We had to pinch ourselves as we pulled up to Sam’s parents’ house in Eagle, Idaho – a suburb of Boise. In less than a month, we had traveled over 800 miles and stayed in eight different campsites, but it was finally time to kick back and relax for a while.
Long before we decided to hit the road, we had committed to this mini family/friend reunion in Idaho at Brian and Char’s home. In addition to Sam’s sisters, Jess and Miranda (plus her boyfriend, Eric), we were also meeting up with Sam’s long-time friend Samme along with her boyfriend, Jeff.
Fortunately, Brian and Char were generous enough to let us park the rig in front of their house (known as “moochdocking” in RVer parlance), allowing us to save a few hundred dollars that would normally be spent on RV park fees. In fact, Brian even went so far as to install a new 30-amp hookup outside his garage so we could run our AC in the trailer. We originally tried to get by with the normal 20-amp household outlets but kept tripping the breaker each time the AC kicked on.
We spent the first few days in Eagle getting settled in and just catching up. Most of our time early on was spent hanging around the neighborhood – fishing, swimming, golfing, cruising around in the golf cart, or just lounging with a drink in the backyard/garage. After frantically moving every few days trying to make it to Eagle, slowing things down for a bit was a nice change of pace.
Time was flying by. Next thing we knew, four days had passed, and it was time for Samme and Jeff to head back to Michigan. However, we had one last activity planned for their last evening in town – a private concert! Every year, Brian and Char’s neighbors, John and Lauri, hire out a band and throw a big party in their backyard and we were fortunate enough to be in town for the 2020 iteration of this fun little tradition. This year’s band was Tylor and the Train Robbers, a local country/folk group with a great catalog of original tunes. If you’re remotely into this type of music, check out their webpage and show them some support!
Just because Samme and Jeff left, don’t think the fun dried up – it was just getting started. In fact, we had not one, but two river floats in store for us over the next few days!
We eased into the aquatic activities with a casual float down the Boise River which runs right through the heart of the city. Although we froze our butts off sitting in the tubes for multiple hours, we still had a wonderful time bumping down the river and seeing the sights.
The Boise River was a mosey through the park (literally) compared to the next activity Brian had planned for us – white water rafting down the Salmon River outside Riggins, Idaho! That next morning, we loaded up the vehicles and made our way northward out of the high plains and into Idaho’s wooded, mountainous panhandle.
We arrived in Riggins after enjoying a scenic drive up highway 55 and met up with our float guides for the day. Following the normal safety spiel and a quick distribution of life jackets, we were officially ready to roll!
This turned out to be one of our favorite memories from this trip. Our guides were fantastic, plus the rapids managed to be fun and exciting without ever getting too intense. On top of all that, the guide service Brian picked out had a camerawoman as part of the crew who followed us along the bank. As you can see, she managed to get some great action shots!
Thoroughly soaked, we thanked our guides for the fun and lit off back towards Eagle. But before we could make it back, we stopped to grab a late lunch and explore downtown McCall, a cool little town located on the southern banks of Payette Lake. Home to boaters in the summer and skiers in the winter, this area is an outdoorsman’s paradise. We definitely want to visit McCall again and would love to see more of this area next time we find ourselves in Idaho.
Our time in Eagle was coming to an end, but we still had one more activity before making our way out of town. That last full day, we loaded up Brian’s truck with all the bikes we could find (plus a few more we had to rent) and took them into Boise for a little sightseeing/brewery tour.
Our bike excursion was the perfect way to end this leg of the journey, but it was time for us to get back out onto the open road. After lots of hugs and last-minute gifts from Char, we said our goodbyes, grabbed Charlotte and continued our trek northward – this time towards Coeur d’Alene, a picturesque small city way up in the Idaho panhandle.