A Southern Swamp Rat in the High Desert

Every area has its “quirks” when it comes to weather and “natural phenomena”; no place is 100% perfect 100% of the time. Such an area just doesn’t exist, and, of course, some tend to have more of these quirks than others. During my next two IdahoSwampRat segments, I’m going to point out two quirks for each area: Florida and Idaho. So, without further ado, let’s talk about Idaho.

High Wind

You might think, with most of the cities in Idaho, including Nampa, Twin Falls, and Boise, all being in a valley (Nampa and Boise in the Treasure Valley and Twin Falls being in Magic Valley) that wind wouldn’t be an issue. That assumption is wrong.

Is it windy all of the time? No. I wouldn’t even say most of the time. However, when the wind does come around, beware. Remember that line spoken by Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace about sandstorms? A storm is picking up and Anakin says, “You'll never reach the outskirts in time...sandstorms are very, very dangerous.” It’s more like that, and in many cases, it’s not much different. Much of Idaho is still farmland, and when a wind storm strikes, all of the topsoil gets picked up and blows with the wind, turning it into a sandstorm. Check out this wind storm that happened back in June. The storm didn’t last more than an hour or so, but it was all people could talk about the next day and there was debris all over the roads in the morning.

In addition, it’s not uncommon for these wind storms to wreak havoc on transportation, with trucks losing control on the road and causing accidents. Back in March, Nicki and Steve Cunningham were minding their own business, driving over the Malad Gorge Bridge, when they were hit by a sudden gust of wind. The wind caused their pickup to go over the side of the bridge. Their truck dangled from a safety chain attached to their camper trailer for over an hour while they watched their belongings fall into the canyon, over 80 feet below.

So, yeah, I guess you can say that they can be very, very dangerous.

Smoke

Another issue that exists in much of Idaho that most people do not know about is the smoke. Have you heard of the infernos that seem to happen almost every summer in California? Guess where most of that smoke ends up? Yep, you’ve got it, Idaho! The weather pattern in much of this part of the country is for the wind to blow from the Pacific Ocean eastward, and when that happens and there’s fire in the West, Idaho has issues with smoke. In addition, this year has been particularly dry, with much of Oregon having problems with fires as well, so that means more smoke for Idaho.

Does Idaho have fire problems in the summer as well? Yes, it does. Idaho gets very little rain from June to September, so, yep, some of the smoke comes from home-grown fires as well. In matter of fact, in July, Idaho had 20 active fires. The way many Idahoans check the air quality is simply by simply going outside and looking around. If you live in a valley and you can’t see mountains in the distance, the air quality is bad.

Quite a while ago, I started writing about places in Florida and Idaho that have historical significance but have since been forgotten. I started with Idaho and talked about the ghost town way up in the mountains - Silver City. You can find that blog here. Now, without further ado, let's talk about another place, this time in Florida. Green Cove Springs. 

Green Cove Springs is located in northeast Florida, roughly 40 miles from Jacksonville in Clay County and is the county seat, but, to a large degree, it is a city lost in time. Located on the St. Johns River, it’s name is derived from its surroundings. Green, because the area it is in is, well, very green, filled with large Live Oak Trees and lush vegetation. Cove, because it is in a protected bend in the St. Johns River….a cove. And Springs because, you guessed it, it has a spring, sulphur spring from the Florida aquifer to be exact, which flows out of the ground at over one thousand gallons per minute, through a municipal swimming pool, and into the St. Johns River, which is only about 200 feet away.

The spring and pool in Green Cove Springs. Photo courtesy of Flickr.

A closer look at the spring itself.  Photo courtesy of Flickr.

The water flowing out of the spring and into the swimming pool is a constant 77 degrees year-around and has a very strong sulfur smell.

While Green Cove Springs is a small city of just over 8,000 residents, by just  looking around, it’s obvious that its heyday is way behind it. It is filled with old, plantation and colonial-style buildings from the 1800s. So, what’s the deal with Green Cove Springs?

