A Guy’s Blog.

Frank:  Today this is going to be a “Guy’s Blog”, a manly blog.  There will be no girly prose here today for we are going to speak of big, nasty, manly machines and rough killer terrain. Ugh! Ugh! Ugh!

My buddy Richard up in Ennis told me about both the EBR1 and the “Craters of the Moon” in Arco, Idaho.  Now Arco is about as small a town as it is possible to get.  One Main Street with one traffic light flashing Red/Yellow, and about the most pleasant RV Park (Mountain View RV Park) we’ve been in a lot of years.  How Arco managed to situate itself between the EBR1 and the “COTM” Monument is beyond me.  Not to mention that all three of them are about 50 miles away from the nearest anything in any direction.  There’s a whole lot of nuthin’ in that part of Idaho!

The EBR1 is the “Experimental Breeder Reactor #1”, the world’s first nuclear reactor.  It was built in 1951 and decommissioned in 1964 and is now open to the public.  Tours are free and I happened to walk in during a slow moment and got a personal tour.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experimental_Breeder_Reactor_I

http://www.nps.gov/crmo/index.htm

By the way, a “Breeder Reactor” is one that produces more nuclear fuel than it consumes.  Now that’s a neat trick!  I’ll ‘splain how it works.  You put U235 (which is scarce), next to U238 (which is plentiful) and the U238 becomes U239, which can be used like U235!  Cool huh!

Besides the tour I spent a lot of time in the parking lot looking at what appear to be huge heating systems or furnaces for large office buildings.  What they really are, are two prototype nuclear powered aircraft engines for a proposed Air Force Bomber.  The plane never happened.  The project was scrapped before it got off the drawing board, but the engines actually ran!  They each have almost 200 hours of real operating time.  This wasn’t theoretical, them suckers ran!  They also built the (then) largest domed hanger in the world about 40 miles out in the desert for the plane, and a lead encased tractor-locomotive to move the monster around.  They had big plans!  (I wonder what that hanger is being used for now.)

EBR1 is about 18 miles east of Arco.  Eighteen miles the other way is Craters of the Moon National Monument with its vast fields of (formerly) molten lava, and impressive tubes from which the lava flowed.

Vignette 1:  We were looking for EBR1 as we approached Arco but didn’t have a street address for the GPS.  We did have the “Coordinates” so we entered those and the GPS promptly took us hither and yon and eventually down a small road that petered out to a dirt track heading out into the desert with a sign next to it that said: “End of county maintenance.  Next gas 110 miles.”  We decided that 1) it didn’t really look like the type of road we wanted to drag the rig down, and 2) since there was a big equipment yard available for a u-turn that we should take it as a sign to turn back.  So we did.

Later at the RV Park I asked for directions and she said, “Go to the traffic light, turn right and go eighteen miles.”  So I did and there it was, right on the side of the highway.  We had actually driven past it on our way into town.  I have no idea where the GPS was trying to take us.  Sometimes I think that thing hates me.

Vignette 2:  We ate free today.  Breakfast was a free serving of pancakes, eggs, and coffee at the RV Park in Arco.  Can you believe that!  I love Good Sam RV Parks!  Lunch was leftover chicken from our dinner last night at the same RV Park café.  Tonight’s dinner was a mess of free vegetables from the garden of the RV Park, here in Caldwell, Idaho.  After he checked us in the owner led us to our spot and then pointed out his “garden” (It runs the full length of the side of the RV Park) and said there’s corn, squash, onions, carrots, melons, (and a bunch of other stuff I don’t remember).  Help yourself!  So Cheryl went “shopping” and then sautéed a huge pan of fresh vegetables.  I ate two full ears of corn plus the big plate of veggies she put in front of me.  I feel soooooo healthy!  Once again, I gotta say, I love Good Sam RV Parks!

Ride on!  Ride safe!

Frankie

(Cheryl will do some girly prose tomorrow.)

Ennis, Montana: Sunday Evening, July 28, 2013

Cheryl: By 7:40 a.m. we were on the road out of Cody, Wyoming heading for Yellowstone and the wide-open-no-speed-limit roads of Montana. Yellowstone proved to be an easier pass through than we anticipated, so we arrived in Ennis  at 1:30 p.m. Now, we’re all set in a familiar RV Park where we’ve stayed a couple of times previously.

