I couldn’t decide this morning if I should stay in Boise or hit the road.  I ultimately decided to check out of my hotel, probably just because its what I’m used to doing.  So I checked out but figured I would head downtown again to have a last meal and absorb the scenery of what I think is a very cool city.  I ended up going into a place called Goldy’s Breakfast Bistro, which as implied in the title only serves breakfast (until 2 pm).  The place was jammed but I was able to settle in at the bar in the last open spot between four other people.  It was worth it.  The meal I had was fantastic and really filling (suddenly this trip has become nothing but eating in different cities).  I got an omelette with guacamole and gruyere cheese (a throw back to my Switzerland days) which also came with a choice of meat, potato and bread.  For the meat I got a salmon cake (I agree, not meat but somehow it fell under that heading on the menu), for the potato I got Goldy’s potatoes with peppers, onions and cheese, and for the bread I got a boring wheat bread (saturated in butter).  Needless to say everything was phenomenal (as I already mentioned).  Ready to explode I got into my car and departed the wonderful city of Boise.  Next stop, Utah.

    I made the 300 mile trip in about 4 hours.  I decided to take the interstate which was boring yet very fast.  I arrived in Ogden, Utah around 5:00 pm or so and got a hotel room.  While registering I found out about the rodeo that was going on tonight at 7:30.  Why not? On the way into town the car thermometer registered a whopping 103 degrees F and foolishly I thought the rodeo would be taking place inside in an arena like all the ones I’ve briefly seen on ESPN as I shuffle through the channels.  Anyway, I showed up and quickly discovered it was outside (bad idea for wearing pants) in the sweltering heat.   Let me take a brief moment here to go back to a point earlier in the day.  As I left Boise I hooked up my ipod in the car so I could listen to some tunes on the way to Utah - the usual procedure.  I always have the thing on shuffle and it has about 5,500 songs on it.  Suddenly at some point (prob about 5 or 10 songs in) I realized that every song played so far had been fantastic.  I was amazed at how somehow that ipod was picking the best of the best to play every song.  No garbage, just my favorite songs on the ipod.  I wondered how long it would go on for. At the end of each song I would expect to hear some dud song come on but remarkably one after the other was a great song.  I figured I was off to the luckiest day of my life.  By the time I got to the 27th songs I was thinking, “this is amazing! I could make a mix out of these songs”.  Then suddenly I remembered that when I got in the car I had told the ipod to shuffle only within one of my playlists that I had created a year or two ago.  So much for making a mix with those songs.  I already outsmarted myself and did it.  And so much for the luckiest day of my life.

    With that embarrassment behind me I forged on ahead to Ogden as mentioned earlier.  Now cut back ahead to me going to  the rodeo.  I had a general of idea what to expect but didn’t really know if it would hold up (my indoor arena assumption was already a bust).  So I sat down in the sun and waited for the rodeo to start.  They had some guys parachute into the arena and then they honored local servicemen, active and retired.  It was all very patriotic and of course followed by the national anthem.  Before the anthem though was a prayer, something we will never see back in NY; well not without probably having a riot and a whole bunch of lawsuits and debates.  Anyway, I figured I would probably end up understanding about 50% or less of what was going on but fortunately three nice people sat down next to me (Joe, Kris and Tara - from left to right above).  They were kind enough to explain a lot of what was going on and answer the questions I had along the way.  They were originally from Idaho but are now living on the edge of Ogden, thankfully for me.  The rodeo would not have been as much fun had they not sat next to me.  Assisting me in understand the rodeo was helpful but more importantly it was nice to meet some new people, since most of my time is spent by myself not interacting with anyone.  After the rodeo was over we hung around to take a closer look at some of the animals that had been flinging the cowboys around. Up close the bulls looked even bigger and the horses were not like the thoroughbreds I’m more accustomed to being around.