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Showing posts from March 6, 2011

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...
From my long time friend in Japan, Hey Chuck, We're OK. Stuck at home, but we have power, heat, food and some water so we're fine for a day or two. Had to walk about 25 miles until I could find a taxi - my legs and feet are on fire. Other than that, and the memory of wondering if our office building and others would still be standing at the end of teh day (they are, the quality of construction is fucking remarkable), we're FINE. Just resting for now, though we live basically right next to the ocean so we're watching the tsunami updates incase we have to get out of here. NOST
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The weather was too bad to get in the air in the Atlanta area for VFR. I am going up Wednesday evening. I am not doing much traveling this month. It is a bit weird. Saturday I had breakfast with a Flight Instructor for Delta, saw a presentation from an expert Cave Diver, then an Aviation safety seminar and then to look at the "Liberty Belle B-17". These war birds are impressive thinking that there were half a dozen kids crammed into these things trying to kill the enemy. A lot of bravery was needed that's for sure. I have a hard enough time without someone shooting at me. I will be going for a ride in the yellow open-cockpit plane in a couple of weeks.