Old Courthouse, Green Cove Springs. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

In the 1880’s, Green Cove Springs was a popular tourist destination for rich northerners. Many posh hotels, which were comparable to hotels built in New York and Chicago at the time, were built near the spring to accommodate these deep-pocketed guests. Green Cove Springs became known as “The Saratoga of the South'' and “The Watering Hole of the Rich”. Riverboats would take tourists down the St. Johns River to Green Cove Springs, which had the first trolley system in the state that took tourists and their belongings from the riverbank to their hotel destination.

Why was Green Cove Springs such a popular destination? The area has a tropical climate, and many believed that the sulfur water of the springs had medicinal qualities.

The Clarendon Hotel, which burned to the ground in 1900.  Photo courtesy of Florida Memory.

The downfall of Green Cove Springs as a tourist destination began when Henry Flagler built his famous railroad, which allowed tourists to travel much farther into the Florida “frontier” to such destinations as Miami and West Palm Beach. Tourism dried up, and Green Cove Springs received a dramatic blow to its economy. 

Sorry I haven’t written in a while, but it’s time to get back to business. I am hoping to write at least two entries a month, so stay tuned, buckle up, and prepare to learn more about Idaho and Florida!

Last year, I shared with you the snowfall and temperatures that Nampa and the entire Idaho area were having. That was followed by record flooding in the spring. Looking back, Boise, Idaho received 39 inches of snow from November 1, 2016 to March 1, 2017, which, in reality, didn’t set any records, but tell that to the people to witnessed it first hand. In the record books, last winter goes down as Boise, Idaho’s 10th snowiest winter....not too shabby, and it was the snowiest winter since the 1980′s. Everyone agrees with that.

Winter 2017 outside a Nampa, Idaho Walmart. Snow, the hot commodity everyone was eager to part with.

Well, wait a mere 365 days, a scant 1 year, and see what happens. Ye Olde Farmer’s Almanac and many local meteorologists predicted a repeat of last winter for the Boise,Idaho area, and the stores piled their shelves with ice melt, an item that entered legendary status last year as the stores couldn’t keep it in stock if their very existences depended upon it.

So far this winter, we have had a few cold days. In matter of fact, Idaho is in a cold snap right now with Boise experiencing highs barely above freezing, but overall, it has been a very warm winter. In January. we had several days with temperatures of nearly 60 degrees, making January the 6th warmest in Boise history.

Source: Accuweather.com

For the five winters we have now lived in Idaho, this winter has, by far, been the wettest we have gotten. Since well before Christmas, we have gotten snowfall a time or two  a week and sometimes more than six or eight inches of the white stuff at a time. In addition, this has been our coldest winter with our current record standing at -15 degrees. The cold and wet appears to be leveling off now, hopefully, but it has been one dismal ride for sure. Schools have called out four and five days which is almost unheard of in this part of Idaho, there have been a number of pipe bursts and roof collapses and plows are having problems keeping up with the demand. In addition, some subdivisions which aren’t regularly treated with ice melt or plowed have been virtually impassable during some of this time and cars have been getting stuck all over the place. People around here are used to a few inches of snow during the winter and that’s it. They typically don’t carry around chains or are equipped for such weather. It’s just been a mess all the way around. In contrast, in Florida, they have been having one of their warmer winters, with lots of 75 and 80 degree days. It does make me miss the southern sunshine.

Our house and yard covered with the frozen stuff. Luckily, we’ve had a short break from the snow. Hopefully, they’ll be no more major snow bursts for the rest of winter.

Everywhere you go, Idaho and Florida included, there are places to visit that were once popular, had their hey-day some time back, that have since fallen off the map, that very few people know about or go to. We recently went to such a place in Idaho. Silver City.

Silver City is located about 30 miles or so southwest of Nampa, Idaho, where I live. It is smack dab in the Owyhee Mountains, way up high at about 6,100 feet. In fact, the last 15 miles of road leading up to Silver City is dirt and is a dangerous road with lots of twists and turns that quickly gains in altitude. Silver City is completely closed to vehicles from October to June each year because it is too dangerous to drive, and during our trek up the mountain, we saw more than one sign that warned us that if we went any farther we were at our own risk. There were ATVs all over the place on the road leading up to Silver City and in Silver City itself. It was definitely a road to test your mettle.

