{"id":7429,"date":"2018-08-22T07:11:35","date_gmt":"2018-08-22T11:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7429"},"modified":"2018-09-11T08:21:59","modified_gmt":"2018-09-11T12:21:59","slug":"all-50","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=7429","title":{"rendered":"All 50!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Welcome

photo: pixabay, creative commons license<\/p><\/div>\n

A highlight of our recent Yellowstone trip was the detour we took into eastern Idaho. I was excited because Idaho was my 50th state! Given the number of stickers plastered on the welcome sign, Idaho must be a notable destination for people from a lot of places!<\/p>\n

When we stopped the rental van near \u201cWelcome to Idaho,\u201d I hopped right out to stroll back to the sign. That gave my six family members time to prepare a surprise. They slipped off their overshirts to reveal Idaho-themed T-shirts underneath. As we gathered for pictures, they gave me the ball cap below, a saucer-sized \u201cAll 50!\u201d refrigerator magnet, and membership in the All Fifty States Club<\/a>, signed by President Alicia C. Rovey. It\u2019s hard to say which of us was most excited! Me, the family, or my new friend Alicia!<\/p>\n

\"all

photo: Vicki Weisfeld<\/p><\/div>\n

I mentioned this forthcoming accomplishment to the watercolor instructor at the Old Faithful Inn. Turned out she\u2019s been to all 50 states too. Her 50th was North Dakota. Apparently North Dakota is the last state for a lot of people (we can guess why), and the locals make a big deal of it\u2014pictures, T-shirts, the whole deal. I suggested I get my cup of coffee free at the caf\u00e9 in Driggs, Idaho, but no. Besides full-price coffee, the town also is home to the Teton Valley Historical Museum, a great lunch spot, and a lovely shop selling local artists\u2019 work.<\/p>\n

Michael Pollan\u2019s fascinating book, The Botany of Desire, <\/em>describes how the obsession with certain crops\u2014apples, tulips, marijuana, and potatoes (to which list I would add tomatoes<\/a>)\u2014has from time to time created agricultural craziness. Pollan had convinced me that Americans\u2019 love affair with the french fry had turned much of Idaho into an over-farmed, over-fertilized, and over-pesticided moonscape. Around Driggs, however, the farm fields, rolling terrain, and distant mountains were beautiful. Still, for lunch, I ordered a salad. Just another beautiful spot in the fifty!
\n<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A highlight of our recent Yellowstone trip was the detour we took into eastern Idaho. I was excited because Idaho was my 50th state! Given the number of stickers plastered on the welcome sign, Idaho must be a notable destination … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"All 50! - last month I was 49 states and counting. Have you been to all 50 states? Which was your last one?","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[35,104,78],"tags":[1392],"class_list":["post-7429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-real-life","category-the-morgue","category-travel","tag-idaho"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2NkiT-1VP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7429"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7432,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7429\/revisions\/7432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}