Adventure 300: Caldwell, ID

Givens Hot Springs in its best light

What a day! Full of circular adventure, a titch of frustration, and a host of found grace, we traversed much of the area from Caldwell to Boise until we find ourselves nestled comfortably in our temporary home: The Hampton Inn at Nampa, Idaho. 

To begin, the unwanted silence of the furnace gremlins woke us up at five (Judy's usual time; usually my best sleeping time). I bolted right up because our furnace failed again. Undeterred, I made an online appointment at the Airstream dealer in Caldwell, Idaho. We then had a leisurely breakfast, since the Airstream dealer didn't open until 9 A.M. I closed nicely after Judy opened up an early lead to nip her right at the end to win our morning cribbage game. We hooked up in the dark, and about fifty three miles from Caldwell, we got a call from Kelly, the service manager at the Airstream dealership. We thought, "Great, things are looking up." Around nine-thirty we arrived. Kelly and his crew pulled our trailer into the service bay, and low and behold: THE FURNACE WORKED PERFECTLY! The mechanic (Brandon) had simply blown some debris from the exhaust outlet. We thought we were golden, so we hooked up and set off for Givens Hot Springs, which is close by. Our plan was to spend a night of checking the furnace to make sure. Givens, which looked quaint and homey on the web site, looked tired and lonely in person. The pool, though clean, was luke warm. No attendants were in sight. The RV sites were dismal gravel patches bordered by limp locusts trees whose drooping limbs barely covered the trash that was scattered about. So we left. We drove back toward Nampa and chose a RV spot very close to the Airstream dealer because I'm a "trust and verify" guy, which means we still wanted to check the furnace overnight. It didn't take that long. As soon as we tried the furnace: NO GO! So, we skee-daddled ourselves back to the dealer. This time, the furnace failed right in front of the service manager: Lord, give me a witness!! The bottom line is that Brandon the mechanic spent the afternoon dismantling our furnace. Hopefully, a full examination will allow him to fix the problem. But, life often offers amazing opportunities if you let yourself be open, and no sooner had we checked into the Hampton Inn and attempted to log on to the WiFi (COMPUTER FAILURE! HOLY FRUSTRATION, BATMAN!), we were slapped silly right then by one of life's opportunities. We grabbed it like the horns of a dilemma and traipsed off to the local Apple Store, where we waited in a very long line to talk with a genius (We spent all day and most of the night in the Apple store [and the mall]). While waiting, I took the opportunity to get on the phone (The Apple help line is great!) with a wonderful young women named Megan who was talking with me from Indianapolis.  She graciously and expertly walked me through my computer problem over the phone, which then allowed Judy and I to talk with the genius (When we finally got our turn) about our photo management issues on our phones . Our genius, Tyler, was also a great human. If my phone hadn't been restoring itself from the cloud, I would have taken a picture of him to revive the "best human" of the day. So, basically, we took the opportunity to learn a little bit about our devices (Not that easy for old farts) as Frac was having his insides gutted. Tomorrow, when the sun rises, we hope to hear good news about the furnace operation. if not, we'll look for another opportunity to present itself, because regardless of what happens, we'll live in the belief that life is good, especially today.

 Trip Advisor, (Some social media can be trusted) said this place was #1.

 We shared an Hot Italian sub that was excellent. Even in times of temporary frustration, a first world fat guy can console himself with "thin gruel" (Judy won the cribbage game).

The view from our front room window. Pretty soon, we may trade Fric and Frac for this cool buggy.

 The Apple Store was still jumping at ten minutes from closing time.

Throw back Friday: Miss Kate swarmed by her "Aunties" at the rehearsal dinner the night before her wedding. Moral: The opportunity to find joy is present everywhere, every day.

Author's note: Angels do exist (Inside good people). A lady at the grocery store in Joseph where Judy left her I-Pad has taken extraordinary steps to track Judy down. Bottom line: the I-Pad will be mailed to us on angel's wings.