HIGHLIGHT: IDAHO
Boise: After crisscrossing America to promote the virtues of the state’s most revered crop, a huge steel-and-plaster spud is being converted into an Airbnb rental. The Big Idaho Potato will soon become the Big Idaho Potato Hotel. The Idaho Potato Commission, the group that created it, started building a Big Idaho Potato 2.0 last year to take on a new national tour and retired version 1.0. The group considered giving it to the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, but Kristie Wolfe, who had been a part of the tour team and also builds tiny houses, offered to transform it. It’s set to open in late May, renting for $200 a night.