Next morning: Monday, July 29, 2013

This morning dawned bright, clear and COLD! I woke up around 5:00 a.m., jumped out of bed, turned on our trusty little heater, and jumped back in bed! It’s 7:40 a.m. now, and warming up both outside and in the trailer. I’m moving kind of slow this morning with pajamas still on and the dogs under the covers with me as I write this. I've got to throw on some clothes pretty quick and take them outside for their morning stroll!

Yesterday, Yellowstone gave up some of its riches to us as we, along with many other vacationing, Sunday drivers, inched our way through its amazing terrain. Bison were on the roads causing cars to stop and grown men to jump our wielding cameras dangerously close to them. We drove past several stretches of open meadows dotted with large herds of Buffalo. It’s heartening to see them coming back in such numbers after being so devastated. 

We also watched deer and antelope play . . . wait, isn't there a song about that? At any rate, we also enjoyed seeing streaming puffs from thermal pools along the way.

Last evening Frank went in search of a penny machine in Nevada City to get “squashed” pennies for his grand-kids’ penny books. After struggling with the world’s oldest and in-much-need-of-maintenance penny machine, we finally got two semi-acceptable pennies. Today we visit with Pam and Rick and tomorrow strike out for Seattle to see kids and grand-kids.

Frank says, “What SHE said.”

 

Cody, Wyoming and the BBM and the DUGM.

Cody, Wyoming.

We got to the "Buffalo Bill Museum" at about 9AM and dragged ourselves out of there, shell shocked, saturated, satiated, sedated, worn out, and in total sensory overload at about 1 PM.

First of all, that which I have been calling the BBM is actually called "The Buffalo Bill Center of The West" and rightly so as it actually consists of five separate museums clustered around a central hub.  It is ginormous!

The museums are:

The plains Indian Museum.                 (We didn't go in there.)

The Buffalo Bill Museum.                    (Fantastic)

The Photography Gallery.                   (Beautiful)

The Whitney Western Art Museum.   (Didn't see it.)

The Cody Firearms Museum.            (The largest gun collection in the world. I spent two hours there until my eyes glazed over. )

We pooped out after only 4 hours. We can go back as the admittance fee is good for two days but I really think those two days need to be separated by a year or so.

You'd think that after the BBM I'd be museum'd out.  But nooooooo. 

I drove into old town Cody to press a couple of pennies for my grand kids and stumbled 

onto “The Dug Up Guns Museum.”   As the sign says it has over 900 guns on display, all 

dug up from all over the world.  Most are from the US and from the frontier days, the civil 

war, and up to WWII. It was fascinating!  I enjoyed the heck out of it! 

The guns are displayed just as they were found, all rusty and deteriorated, but with cards 

telling where they were found and the make and model of each. Some had probable 

histories described based on the year of the gun and the location found.  The histories 

were well worth reading.  All in all I'd put the DUGs museum on your must see list if you 

ever head this way. 

Odd Thought:  When Cheryl and I used to tour the country on our Harley we would invariably be approached in a parking lot or campground by an “old guy” who would tell us that, “he used to have a bike just like ours and he used to ride all over the place just like we were doing”, and I would smile and listen to him blather on until I could politely extract ourselves from him and be on our way.  Well yesterday a two-up Harley parked in front of the camping cabin next to our RV spot and I was halfway out the door on my way to tell him “I used to have a bike just like that …” when I caught myself and forced me to go back into the camper  and sit quietly and leave them alone.

My, my, I’ve crossed over another milestone on the way to old fartdom.

Getting old sucks and is only offset by getting old.

Frank

PS:  I do not know why this posting is formatted weird. (If it is.)

July 26, 2013.  Cody Wyoming.

Frank:  Odd thought 1:  If you ever decide to have a water pump failure while on vacation, try to schedule it in a small to mid-sized town (Sheridan, Wyoming is good) where there is a (your brand) dealer six blocks from where you notice the water gushing out of the bottom of the engine.  Also schedule it on a day when you had already decided to stay in that small to mid-sized town so you don’t lose any vacation days.  And, oh yeah, if the dealer is a) nice, and b) competent, and c) puts you right at the top of the schedule, those are nice points also.

Odd thought 2:  Today, as we drove on Route 14 from Sheridan to Cody, and were at 8740 feet up in the air, 50 miles in either direction from anyplace, with the tranny in low gear, the engine turning 4000 rpm, and the speedo showing 35 mph, and I sure was glad the water pump had pooped out the day before in Sheridan.  Even though we have Good Sam (free) emergency towing service I sure didn’t want to test it way out and up there.

Odd thought 3:  Going up to 8740 feet is fun (?) and going down from 8740 feet is just as much fun (?)!

