Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Southwest Wyoming to the Colorado Border

 

 

Passing into Wyoming on US 30, from Garden City, Utah, took us into fossil country.  We had not traveled this route previously and were surprised to come upon the Fossil Butte National Monument.  

It is just a few miles from the highway to the visitor center at the foot of this huge butte that turns out to be rich with fish fossils.   Large fish, small fish and peculiar fish.  This is another one of those places to come back to with some hiking plans.

 

About 200 miles into Wyoming, we turned south on Wyoming 789 toward Baggs near the Colorado border.  This took us through Carbon county, the heart of Wyoming coal country.  There are undoubtedly more antelope here than people, and they watched us pass with some interest.  This particular one was standing near the marker for the Overland Trail.

The Overland Stage Route likely marked the high point of stagecoach travel across the west until the transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869.

 

 As we approached Baggs and the Colorado border, we encountered a massive traffic jam.  Ahead in the distance we could see fire engines attending to some major problem.

When the local sheriffs patrol began routing traffic past the incident, we noticed that a car appeared to have melted down to knee-height.

 

We never did hear anything about the incident in local media.

 The Colorado border was well marked and there are several scenic spots along the route.

 

 

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Utah to the Wyoming Border

 We departed from the Interstate onto more scenic highways as we crossed the remainder of Utah and the western half of Wyoming.  US highway 89 has a 40 mile stretch from Logan, Utah, to Garden City on Bear Lake with some of the prettiest fall color we have seen. 

The road meanders along the Logan River and through some mountain passes across the Rockies before emerging at the Bear Lake Overlook above Garden City and eventually entering Wyoming.

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Boise to the Utah Border

 With our mission of photographing the Idaho Capitol complete late in the afternoon, we were ready to head toward home.  Interstate 84 runs 230 miles directly from Boise to Snowville, Utah with an 80 mph speed limit.  The view is pretty consistent - sagebrush and sand with a few interesting rock formations.

It turns out, though, that there are a few scenic spots along the way.  We couldn't resist the urge to stop and inspect Paradise Valley and Bliss!  

 

As we approached the Utah border, we stopped to take a picture of the Idaho welcome signs since we had entered the state on a low-traffic highway without much fanfare.

 

As we got close to Snowville, a sign warned "Next Services 35 miles," so we decided to stop in this small town and look for dinner.  

 

Snowville claims 59 households with two gas stations, two restaurants and  a small "mom and pop" motel.  It was a tough choice between Mollie's Cafe and the Ranch House Diner but we went with the Ranch House.

 

 

 

After dinner, we pushed on, driving the 35 miles to Tremont, Utah, for the night.

 

 

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 5 - Boise at Last!

We reached Boise on our fifth day.  With a population of around a quarter million, Boise is not the same as I remember it from the 1960s when it had a population of about 35,000.  It even has its own remodeling series on HGTV nowadays. 

The Idaho Capitol is a gem.  There are two good viewpoints.  The best is the classic view from the nearby Cecil Andrus Park.

Cecil's gubernatorial career would have earned him a decent statue, but throw in his work as Secretary of the Interior and he probably deserves the park.

There is another view - the one shown on Boise Boys - taken from the intellectual capital of Idaho, up by the Boise River.  To get this shot, you will need to stand in the street across from "The Cabin," a gathering place for Boise’s readers and writers. You will also need a fairly long telephoto lens.

 

With our main mission for this trip complete, we only had a couple more stops to make, and four more capitol buildings remaining to photograph in order to complete all 50.

 

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 4 - Idaho Falls - Site of the Big Jump

 We left Bozeman and headed south past Big Sky, skirted Yellowstone along Earthquake Lake, crossed some volcanic wilderness and the Oregon Trail and soon approached Twin Falls, Idaho.   There is probably not as varied a panorama in the world as in that 400 mile drive.

 We had forgotten that Twin Falls was the site of Evel Knievel's attempted mile-long jump of the Snake River Canyon back in 1974 - but, Twin Falls has remembered.   The falls itself is worth a long drive.

Standing near the falls and looking downriver, you are only a half-mile from Evel's jump site.

 

The town's visitor center has a nice recollection of the whole grand event in a newspaper column posted by one Evel's lawyers, who later became an Idaho supreme court justice.

 

Catching Up On The Travel Blog 2020 - Minnesota to Boise, Day 3 - Bozeman and the American Computer Museum

 Bozeman, Montana, was an interim destination on our way to Boise.  Linda had become acquainted with a distant cousin via her genealogical research and, of course, it was a chance for me to visit the American Computer Museum again.

While Linda and her cousin compared notes and family photos looking for more clues, I headed over to the museum.

The American Computer Museum is currently in reduced size quarters near the Montana State campus.  This means that their Burroughs 205 Datatron is stored in an inaccessible corner of their warehouse along with a couple of other mainframes, so I couldn't update the poor quality pictures that I took back in 2006.

But, I was able to capture a few new pictures.  The ACM has expanded its name to become the American Computer & Robotics Museum.  They have added a robotics exhibit and include a large area dedicated to cryptography as well.

But, without the Burroughs 205, I focused my attention and camera on the Consolidated Engineering Company's analog CEC-103 which was designed by Cliff Berry of Atanasoff-Berry-Computer fame.   

 

If you have ever wondered just what is inside that box, and how it operates, you need go no farther than United States Patent # 2,446,191 belonging to JC Pemberton.  JC (That is his name, not initials) oversaw the construction of the CEC 30-103 and was also a contributor to the ABC back at Iowa State, in his student days.

   

 

 

The ACRM robotics room has an interesting collection of both practical and Hollywood robots.

The microcomputer/personal computer exhibit has quite a variety of machines including the Altai, as well as its debut photo on Popular Electronics.  Note the autographs on the cover from the authors of Basic!

 

 

 

 A cryptography exhibit features some material from NCR's very secret code-breaking work in Dayton Ohio.  

And, yes there is even another NCR cash register on the premises.

 

This museum is a must-see stop for any computer person passing nearby.  Owner Barbara Keremedjiev and curator Elanor Barker are a delight to talk with.

Update - April, 2022:

I truly understated the significance of ACRM's Cryptography exhibit.  The museum has a German Enigma machine utilized by the Germans during World War II to encode tactical messages for their armed forces.  Breaking the code of the Enigma and of the higher level German "Ultra" teletype coded machines both led to computer development after the war in England and the U.S.  

So secret were these code-breaking activities that they remained largely hidden for thirty years, and perhaps some portions even into today.  Highly recommended reading are two books:  The Secret in Building 26 for the story of the American contribution at NCR in Dayton, Ohio.  Colossus: Bletchley Park's Greatest Secret for the British contribution.   

 

 

The ACRM does an excellent job of telling the story of these efforts and it is well worth an extra hour, regardless of what else may have attracted you to the museum initially.