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Showing posts from February 10, 2013

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...
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I visited a large yellow equipment manufacturer in Illinois last week. Big tires, big iron. My weekend was great. After getting back to base in ATL I went to Missouri. The trip felt like a trip to Brazil. The opportunity to spend a bit of time touring and feeling calm was better than good. It was my first visit to the Gateway Arch in St Louis. I was pleasantly surprised. The architectural aspect was better than I expected. The ride to the top is done in these very small tram cars shaped like cans, perhaps only 4 feet in height. You can feel the arch sway in the wind when you are at the top. The architect was Finnish. Just like Angry Birds. The diner in the picture was very American indeed. It was featured in the film White Palace http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Palace_%28film%29