Blogs from Idaho Falls, Idaho, United States, North America

The First Experimental Breeder Reactor, the EBR-1 Perhaps to start off with a story: Miners search for a hard to find mineral, a special kind of dirt. This special dirt is important because a small percentage of it is useable as a fuel to make energy in a special machine. The rare dirt and the small useable percentage make it difficult to make energy. Then someone devises another special machine that uses the small percentage of useable fuel dirt, makes energy and converts the unsuitable dirt into more fuel, more fuel than the machine needs to make energy. That is like putting ten gallons of gas in your auto, driving a hundred miles and then have fifteen gallons of gas remaining in your tank. Sounds crazy, but that is what a breeder reactor does, produce more ... read more

I'm sitting at the Villa Coffeehouse in Idaho Falls trying to figure out how to write a blog entry. So I guess this is my first if it works. If entries seem disjointed at first, bare with me. For anyone who doesn't know about my endeavor, I am flying to London on March 31st to start my three month trek across Europe. 1 month in France, 1 month in Italy, and 1 month split up between Croatia, Slovenia, Italy again, Austria, Germany, and Belgium. That is of course if everything goes as planned. I have never traveled outside of the U.S. before (except for Baja Mexico and the Bahamas) and I'm going about this with a fervor equal to a wolverine attacking a huckleberry pie. In order to make the most of my trip I have ... read more

Today's drive was long and uneventful. We left Lethbridge at about 9 am and got into Idaho Fall, ID at about 7 pm. The drive was uneventful though we passed through some bad weather in southern Montana....from Butte to the Idaho boundary line. The temperature got up to 30C (86F) and when we went into the storm, the temperature dropped to 12C (about 54F) in the space of about 10 miles! The scenery went from the flat prairies of southern Alberta and northern Montana to the mountains and hills of southern Montana and Idaho. It was really beautiful! We saw many, many dead pine trees around Helena, MT and figure that the mountain pine beetle was the cause. It has destroyed so many beautiful trees. We stopped twice for gas and once to eat lunch so ... read more

We couldn't get out of Jackson Hole fast enough Wednesday morning. We gassed up and flew over Teton Pass into Idaho. Skirting yet another thundershower, we enjoyed a small mountain pass and were soon blasting across the flats of Idaho toward Idaho Falls. A stop at Fred Meyer satisfied our Starbucks jones, Reverend Chuck's sweatshirt purchase, and provisions for the evening meal. By the time we traversed a couple construction zones and approached the nuclear research facility in Arco, rush hour traffic opposite us into Idaho Falls was in full swing. While the lure of the Challis Hot Springs beckoned, the day was turning to evening when we found the pristine BLM campground at Mackay Reservoir (the cleanest campground bathroom by far). A nearby tree sacrificed itself to our campfire and we soon settled in to ... read more

Got up early again today, it gets cold here at night….in the morning you can still see your breath. Last night I watched Shooter on my laptop, I liked it. The cinematography was great, the special effects at the beginning were really good. I thought it was going to be a lame action movie, but it was a great action flick. What’s up with Danny Glover? He’s got a serious lisp going on, did he have a stroke or something? The previous night I watched Evan Almighty and I was might disappointed. Not that I thought it was going to be amazing or anything. I had downloaded them while sitting in Barnes and Nobles the other day. Tonight I’m going to watch The Hills Have Eyes 2. I’m sitting in the AC of my truck ... read more

Der er ved at brede sig en vis træthed over at se den ene stenstruktur efter den anden. Hver dag har børnene spurgt om hvornår vi skal på ranchen. Den store dag var nu kommet. Vi havde dagen før stoppet i den nærliggende by, Idaho Falls, for at overnatte tæt ved ranchen og for at kunne indkøbe Cowboy tøj inden vi skulle op på hestene. Derfor gik næste formiddag med at få indkøbt cowboystøvler og bukser. Der blev talt med på de sidste miles hen til ranchen. Et skilt viste vej ned af en lang grusvej som bragte os langt ind i en smuk dal med bløde bakker rundt om. Som en dyb kontrast til vores hektiske tur blev vi mødt af en herlig fred. Alle var ude at ride formiddagsturen og værtinden Nessie viste os ... read more