A Day Off...

Wednesday (January 23rd) was a rare day. Valerie didn't have to work on her day off, as she so often does. I didn't have anything going on as I thought I would -- I had our local union newsletter to print and mail, but had only received the final submission the evening before. The real kicker was that, while cold, the day was BEAUTIFUL. Not a cloud to be seen, sunlight so blinding that sunglasses weren't just an accessory. We were heading to McCall.

McCall, Idaho, is a town nestled on the south shore of Payette Lake, perhaps 110 miles or so north of Boise. Every winter they host the McCall Winter Carnival, and the main attraction for the people who drive up are the ice sculptures. Here are two links that might provide pictures of some of these sculptures.

http://mccallwintercarnival.com/

http://www.idahostatesman.com/397/gallery/271050.html

As of this writing, there aren't many pictures uploaded to the Idaho Statesman site, and the McCall Winter Carnival site only has photos from 2007. (This will no doubt change once the carnival is over.)

One of the biggest butt-kicking moments I had on our trip to McCall was that as we were leaving town to come home, we saw someone working on a sculpture that looked like it was going to be a few running horses. I was too absent-of-mind to stop and get a picture or two of this work-in-progress... this was no small work, and would have been interesting to have captured the moment.

The photo posted for this entry was taken about halfway between where we live and McCall; I love when the trees are heavy with snow and as you can see in the distance the sky was clear! The road shown is State Highway 55, and is the main link between Boise and McCall. Today's weather calls for a 90% chance of snow, and that's enough to keep us from even THINKING about going up for a look at the completed sculptures. Why? The road is narrow, and every time it snows when there is a lot of traffic there are always people either sliding off the road or else into the lane of oncoming traffic. There are a few folks that think that because they have four wheel or all wheel drive they can zip through icy corners just as fast as if the pavement was dry. You can spot these people easily because of the banged up vehicles they're driving!