and shower house within the Pocatello city limits. There is nothing presently going on and the campground is about empty. It looks to be a quiet weekend here which is fine, we left Crystal Springs Hot Springs just before the crazy holiday weekend crowd arrived.

Pocatello is a college town with an interesting "Old Town" area with many historic buildings, which will satisfy my urban cravings for a couple of days. The name Pocatello has a nice sound to it, it is named after Chief Pocatello of the Shoshone tribe who was a quite a famous chief. So, I had to go see the Chief Pocatello statue at the Rotary Rose Garden. The Rose Garden is an attraction here also, but it is way too early for the roses. The statue is impressive with several historical signs on the chief and the local history.

Chief Pocatello sign

Chief Pocatello statue

We then went into the adjacent visitors information center and had a conversation with the woman there who was also pretty impressive. About ten years ago, when she was in her mid 60's she went on a bike ride with a tour group to St. Augustine, Florida. She then did it again the following year and she still rides but now stays in the local area. She told us her daughter is a Mountain biker who can practically ride up trees, who is part of an organization called womantours.com. who do bicycle tours all over the country and World. Twinkles was quite impressed, so was I !

We then went across the road to the Fort Hall Museum and replica fort. The museum was really great, excellent exhibits on all aspects of Pocatello's history. Twinkles was quite impressed by Pocatello's old firetruck, a restored American La France built in Elmira, New York. The old fort is a replica of the original fort which was located nearby and was one of the first trading posts in the area. It was a very interesting story, it was a crazy period in history. I can't imagine the interaction between the indians, the initial trappers, traders, explorers, and all the nationalities of immigrants, including the Mormons. It was a highly volatile time to live through and many did not make it and we think we have it tough now !

Idaho is shaped by Volcano's and the Bonneville Lake

1916 American LaFrance Fire Truck

Painting of Pocatello rail Yard

Interior of Fort Hall

The meaning of a Painted Pony

We then did lunch at Portneuf Valley Brewing which is another impressive woman story. Penny Pink started brewing beer in the mid 1990's with much success and eventually bought a building and started her own brewery in 2002. In 2006 she also opened a restaurant in the brewery. It appears to be very successful, the place is clean, the staff friendly, efficient, the food is great, artistic tee shirts and posters for sale and Twinkles even liked the beer (a first for her at a brew pub) and last but not least, they even have live music upstairs.

One of the Beer brews and posters

Next attraction not to be missed in Pocatello is the "Museum of Clean". I must admit, I was not so keen on visiting this, the history of cleaning is not something I get excited about. We were given a brief introduction as we entered and then roamed around a bit on our own. This museum is the brainchild and the passion of a Don Aslett, who started a cleaning service during college as a money making venture which ultimately grew into an empire with 100,000 employees at its height. I sort of got lost for a while until I heard Twinkles calling me to come over and join a museum tour group with none other than Don Aslett himself. He took us all over the museum explaining things, entertaining, teaching, joking, showing the work in progress, his future plans and even putting on a puppet show with audience participation. We were exhausted when we left the museum. The man is 80 years old and was about the most dynamic and motivating individual I think I have ever seen.

I have found the perfect woman

Hundreds of vacuums in this museum

A vacuum cleaner bag quilt

That's Don with his Toilet Luggage that he
used when traveling on business trips

After a nap and a shower, I had to return to the "Portneuf Valley Brewery" for the live music for a while which was good but the crowd was small and quiet. Then over to party central, the "First National Bar" where the college crowd is hanging out. The First National Bar is about the ultimate college hangout, a large pool hall on one side, large bar area on the other side, dance floor and large stage setup for serious live music. They had a number of bands playing short sets, the beer and shots were flowing and lots of smoking. In Idaho, it appears you can still smoke inside bars.

The First National Bar

Did they check my ID ?

Sunday, I searched the web for "best breakfast in Pocatello" and found a place called Jeri's Jumbos Cafe. Twinkles was not interested, always on a diet, so I went alone. The reviews were certainly accurate, it was great in every way. After that, we went for a hike on the City Creek trail on the outskirts of town. Then a brief photo trip to Old Town Pocatello for me. On return to the Fairgrounds there was a horse racing event going on across the road. I went over to take a look and caught the last race. Wish I had gone earlier, it was really cool, lots of betting, food and beer.