It's really a spectacular state, stretching from Wood River and   Sun Valley in the south to vast mountain lakes like Coeur d'Alene to the north.  

You wonder why the spillover from teeming California cities isn't directed toward this wonderland.  

Quite possibly it's because residency in Idaho requires you to display a license plate reading, "Famous Potatoes."  

And Californians who might otherwise be inclined to embrace this rural retreat decide they would rather drive an Iranian turnip truck around Times Square.

This handicap might be considered a bonus to some of my relatives who live a few miles from the Idaho border.  

Fly fishermen in the Montana family lobbied silently for a license plate reading, "Gut Shoot 'Em At the Border."

They have a bias against outsiders who seem intent upon claiming the native trout as their own.  

This fishing pressure has resulted in "catch and release" fishing laws.  My father fished the Sheep Creek near White Sulphur Springs for about 40 years and would no more release a pan-sized rainbow than he would tickle a rattlesnake with a duck feather.

The state motto in North Dakota is "Liberty and Union Now and Forever.  One and Inseparable."

 Obviously, that would not fit on a license plate.  A more relevent motto might be, "Meet you at Stove Five."

We arrived in the Seattle area indirectly from Bismarck, N.D. , and we soon discovered that one of the most enthusiastic gatherings in the area was the North Dakota picnic advertised in local newspapers for "Stove Five, Woodland Park."  

Before long the picnic had spread to stoves six, seven and eight. There were more North Dakota natives in Woodland Park than you would find in Minot, Bottineau and New Leipzig combined.

I may be wrong but it seems that North Dakota refugees in Edmonds are outnumbered by their counterparts from Montana.  

At a recent birthday dinner for 20 at La Galleria, half the people in attendance had Montana roots including owner Josh Colberg.

Wouldn't it be a good idea to promote a Montana picnic this and every summer around some unoccupied stove in our City Park?  
I can suggest an honorary chairman for the affair.  Bobbie Roumonada was one of the "Four Bs" from the restaurant chain of the same name.

At one time there was a Four Bs restaurant in every major Montana community from Missoula to Miles City.  In my college days I ate at the Four Bs   every Saturday night, which was cook's night off in the Phi Delt kitchen.

Bobbi and husband Jim are members of Holy Rosary as is another prominent Montana native.  Delores Murphy has Irish relatives spread across Montana and obviously must have a great family recipe for potato salad.

There!  I have laid groundwork for a terrific annual Edmonds event, without any effort or commitment on my part.  

We might even get the city to provide off-site parking for any visiting vehicles with license plates advertising "Famous Potatoes."