Silver City is a genuine ghost town whose hey-day was back in the 1880′s when around 2,500 people and 75 businesses occupied the area. Now, quite a few of the businesses and some houses remain though almost everything is closed. When we visited, the only things open were the Idaho Hotel and a gift store across the street. The Idaho Hotel still has a few rooms they rent out, they serve two meals a day and are known throughout the state for their homemade pies. The city actually had electricity at one time; it was turned on all the way back in the 1890′s, but something happened in the 1940′s that caused them to lose it, and now some places have rudimentary power courtesy of the sun from solar panels on some of the rooftops.

Most of the businesses and houses that still exist in Silver City are privately owned by the descendants of the original owners, and on a weekend or two a year, they open the place up for people to walk through. The one church that remains in town, Our Lady of the Tears Catholic Church, opens for Mass one Sunday a month during the summer.

Our way down the mountain was the most treacherous drive we’ve had since living in Idaho. We had to stop at one point because our brakes were smoking so bad from our constantly having to apply them. It makes me wonder why anyone would want to settle in the middle of nowhere near the top of a mountain in the first place. On a trip that took us over an hour up and down a mountain in a motorized vehicle could have easily taken a horse and carriage a day or better. I know the answer is in the name: Silver. Silver City was founded because silver and gold and probably some precious gems were found in the area, hence the name of Idaho, the Gem State.

Now it’s time for the things in Idaho that I’d never be miss, better known as the “most hated” list, and nope, potatoes didn’t make the list.

1. Flies - Flies are the summertime nemesis here, particularly in late summer/early fall. They are EVERYWHERE and are nearly impossible to get rid of or deal with. The pests breed profusely due to a combination of the heat, rotting vegetation from the crops, and the summer fires near Boise, I assume, but it doesn’t matter. I just want them gone. I will say one thing about the flies here, however.....they are dumb. Flies in Florida are escape artists and it is very, very hard to kill them, but in Idaho, with a little bit of patience, you can kill the little buggers. Not that it matters, however, with many, many flies willing to replace the dead one. Sigh....

2. Clay - The dirt in Idaho is largely clay, and I have yet to figure out how to plant in it or to deal with it. You can water your lawn just to see the clay cracking with thirst a few hours later, and when it is wet, it makes a sticky, yucky mess. Sand can be nasty, but at least it’s lightweight and often camouflages itself. Clay is a whole different matter.  There’s nothing quite like trying to get it off of dogs’ paws or the coat of a cat to decided to slip under a gate right after a rain storm.

3.  Inversions - Unless you live in a valley, you’ve probably never experienced one. Consider yourself lucky. An inversion is caused when a high pressure system passes over the valley and traps the air within the valley. Needless to say, it causes bad air pollution because all of the air is trapped, but the winters are the worst. The results in wintertime is a winter wonderland that you just want to kick to the street after a few days. There’s no wind and there’s an eternal freezing fog that cloaks everything: plants, mailboxes, cars - you name it. What’s more, it’s colder in the valley than it is in the mountains. The cloaking effect is pretty....for about two days. After that, you’re ready for the winter wonderland to just go away, but it can last for weeks or even a month or so if you’re really unlucky.

4. Pay - I’m not a proponent for a $15/hr minimum wage, but Idaho is one of the only states that does not supplement the minimum wage at all, and right now it’s stuck at $7.25/hr. What this has done, in terms of me, is it has made it impossible for me, a skilled writer and former 20+ year English teacher, to make more than $15/hr. Most places won’t pay me more than $10/hr. Also due to this is that many people are not willing to pay what some services are worth because it is simply too much coming out of their paychecks.

5. The sun....or lack of. Now, this one will depend on the individual and some will like it, but in the middle of the summertime, the sun will still be out until 10:00 in the evening. I seriously dislike this. My body is geared to go to sleep an hour or two after the sun goes down, so that would mean a midnight bedtime here, and there’s been many, many nights when we’d be out working in the yard and when I come in and it’s that late, it’s a bit ridiculous. It puts a severe whack on the internal clock. The winter can be bad too with a sunset at around 4:30 and a sunrise after 8:00a.m. Many people don’t get home before dark and it can be depressing, but for me, the sunshine is much, much worse.

Now it’s time to hit places I’d miss in Idaho should I suddenly get transported to another country. Once again, as I did with Florida, I’ll hit five.

