Boise News

Convention Coverage: Reporter's Notebook

The Road to Denver is Paved With Thai Restaurants

By Jill Kuraitis, 8-24-08

In the cowboy country of southern Idaho and Wyoming, signs for local diners have become scarce. But billboards and signs pointing the way to Thai restaurants seemed to be everywhere.  One stood incongruously in the otherwise all-brown landscape along the interstate, a bright red billboard with an image of a Thai dancer with the pointy-toed elf shoes, which cracked me up. Shouldn’t there have been a sign with a cowboy and a lariat, rounding up cattle for Bud’s Steakhouse? 

I miss the diners. But if ever you are driving from Boise across Wyoming on your way to Colorado, experience, if you please, Rose’s Lariat, a family-run, tiny little gem of a Mexican restaurant in the small scrabbly town of Rawlins.

After what seemed like 17 hours in a car with three compatriots on our way to the Democratic National Convention, I had lost sight of my mission and could think of little else than just getting there.  But over green chili rellenos and chicken tacos so flavorsome they redefined the entire concept of tacos, a Mexican-American family to my left reminded me why I was going to Denver.

For them, meeting four writers who will cover the convention was the jump-start for THEIR convention, which will be experienced through television and the internet. But the encounter with us lit them up, and the dad politely asked questions. What did we think of Joe Biden?  (He likes the choice.) Did I think the party platform would get any real attention? (He hopes so.) Did I think energy or the economy would be the top issue? (He thinks they go hand-in-hand.) What would it be like for me – would I be on the convention floor, or in some lofty media perch?  (I told him it would likely be a folding table and chair with about 24 square inches of space, and he laughed.)

Both Dad and Mom quoted to me from internet news and commentary they had read that morning and Dad told me what he thought was nonsense and what he thought was right.  One of their teenagers agreed with Dad; the other rolled his eyes. Both were listening.  You could tell they were a family who talked about these things over dinner.

They had lived in Oregon, Idaho and Wyoming, and missed Boise.  Dad had worked for the Department of the Interior in eastern Oregon and had energy and the environment on his mind.  He urged me to write about both. Mom wanted me to write about immigration and education.

This convention has real meaning for them.  They have high expectations and a keen interest in substantive matters. I didn’t want to tell them that most of it will be show business, as conventions from both parties always are, or that it will be tough to get around the hype and find the real stories, because this charming and earnest little family wound me up again for the serious encounter with politics which lies ahead. Meaningful stories intrigue me everywhere I look; deciding what to cover and how to write it can be overwhelming - ask any journalist. But if I write for the Morales clan, remembering what they think is important; remembering their expectations and dreams, I think it’ll be okay. 

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