Odd thought 4:  Greg Brown is an old hippy-dippy-beatnik who plays a mean guitar but mumbles the words to his songs.  If you are a fan (Cheryl is) and know the words (she does) he can be most enjoyable.  I’m not, and I don’t, so I managed to catch some shut eye during most of his songs.  Cheryl didn’t notice so the evening came off OK.

Odd thought 5:  Wyoming Route 14 is staggeringly beautiful.  One of those roads you really should add to your Bucket List.

Odd thought 6:  I hate the popularity of, “Bucket List.”

Odd thought 7:  The Buffalo Bill Museum here in Cody is said to be a two-day experience.  We’ve allocated all day tomorrow so I guess I will find out.

Odd thought 8:  A friend just sent me this link to a song by Billy Joel.  I think I may have found my new personal song.  After all, I’ve ridden my motorcycle in the rain many times.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie5-LrulBGk&sns=em

Odd thought 9:  My previous personal song was, “It ain’t me babe” by Johnny Cash.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwD4t9gcLb4

Odd thought 10:  Cheryl and my, “Our Song” is, “Love is a rose” as sung by Linda Ronstadt.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVhlJWjcgS0

Odd thought 11:  That’s all.

Ride On!

Frankie

Greg Brown Tonight

Thursday, July 25, 2013

Cheryl: Just checking in to practice using the iPad for blogging and try to insert a picture. It turns out that Blogger doesn't work with Verizon (or so they say), so I can't get photos directly from my iPhone. However, "insert photo" did pick up photos from my iPad, so I'll try inserting one from my Camera Roll stored there (weird). There sure is an enormous learning curved for me with all this new (to me) technology!

Our KOA campground is jammed packed since last evening, and I'm wondering if it might be due to the Greg Brown concert tonight in Sheridan. I've got my fingers crossed for the truck to be fixed today and for the concert to be a good one (worth waiting for).

So here's a picture from my iPad Camera Roll (I hope)

 Mary-Louise Parker (above) and flowers from home (below)- Still getting the hang of photos uploaded from my iPhone to Blogger from Google Plus App - Maybe I'll get better at this? It remains to be seen!

Blog - Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Okay, so we bought an iPad so we wouldn't have to bring our old, slow laptop with us on vacation. Of course, we brought it anyway just in case and have been using it to create our blog entries. Today I'm testing out our capabilities for blogging using the iPad.

That said, we've hit a bit of a snag again today! I'm beginning to think this is the longest "shake-down" trip in our vacation history. The Dodge truck decided to light up with a warning message on the dash this morning while we were on our way to shop for groceries at Walmart. Frank drove on over to a former Checker store, so they could hook up their test equipment to our truck's computer. It seems we have a substantial  cooling system leak confirmed by the coolant puddling up under the truck when Frank peeked under there. Luckily the warning lite alerted us before the truck overheated, and we dropped it off at the Dodge dealer in downtown Sheridan. We're beginning to feel like we live here!

Frank rented a black classy-looking Toyota Camry LE, and I like its interior much better than my two-year old Camry at home. Sigh! Anyway, the dealer said they would work on the truck on Thursday, so we're hoping we can continue our trip on Friday morning as planned.  It may have been good Karma deciding to stay in Sheridan to see Greg Brown in concert on Thursday night. Out on the prairie pulling the trailer on the scenic route 14 over to Cody would not have been an optimal time to have this kind of problem. All in all, I think we lucked out this time!

Our laundry and shopping are all caught up and yesterday afternoon we went to the movies to see Red2. My daughter, Stacie raved about it on Facebook, but once again we think we've crossed some imaginary "old-age" line preventing us from enjoying today's spoofs. However, we did enjoy the first Red movie when it was playing. I still haven't seen The Lone Ranger, and it's playing in Sheridan, so if we get bored this afternoon with reading and relaxing . . .

By the way, we expected a "postage stamp-sized" movie screen at Sheridan's only theater and were blown away by a huge screened, stadium seat auditorium with Dolby surround sound. The outside of the theater is plain and unassuming, but inside (Frank says and I truly didn't notice this) its appearance looked like something very ornate out of the 1940s.

