Wednesday, April 12, 2023

Atomic Town

 The van with a name always wants to play music. Every time  as soon as it connects to my phone it starts pulling songs from my phone music library. I don’t always want to listen to music so the struggle with the music is real. Today I let the van have its way, and it played some good tunes off of the thumb drive connected to the infotainment system.

I was having such a good time listening to the vans playlist that I made a navigation error and somehow at Salmon Idaho I got off highway 93 and onto highway 28  By the time I got stopped and looked at the map I was way east of where I wanted to be, and on another mountain, pass surrounded by snow.

No Need For Irrigation Today

 Oh well it’s all just one big scenic adventure. The only problem was that the gas was getting below ½ of a tank, and the towns I was going through were so small they didn’t even have gas stations, nor where they on my map.

I adjusted my course and headed to Arco. I figured that a town named after Atlantic Richfield would have a filling station, and sure enough it did.

Never Trust An Atom...They Make Everything Up

Who knew Arco was the first town powered by Atomic energy way back in 1955. They only ran it for 1 hour. But that explains the signs I saw at several intersections for the Idaho  National Laboratory. Formerly  the National Reactor Testing Station.

Who knew that atomic science exists way out here in {gods} country. Do the state of jefferson people and the john birch society know about this?

An interesting thing I noticed as I wandered around Arco, is the graduating high school  class climbs way up on the hill and spray paints their year.

Senior Year Elective. Mountain Climbing

They went crazy with red in the 70’s and my year is tastefully colorful, and discreetly painted on a corner. Not sure if this was really the graduating class years,  so I asked the clerk at the store if that was what it is. And she said yes. She didn’t know if anyone had ever fallen off the mountain, or which country Mount Rushmore is in. I told her I had never seen the numbers done before,  only the first letter of the towns name painted on the mountain, like in Battle Mountain Nevada with the giant BM painted on the mountain.

Battle Mountain Nevada?

She liked that one, but I’m not sure she knew what country Battle Mountain Nevada is in.

Another good thing about Arco is it is close to the Craters of the Moon National Monument. I have wanted to stop there when I had rode past before. Today I thought National Monument camping is ½ off, and admission is free. I’m in.

This would have been a great idea except once you leave the relatively snow-free metropolis of Arco the highway climbs up and up until at the entrance to the park you can’t even tell if there is a road there.

There was and I pulled down it and saw a large group of people snowshoeing into the depths of the park. I checked out the visitor center and  then got back on the highway.

I loved The Interesting Rock Formations

Someone needs to tell Buzz Aldrin that the Craters are buried in snow.

Buzz On The Real Craters Of The Moon Almost 54 Years Ago

I ended up motoring all the way to Mountain Home as most of the world I was in was buried in snow. I was beginning to wonder if MH would be snowed in, but as I descended the mountain the snow disappeared, and a super strong gusty wind came up from the west, giving me a few exciting moments.

Mountain home will be a good stop as I need to get the van serviced and talk to someone about my cabinet slide that came unattached from the van the other day.

I found a full hookup RV park that was reasonably priced. $40.00 I settled in and got connected and drained my tanks. That was a good $20.00 worth of waste.

I was curious about Wi-Fi so I texted the fellow that texted me the check in information. He said there was no Wi-Fi because of the trees in the park. I  thought that was odd as there were 4 Century Link networks that were somehow getting around the trees, and text messages were not bothered.  I thought about texting him back and mentioning that, but I'm pretty sure asking to many questions around here will get you marked as a witch. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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