How Lucky Are We?

When you think of the West, what comes to mind?

Sometimes I wonder if we know just how fortunate we are to live here.

We climbed Table Rock in Boise recently, and once at the top, found five teenagers. One of them was a foreigner; the accent gave him away. He told us he was from Korea. When we asked him what he loved about Idaho, he said, looking around, "This!"

He gestured upward at the sky, not downward at the incredible view below. We must have appeared confused.

"This!" he said again, waving his hand in an expansive motion, "We don't have this there."

We were all sort of quiet.

"The...sky?" someone asked.

"Exactly," he told us, "It's not wide open like this where I come from. There are tall buildings. You hardly see the sky or the sunshine at all."

We were quiet again as we were taking that in, trying to imagine a life without the huge blue Idaho sky above us. I personally couldn't do it. I'd been under the Idaho sky for almost as long as I could remember. How claustrophobic would I feel without it?

The teenage boy told us that it was going to be an adjustment when he got home, living once again without the sky.


I can't tell you how many times I've taken drives out into the country past pristine farms and ranches, with their interior lights glowing at dusk, and the scene of families gathering around the kitchen table, with multiple cars and pickup trucks parked in the driveway. Each time I've thought, "Do they know how lucky they are?"

--Do we?

We can drive thirty minutes and arrive at the lake or the stream of our choice. A ski resort is within two hours traveling time. We have Idaho City, Silver City, Banks, McCall, Garden Valley, Crouch, Cascade and places like New Meadows for our playgrounds.

I clearly understand what would have been my fate, had my parents not taken the pioneer-like risk of leaving the eastern state we came from, where most of our extended family lived. Having moved to Idaho so many years ago, living a life without wide-open spaces might have been my lot in life, too. I frankly can't imagine living that way. I'm so glad that I don't.

Our rugged mountains, unique features (like the freakish Craters of the Moon, various natural hot springs, random waterfalls, or the unexpected Bruno or St. Anthony Sand dunes)make this state like no other.

We've got something else that sets us apart. We've got a 96-year-old rodeo that's still alive and boy, is it kicking.

Celebrate the West. Celebrate Idaho.

The Snake River Stampede is on its way, July 19-23. Be a part of the West.
Know how lucky we are.

Looks like it's your year to go to the rodeo.

http://www.snakeriverstampede.com/