***Mountains. No matter where you go in Idaho or in the Boise area, you can’t help but see mountains. I live in Treasure Valley, and yep, as the name implies, I’m surrounded by mountains, and these aren’t the “pothole in the ground” mountains of the East Coast. These are mountains that rise up a good 3,000 feet or better. The entire area I live in: Nampa, Caldwell, Meridian, Boise, Eagle, and even western Oregon are within this valley. When you talk to a lot of the natives in the area, they’ve learned to tell directions from the mountains, and when they travel and they don’t have the mountains to orient themselves, they feel lost and even a bit naked. The majestic mountains cannot be escaped within the valley. They are everywhere.

***The change of seasons. The Boise area has a real change of seasons. It gets over 100 degrees in the summer and down to 0 or colder in the winter, and yes, the area gets snow, but the valley almost never gets more than 6 inches at a time. The freak snowstorm we had this past November broke several records, but it really was the coldest it got all winter, and it wasn’t even winter yet.

***The wide sky. I guess you can’t really have to majestic trees and the wide sky at the same time, but it would be something I’d miss. Seeing the stars from one horizon to the other and the clouds way up there. It also leads to some spectacular cloud formations like the ones you’d see on National Geographic. There’s a number of places you can go around here that are totally dark at night with the sky the only thing in sight, and boy, is it a sight to behold.

*** Bulk foods. There’s a few places in Florida that sell bulk foods, but not the quantity that Winco has. You can buy anything from trail mix to dog bones as well as quite a few spices, and the price is lower than anywhere else I’ve shopped. It’s hard to beat 30 cents a pound for bird seed.

***Wine. Now, you might say, “Really.....really??!” but it’s true. I’ve procured a great fondness for Ste. Chapelle’s Soft Huckleberry and it’s one of the only wines I drink now. In addition, the winery is less than 20 minutes’ drive from my house. The problem is, being strictly local, unless you live in the Pacific Northwest, you’re not likely to see it. Should I move, let’s hope they can ship it to wherever I go.

Back in late April-early May, I had the opportunity to visit Florida for the first time since we moved to Idaho, and it brought to light a number of things I missed about the area and didn’t really remember. I’m writing four blogs about things that I miss about Florida and would miss about Idaho as well as other things that I wouldn’t miss in a thousand years. Let’s start with Florida:

***Salty air and beaches. These two things need to go together since one kinda-sorta follows the other. To be honest, I didn’t visit the beaches very often, but I like the fact that they were close by when I wanted to, and as for the salt air, it has a comforting smell, the smell of home. Albeit, it rusts things out as well, but still....

***Trees. The grand, majestic trees that you can find just about everywhere, often covered with Spanish moss. In Idaho, where I live, most of the trees were planted and aren’t very big and moss is a thing of legend.

***Teaching. With the exception of one year, all of my teaching was in Florida, and I enjoyed it for the most part. Didn’t enjoy the standardized tests, parent conferences or grading umpteen amounts of papers, but I did enjoy the interactions with the kids and the knowledge that I did teach them SOMETHING. Even students in 7th and 8th grade get that look when they finally get something they haven’t before, and it left a good feeling. I haven’t had real, gainful employment since being in Idaho....and it might be about time, after almost three years, of changing that. Besides salary, the biggest reason I haven’t pursued teaching is Florida has a class-size amendment which restricts middle school class size to 21 and I just can’t see teaching 40 at one time again. I guess I’m spoiled.

***Restaurants. All hail to the Sheik, Sweet Tomatoes and Moe’s Southwestern Grill. Thou art missed greatly and there really isn’t anything out here that replaces you.

***The Jacksonville Jaguars. Granted, they don’t win many games, but it was still kinda cool living in a town with a Major League Football team, and even though I didn’t watch many games, I kept up with them to find out if they won or lost. The Broncos are here in Idaho and many people are head over heels in love with them, but I’m just not feeling it yet.

I do not know if this fact still holds water, but it did very much so when I lived in Melbourne some twenty-odd years ago. There was a group regularly hitting the local evening news called the "Disney Police", and they aren't what you're thinking....they weren't the security that keep the theme parks safe or anything of that nature.

