July 5, 2013

Escapade Wrap up

Escapade finished last night.  Five days of seminars, socializing, and shopping.  Did some of each.

Sue spent two days in the craft room.  First day she completed a quilt that had been pieced by someone else.  Now it can be donated somewhere.  The second day she helped people learn various crafts.  She also attended several seminars over the five days.  I went to a few seminars, met with a man who replaced some parts in our TV antenna (free), drove a golf cart for an afternoon hauling people between the meeting area and the RV parking area (over a half mile away), and shopping.  Me going to seminars can be expensive.  One seminar led to purchasing a new shower head (low flow but high velocity so you feel like a ‘real’ shower) and some neat zip lock things for closing bags of food, etc.  Also some LED lights to replace some interior bulbs.  Another seminar was a little more pricy.  We now have a Jetpack  MIFI modem/router  and we both have Smart phones.  Not too good planning at least on my part.  I have a whole family of instructor/coaches but I will not see them for four months.  I do know what the weather is @ my location though thanks to the phone.  Of course I could look out the window and get much the same information. 

First nights entertainment.  Husband/wife singing team now headlining in Branson.

Check out his guitar.  Pretty cool.

Last night was the last night celebration.  Also the celebration of Escapees 35 birthday.  Catered dinner with lots of food.  Whole thing sponsored by RV dealer who had RVs on display and for sale during Escapade.

Final day of Escapade coincided with Fourth of July.  That means fireworks. 

When we entered the hall at 5:30 pm for closing ceremony and dinner the sky was partly cloudy. When we left at 8:15 the sky to the west was very dark.  Shortly thereafter lightning started to the west – both forked and sheet scanning about 160 degrees of view in the west.

God warming up.

A while later there was thunder associated with the lightning.  We sat outside and watched natures display intensify and move toward us for over an hour.

The RV camping area we were in is adjacent to the fairgrounds track infield where the city of Gillette launched their fireworks.  We had front row seating right at our door.  Last year fireworks were canceled because of extreme dryness. This year no problem.  It rained much of the week before we arrived.  Story was that all the unused fireworks from last year were available plus they purchase another displays worth for this year.

Natures fireworks kept approaching and just before start time for Gillette fireworks the storm was almost over us.  Sheet lightning lighting the whole sky over us, loud thunder, and just starting to wind and rain.  Just as the fireworks started so did the wind and rain and more lightning and thunder.  It was like watching dueling fireworks displays.  I think God won but Gillette put up a good competition. Over 30 minutes of nonstop fireworks.  Not one followed by another but pretty much nonstop multiple launches.  Or whole rows of launchers set off in chains with less than a second between launches.  The sky was never dark.  And if it was, God filled in the blanks.  We stood in the lee of a large motor home to avoid the wind and rain and had a great view of it all.  Either event (nature or Gillette) would have been memorable.  Together, something else.  Great ending to Escapade.

This morning we drove north to Medora and Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  We have been here before and enjoyed our stay.  If you get a chance to visit the park and stay in the campground – do it.  Nice quiet spot, five miles from freeway, in same (large) enclosure as park wildlife. (Campground is not fenced off).  That can be interesting.  Last time as we were leaving we saw a  group of bison grazing at the front of a small camp tent.

The small town of Medora is a typical tourist spot with some places of historic interest, gift stores, restaurants, small park, golf course, etc., and one other thing _ The Medora Musical.  Every evening during the summer a musical review is staged in an outdoor amphitheater built into the side of a hilltop with a stunning view across the valley as a backdrop to the stage.  The place is huge.  Holds several thousand people.  Two and a half hours of nonstop entertainment often with 12-15 people on stage at the same time singing and dancing.  Each with his/her own microphone and each instrument in the band with microphone  as well.  We enjoyed the show but thought the show we saw before was better.  Still worth the trip.

.This guy was hanging by the road as we drove from the campground to the musical.

View from parking area for musical

Amphitheater from above and behind.  Note view.

Buildings roll apart to expose hills behind

Buildings rolled back and different colors thrown on distant hill.  Pretty spectacular.

July 1, 2013

Escapade

Not much to report on lately.  Escapade classes start today.  Last night was opening and entertainment.  I will do some classes today and Sue will do some quilting and volunteer in craft area.

June 28, 2013

Gillette, WY

Spent the last two days driving south out of Montana and then south and east across northeastern Wyoming to Gillette.

Wednesday we again stopped at Little Bighorn Battlefield National Historic Monument.(Custers Last Stand).  This time we unhooked the Suzuki and drove the length of the five mile road that goes to Reno's battle area and then points out the sequence of events leading to the end of Custer and his men.