On location in Sheridan, Wyoming,
Bruce Willis, Helen Mirren, Mary-Louise Parker, and John Malkovich

Fun with Jeremy and Leigh

Monday, July 22, 2013

Cheryl: We’ve spent a busy three days with our friends Jeremy and Leigh who arrived in Buffalo late Friday evening. On Saturday the four of us trekked over to Sheridan to enjoy “Main-Street-America” once more and visit the King Saddlery and Museum. The store looks unassuming from outside, but after pouring over their extensive merchandise the trick is to move out the back and on across the alley to the area of the store where you can buy a beautiful saddle, ropes of all lengths and sizes, and an array of custom leather goods. Attached to this large workshop you’ll find the amazingly large museum of saddles of all kinds and eras along with Indian and cowboy artifacts, knives, guns, taxidermy, buffalo rugs, a carved-panel hearse, weavings, jewelry, photographs, and much, much more!

I’m not sure how long we lingered in King’s, but it was well over two hours or so. Then, after a further shopping tour of Main Street, we stopped at Sanford’s Restaurant where the wall space brimmed with old license plates and assorted western paraphernalia, leaving not one spot uncovered. We chose a booth near the back and enjoyed large plates of sweet potato fries and sandwiches.

Around 4:30 p.m. back in the trailer in Buffalo, Frank and I watched the second disk of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy. (Frank:  In Swedish, with subtitles.)  By the time that ended we were tired puppies after a full day of being tourists, and we conked out for the night.  I think I’m getting all this in the right order.

On Sunday, we fixed a picnic breakfast of pancakes, bacon, and scrambled eggs to surprise Jeremy and Leigh when they came to pick us up at 8 a.m. for a trip to the Little Big Horn Battlefield. Sitting outside our trailer under the trees at the picnic table made for a great start to a long sightseeing day. It was at least an hour and a half ride out to the scene of Custer’s Last Stand. The bus tour narrated by a very articulate and knowledgeable Crow guide helped give us a better understanding of what transpired over the several days prior to, during, and after the battles that raged there. We think Custer got a “bum rap” after hearing how he and his men were trapped by an overwhelming band of warriors. (Frank:  They were told to expect 300 to 500 Indians, but instead encountered 8000, 3000 of which were warriors!)  The National Park with its excellent visitor center, and what we learned and the expansive landscape that greeted us made the long trip over and back worth it. We ate a hearty lunch at the trading post there and scurried home to watch the last disc of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy before wearily packing it in for the night.

Today Jeremy and Leigh picked us up at the trailer, and we returned to downtown Buffalo to eat breakfast at The Busy Bee Restaurant. Leigh and I went upstairs to see the room where she and Jeremy are staying at the Occidental Hotel. The hallways up there were filled with exhibits quite like you’d find in a museum. Downstairs we visited the Virginian Restaurant to see the table inside what used to be a vault, the Billiard room, bar and another museum-like display in the downstairs hallways. Many famous people have stayed there, and we enjoyed roaming the lobby and seeing all the memorabilia.

Back in Jeremy and Leigh’s rented, luxurious, top-of-the-line Jeep Grand Cherokee with sun roof, leather bucket seating and all the bells and whistles, we struck out once again for Sheridan to see Trail End, a 13,000+  square-foot mansion not far from the middle of town in a top-of-the-hill wooded neighborhood. Frank and I both love to visit historic homes, and we agreed in all the many we’ve visited this one stands out as by far the best. The presentations of documented photographs perfectly explained the lifestyle of this family both in the city and on their nearby ranch. The mansion sparkled as if a cleaning crew flew through the entire place daily, and the woman at the front desk greeted us with a lovely summary of what our self-guided tour would show us. The ballroom on the third floor absolutely stood out to me as the highlight of the tour. Frank and I even danced to the music as if we were among the elite who swished across the floor in the distant past. It seemed magical, and we wished we could enter that world to take a peek at what it might have been like to actually be a part of an era so grand.

The lovely woman at the mansion’s front desk recommended a Mexican restaurant in Sheridan where the cook surprisingly has trained in French cuisine. We were treated to an unexpected sumptuous lunch and should have walked a couple of miles after we ate. Instead we got back in the car for the short 35- mile drive back to Buffalo where we said goodbye to our friends with the intention of meeting them for ice cream downtown around seven this evening. Tomorrow morning we bid them adieu as they continue on their trip to Deadwood and beyond before returning to the UK.

Frank and I will move the trailer up to the KOA in Sheridan tomorrow and spend a couple of days there in order to see Greg Brown in concert on Thursday evening. Then we’ll travel over to Cody, WY for a couple of days before making our way to Ennis, MT to visit with our friends, Pam and Richard.

With love from the intrepid travelers,

Frank, Cheryl, Peanut, and Cleo Chica

Frank: Yeah, what SHE said.