The Disney Police would drive around central Florida and look for copyright infringements on their intellectual property, namely the Disney characters displayed on the outsides of day cares, and order the day cares to take them down or face severe penalties in court. It was a regular story on the news at the time and has even been verified by Snopes, http://www.snopes.com/disney/wdco/daycare.asp. The articles also discusses how Disney purposely opened their movie-based theme park, MGM Studios before Universal Studios, which had been on the drawing board for much longer but the construction had been slowed down to financial problem, just so they could steal some of their ideas and claim them as their own.

I thought a unique way to turn this blog around just a tad is to mention one or more bad things about Florida and Idaho that people who don't live there probably wouldn't know about, and I thought a good way to start is by mentioning something that just lifted yesterday in the Gem State: an inversion.

People tend to look at Idaho as a place that has no real winter weather to speak of aside from the cold. No snow and nothing to get upset about. Now, we don't get feet and feet of snow like some areas, but we definitely get enough to qualify for winter, and if you still believe the naysayers, just try going through one of the inversions.

An inversion occurs when a high pressure system settles over the valley and allows nothing to escape, and in the winter, that includes the cold. The valley becomes 10-15 degrees colder than the mountains surrounding it, and it is engulfed in fog which gets worse and worse as the pollution level increases. The air becomes stagnant and many people with sinus issues definitely feel it.

When it first starts, an inversion is pretty. It causes an "ice fog" that forms on the trees and everything else. It looks just like the flocking some people buy or spray on their Christmas trees, except it is 100% real. The problem is the "Winter Wonderland" stuff gets old after a short while. The snow won't melt, the roads are treacherous and everything is all white....for days.

                                                           Everyone has seen the above sign or one very similar.  It is a pedestrian crossing sign, informing drivers that they are in an area where people may cross the street.  The way Florida and Idaho approach pediatrian crossing areas, however, is much different.

In Florida, as a whole, pedestrians cross at intersections, and when possible, at an installed crossing sign that let them know when to walk and when not to.  Very rarely are pedestrians allowed to cross in the middle of a street that is not at an intersection, and in that case, they often build an overpass specifically for them so they can cross safely.

Idaho is different in this regard.  There are many, many pedestrian crossing areas marked by sign and lines on the road only and are not at any intersection, in the middle of the street.  On occasion, they will have an installed light which the pedestrians can turn on with the push of a button that will blink to give motorists warning, or they will have orange flags that the pedestrians can carry while crossing to give the motorists some warning and to make themselves more visable. In one instance at least, they have both the flashing sign and the flags. Problem is, the pedestrians often don't watch to see if cars are stopping for them.  They automatically assume that the cars, sometimes traveling at 40 MPH or more, will see them and stop.

These pedestrian crossing areas were very confusing when I first moved here.  I don't remember ever seeing a pedestrian crossing in the middle a street before.  You can be driving along and out of the blue suddenly come across a pedestrian crossing area and have to stop to allow the walkers to pass. It is something I've had to watch for, having never seen such a thing before. I wouldn't say these types of crossings don't exist in Florida at all, but they are few and very far between.

Firehouse Subs is one of my favorite Florida restaurants and I knew I'd greatly miss them when moving across country, but they'd come as far as Salt Lake City at that point so my hopes were that they'd keep on trekkin' in this direction.

                                          Well, roughly a year ago, Firehouse Subs, which originated in Jacksonville, Florida with over 20 locations in or near the Bold New City of the South and over 770 locations nationwide, opened it's doors in Idaho, in Boise itself on North Milwaukee Street, and by all indications, a second location will be opening soon on Eagle Road in Meridian.

What makes Firehouse Subs my favorite?  Most of their subs are served hot, from steamed meat to freshly toasted bun, and they are just......great.  Firehouse Subs also displays a large variety of hot sauces rated for their "hotness" for their patrons to try, and if one of the sauces tickles your fancy, you can usually purchase it from them.

In addition, each Firehouse Subs gives back to the communities it serves.  As just one example: during Hurricane Katrina, they made food for the emergency workers.  In addition, they highlight stories of bravery and sacrifice of individual firefighters on their soft drink cups.  Firehouse Subs, after all, was founded by two Jacksonville firemen, Chris and Robin Sorensen.