This guy was lounging about 10 feet from me as I got Carbus ready to travel in small RV park in north central Montana

We arrived in Gillette about noon Thursday. First stop was a quick lube place that has a coffee and baked goods shop attached. Have a bearclaw and do some wifi while you wait for your cars oil change. We wern't into goodies but the oil and lube was quick. Drove right in and drove out 15 minutes later. Didn't even have to unhook the car. Just drove everything right over the pit. Carbus is now good for another 3000 miles. Next stop Flying J to top off propane and fill both vehicles with gas. Then a first for us - we parked in the far reaches of a Walmart parking lot to spend the night. Did some minor shopping there and walked several blocks exploring stores in the area. We did not want to run the generator to cook dinner so we we had our first dinner out of the trip. Mexican of course. Tiny little place that served very tasty food in HUGE proportions. Prices were lower than we have seen in quite a while and the service was speedy. A bit removed from main part of town but the locals know about it. Placd was packed with people waiting. We lucked out and walked in to the last open table for the duration of our meal.

This morning we did early check-in for the Escapde. Set up camp, had lunch, and then went on a tour of an open pit coal mine. Free bus tour provided by the mine. Our driver happened to work at the mine a couple years earlier and gave a very good description of the process and was able to find areas where we could see most of the pit coal mining operations real time. Pretty cool.

Each tire costs over $30000

 

Bucket used on older shovels.  Holds 23 cubic yards in one scoop.

Bucket on todays shovels holds 52 cubic yards.

 

Not unusual to find petrified wood associated with coal deposits.

Truck on right dumping coal.  Truck on left backing in to dump.

Remember picture above where Sue didn't even reach center of tire.  Some perspective as to how big these trucks are.

Coal being loaded into coal cars.  Coal comes out of a chute just behind dust area on silver bar above car.  Trains are 120 cars long +/-.  Train never stops.  Rolls through fill tower @ .6 mph with chute closing between cars.  Takes 45 sec. to fill a car.

These machines are huge.

Literally an endless process.  Mine operates 24/7,  365 1/4 days a year.

Work shifts are 12 hours long.  Scheduling is such that everyone works days and nights and works about 14 days a month.

June 25, 2013

Leaving the Mountains

We left Missouri Headwaters at mid morning as we had a short drive planned.

East through Bozeman again and then more east. About 20 miles east of Bozeman the road starts to descend and the country starts to level out. Mountains give way to wide green valleys which give way to the vast flatness that is the eastern half of Montana. About 12:30 we pulled into a nice city park in Columbus, MT. Large park right on the banks of the Yellowstone River. We were not the only ones to find this spot. Just about every spot was taken. Some spots had several Rvs in them as there was a RV club apparently from Texas camped there. Looked like half of Texas was staying in that park. We did find a site and then took a walk to visit the river. Lazy afternoon.

Style of canoe used Lewis and Clark in parts of their expedition

 

 

Yellowstone River

 

June 24, 2013

Back to Montana

Saturday we drove east to Idaho Falls to do some shopping.  Sams Club for gas and Hancock Fabrics for cord to restring a blind.  Leaving the high plateau of southern Idaho we headed north up the eastern side of the state.  Gaining elevation potato fields and ranches gave way to evergreens and hills.  We took a scenic side loop that climbed to the top of a ridge paralleling a river that has two large waterfalls.  Lower and Upper Mesa Falls.  Upper Mesa Falls is the highest in the state.

Lower Mesa Falls

 North some more to a fishing/hunting/back country 4 wheeling resort.  RV campground was quite nice and pretty full with back country type campers.

Sunday we went a few miles north to Montana and then north through some "Big Sky" mountain bordred valleys to the town of Three Forks and Missouri Headwaters State Park.  At this point three rivers come together to form the Missouri River.  Lewis and Clark named the rivers (Jefferson, Madison, and Gallantin) when they reached this point on their journey to find the headwaters and then on to the Pacific.  From here they went up the Jefferson and then by foot over the Divide and down to the valley of the Salmon.  Very nice park.  Quiet, secluded sites several miles from the freeway.  No facilities but the carbus is self contained if needed. 

Charge given Lewis and Clark by President Jefferson

Maddison River on left, Jefferson River upper right, Missouri River exiting lower right.

