Famous Idaho Potato Tour rolls into town

All eyes were on a big potato that pulled into the Lighthouse Plaza parking lot off Coastal Highway April 17.

The Famous Idaho Potato Tour stopped in Rehoboth Beach on the way from Atlanta to Connecticut. 

The three-person Tater Team was not here on an official visit, just a few days of R&R. The Giant supermarket was kind enough to let them park in their lot.

Jena Garofalo, nicknamed Spudshine, is one of the potato people taking the super-sized spud on a seven-month, 35-state tour.

“We represent over 700 family-owned farms in Idaho. We give to local charities along the way. We do parades, podcasts, elementary schools and grocery stores,” Garofalo said.

The potato is 13 feet tall, 10 feet wide and weighs 4 tons. The red truck, named Spuddy Buddy, is 72 feet long.

Garofalo compared their truck to another famous vehicle that also recently came to Rehoboth Beach.

“We’re one-of-one. There are six Wienermobiles, so we like to think we’re cooler,” she said.

The sign on the truck asks, “Is it real?” The big potato website says, if it were, it would take 7,000 years to grow, two years to bake and would make 1 million French fries.

Garofalo said the famous potato tour has been around for 14 years.

“It started as a celebration for the 75th anniversary of the Idaho Potato Commission. The first one was made of concrete because it was only projected it was going to last a year. Now, that potato is an AirBnb 30 minutes outside Boise,” Garofalo said. “This one is fiberglass and hollow inside.”

The potato’s next stop will be Saturday, April 25, in Groton, Conn., for the commissioning of the U.S. Navy submarine USS Idaho. It will also be at the Dogwood Festival in Galena, Md., Saturday, May 9.

The team will be making a stop in Philadelphia and participate in the Washington, D.C. Memorial Day parade.

Anyone can follow the trip on potatotracker.com.

Garofalo said they will not return to Idaho until the end of September. By that point, they’ll be fried.