A 5,500-mile, one-way motorcycle trip to Nicaragua from Idaho

Story by Tim Woodward - twoodward@idahostatesman.com

Every so often, you meet someone whose idea of helping others makes you feel like you've spent your whole life thinking only about yourself.

Sure, most of us give money to charities. We might sort food at the food bank, rake leaves for the elderly or do other random acts of goodness. There's nothing random, however, about what's happening at Happy Trails Products in Garden City.

Happy Trails is a company that makes motorcycle accessories. It is a magnet for bikers, but forget the stereotypes. When it comes to helping the needy, these guys put most of us to shame.

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"They're Kawasaki KLR650s," Bernard said. "They're the Swiss Army Knife of motorcycles - dependable, economical and ideal for the roads down there. Some of the missionaries are in pretty remote places, and these bikes are good on both pavement and dirt."

Ken Hunter went on the first trip from Boise to Nicaragua a year ago. It took 19 days to make the 5,500-mile ride.

"The roads are narrow and there's no shoulders, but it wasn't bad," he said. "I've ridden 120,000 miles in five years, so 5,000 wasn't a big deal for me."

The ride, he said, is just the beginning.

Read the entire, inspiring story in the Idaho Statesman.

Wonderful Wallace, Idaho: Quaint and gritty, town’s charms still glitter

This is from a September 2003 article in the Idaho Statesman newspaper.

Susan Whaley
The Idaho Statesman

It´s easy to see why the town of Wallace, which sits in a narrow forested valley in North Idaho, served as a setting for two films, “Heaven´s Gate” and “Dante´s Peak.”

Don´t blame Wallace for the movies´ poor showing at the box office. A set designer couldn´t create a more quaint streetscape than the brick Victorian-era buildings along Bank Street downtown. Throw in a photogenic railroad depot, historic neighborhoods and a deep green backdrop of trees on steep hillsides and you´re in business, baby.

But Wallace is more than a pretty face.
Visitors quickly learn that what lies beneath the surface is what truly has shaped the town since gold was discovered nearby in 1882. Eventually the mining camps became Wallace and other towns in the world-famous Silver Valley, home to some of the world´s richest mines.
Today, many of the mines have closed, the railroads are gone, the environment is cleaner, and Wallace´s wild and woolly past is past — but not forgotten.

Wallace highlights include:

• The Oasis Bordello Museum is a reminder that Wallace once was known far and wide for its red light district. The Oasis is just exactly as it was when the “girls” left the building in 1988. The tacky furniture and 1960s-era decor is intact, along with clothes in the closets, butts in the ashtrays and boxes of food on kitchen shelves.
• While strolling on Bank Street downtown, note the blinking traffic light. Before traffic was rerouted from the middle of town to the interstate, this intersection was the only one that stopped traffic on I-90 between Seattle and Boston.
• Well-preserved homes dating to 1890 dot the residential neighborhoods. Look for houses that are narrow and long, typical of a town where land is scarce. Also of interest are long sets of steps that take pedestrians to neighborhoods on one-lane streets carved into the hillsides. Ask locals to point out the house where actress Lana Turner was born.
• Many downtown buildings still retain the architectural details that give Wallace its quaint and gritty charm.