 

Fishing the Missouri

 

A friend whom we went to college with purchased a second home with her husband east of Bozeman.  We were parked about 20 miles west of Bozeman.  On a whim Sue tried calling her.  They were in Montana (home base - Merced, CA) and invited us to dinner.  We did some sight seeing in the state park and headed east.  Stopped in Bozeman to buy some wine at Costco and then kept east following her directions.  Fifteen more miles we left the freeway and headed up a graded gravel mountain road.  Up and up and up and..... never going down for four or five miles.  Their house is not on the top of the ridge/mountain but is not far below.  Fantastic view.  Twentyfive acre lots with lots of trees so each house is alone.  I had not seen her for 50 years and had not met her husband.  Sue had seen them 20 years ago on a trip south to Ventura.  It was like there had never been any time lapse.  We had a great evening with them and some friends of theirs (the wife grew up with Vanda in Merced).

Monday (today) was a layover day.  We went to Wheat, MT which is basically just the location of a large bakery.  They have a store and deli associated with the bakery.  The store sells a large variety of breads and yummy baked goods. There is seating to enjoy your pastry and beverage. Also sells large sacks of many types of flour.  The bakery is just off the interstate and is so popular that in addition to parking for cars (lot 3/4 full) there is parking for RVs and big rigs.

 

From the bakery we went south to Lewis and Clark Caverns. The cave is located in a bluff overlooking the Jefferson River up which the party traveled after leaving the headwaters. They did not find the caverns but they were named for them.

Jefferson River in distant valley.  Taken from trail to cave entrance.

 The tour starts with a 3/4 mile hike along the side of the bluff up to the entrance of the cave. After entering the cave the whole tour is down. More than 600 steps down during the tour. Then out through a tunnel and a half mile walk back to the parking lot.

Portion of trail to cave entrance

At entrance to cave

 

 

 

Cave stuff

 

Amanda, this one's for you.  They call it 'Mary Poppins'.

Exit tunnel has heavy doors at each end to control air flow in/out of cave at unnatural opening.



June 21, 2013

Hello Summer

Started todays travels with two scenic byways.

First it was back up the Salmon River Scenic Byway. 

Same road we came down yesterday but this time we continued up river another 35 miles to Stanley, ID.  Small town with expensive mountain "cabins" in a mountain valley.  From Stanley the road turns south on the Sawtooth Scenic Highway and continues up the flat but gently climbing valley.

 

 At the head of the 20 mile long valley the road crosses a small stream.  So small it fits in a small culvert.  One could step across it without reaching.  The Salmon River.  Remember the pictures from previous posts.
 After crossing the head of the valley the road starts to climb more seriously.  5% grade - not too bad for carbus.  It also twists and turns but also not bad.  Had worse two days ago over pass north of Salmon.  Carbus handled it well.  Near the summit there is an overlook.  Looks down on the headwaters of the Salmon River and down the valley.

Headwaters of the Salmon River

Culvert holding Salmon River is just to left of 'Y' in road lower left

 

 

 Over Galena Summit (8990') and down to the south.  A few more twists and turns and 5% grade.  Easy driving.  Thirtyseven miles from the summit we entered Ketchum, ID.  Neighbor to Sun Valley and home of famous ski resorts.  At the north end of town we stopped to visit the cemetary.  We are really into cemetarys but could not pass this one up.

 

.

Ernest Hemmingway on right.  Wife, Mary, on left

South from Ketchum on the road most use to enter Ketchum we met US 20 and turned east on a road we have traveled before.
 Fifty miles later we passed Craters of the Moon National Monument.  We have been there before so moved on up the road to Arco, ID.  Pulled in to the same RV park we stayed in earlier (looking forward to tomorrows free breakfast) and set up.

Since it was still early afternoon we decided to take the car and drive 20 mile down the road tour EBR-1 National Historic Landmark.

 EBR stands for Experimental Breeder Reactor.  This is/was the worlds first nuclear reactor and it was also the first to generate electrical power.  The reactor was long ago decommissioned and is radiation free.  Visitors are free to wander pretty much any where inside the building.  There is a self guiding pamphlet and docents also give a thorough tour if available.  We lucked out and got a personal guided tour (just the two of us).  The young woman who guided us was very knowledgeable about the reactor, The Idaho National Laboratory, and nuclear power in general.  She presented information in a manner that was easy to grasp.  We got a large education in an hours time.

First use of nuclear generated electricity.  Lit four lights similar to these.  Next day lit whole plant.

 

 

Somebodys really great idea.  This contraption was designed to provide power to fly an airplane for up to 30 days non-stop.  Several problems.  The plant itself weighs more than a 747.  Plane to hold it would be HUGE.  Nucular shielding was minimal to none.  Crew flying plane would receive more than lifetime radiation dose during their 30 day flight.  Would be training new crew every month to fly plane.  Idea never got off the ground so to speak.

 

Description of EBR-1 tour  http://www.inl.gov/ebr/

 

Back to the carbus to write these blogs.