In Salmon, Idaho

Like every other day of our travels, we awoke early, did a few German lessons and caught up on the day’s emails.

Mark and Steve uncovered the plants. Since the temperature got below 33 degrees this morning, it was a good thing we had covered them last night. The day was forecast to be sunny and warm later in the afternoon.

Mark made a delicious breakfast of omelets, toast and bacon. Mark, Steve, Mary and the dogs took a short walk down the driveway and Hooper Road, coming back through the alfalfa pasture to the house. Jade seemed to be walking better this morning, so hopefully she is over what was bothering her.

Salmon, Idaho

Mark had been feeling a shimmy in his pickup since before leaving for Utah earlier in the month. We suspected a tire balance or alignment problem. He had a 10 AM appointment at the Quick Lube near the Ace Hardware store to get the balance and alignment checked. We left for Salmon at 8:30, getting to the service station in plenty of time.

While Mark was at the garage, Cindy, Mary and Steve walked west on Shoup Street to Murdoch’s Ranch and Home Supply. Murdoch’s is a western chain that is a bit like Rural King or Tractor Supply but more expensive. Mary got a pair of Carhart work pants on sale.

Salmon, Idaho

We went to several other stores and visited the Lemhi History Park. Located in an area between two businesses on Main Street, it provides informational signs about the development of Salmon and Lemhi County. We learned that one of Cindy’s neighbors is part of a family that established their ranch in Lemhi County 150 years ago. We continued to walk east along Main Street to meet up with Mark at the Ace Hardware. Cindy was disappointed that the marked down bagged potting soil and peat were sold out. We suspected that Ace and True Value in Salmon were moving products out in anticipation of Tractor Supply being built in town.

Salmon, Idaho

It turned out that the problem with Mark’s pickup was not alignment but was due to mud caked on inside of tire. They had driven on a road that had recently been coated with magnesium chloride for dust control. When this material gets wet, it is like concrete. The inner surface of the wheels had cakes of magnesium chloride making the tires unbalanced. The service representative said that a commercial customer came in who had a load of apples on his truck. Because of a mechanical problem, the apples weren’t delivered to the market on time and couldn’t be sold. The farmer gave a crate of the apples to the garage to pass along to other customers. We were happy to get the large bag of apples and found them to be tasty. The drive back to May was much smoother now that the mud was gone from the wheels.

Moose mount in Whittington's living room

Once back at the house, Cindy and Mary did laundry and worked on Ancestry. Mary packed for the three day trip back home.


Steve and Mark sat by the pond and discussed potential future trips for the four of us.

Mark made chili and cornbread for dinner then we watched an episode of Foyle’s War on Acorn TV.