Wyoming and Idaho

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We are back from a quick vacation. I managed to score three (actually several more) bucket list items in 4 days. 1.) Long Snowmobile Trip. 2.) Yellowstone Park and 3.) Wyoming. I reached my 50th State --Wyoming! And we took a 90 mile snowmobile trip in Yellowstone National Park. We went to the "Craters of the Moon--National Monument and Preserve" in Idaho and also stopped at Idaho National Laboratory (INL) where I got to see (with my own eyes) the very cool nuclear powered twin turbojet engine. It was a successful experiment in the 1950s and 1960s. https://whatisnuclear.com/safety-minutes/htre-3-meltdown.html Of course, I had my Radiacode scintillation detector with me and yes, the apparatus is "Hot". The screenshot of the readings from my three walk-arounds the artifact. I swear you could smell the radiation. There was a very un-natural burnt smell something reminiscent of burned bakelite. Although, I am quite certain the emitted radition was not the source...

The PBS NOVA program tonight was about Antarctica. It was strange watching it. All the shots brought back feelings, everything from the thin blue glove liners and "Big Red" (the parkas). The very familiar helicopters 08H and 36J were stories in themselves to me. I saw several of my friends and it seems like I had met just about everyone who was interviewed. A fair amount of the shooting was done when I was there it appeared. It was interesting to get whisked about by camera edits rather than geography, a shot of Mt Erebus and then in the same sequence you are at WAIS Divide or some place out in the Taylor Valley. For the viewer it was all one place, Antarctica.

It was nice and made me homesick in a way.

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