July 12 and 13 2007

Thursday July 12 and 13 We are in Nampa, Idaho (20 miles west of Boise) for 4 days. Kent is really excited as they have his two favorite stores here, Costco and Walmart!!!! Someone told us that Nampa has the worlds largest Walmart, it is a test store to see how good it does. They said it was 3 blocks long and it carried all kinds of fancy stuff. We didn't notice it any different than what we usually see, so I think he must have gotten hit on the head with a large hail stone. Friday night we ate great pizza there at "The Chicago Connection".
Saturday July 14 Today we went to an old prison built built in 1870 as a territorial prison. It was added on to over the years to become a very large prison which was used until about 1956. Most of the prison is now just a shell due to fires that burned a lot of the main buildings. It was a very hot day and the guide did as much of his story in the shade of the buildings as he could. They sold frozen bottles of water when you bought your ticket and that was a life saver. The solitary confinement cells were still in tact, and felt so cool from the blazing sun. The women's prison was eventually built outside the main prison. It was quite different from the men's, as it housed only 14 woman. It had 7 double cells and a small kitchen where they cooked their own meals. Between the two rows of cells and kitchen was a larger room where the woman knitted or sewed on sewing machines. They sewed their own clothes and also made some money selling their work. They were sent there for prostitution, child neglect, or alcohol problems. Times have sure changed for the severity of these same crimes, hasn't it???