I was already on U.S. 20 west of Idaho Falls, so I was clear of civilization and on the road fairly early.

The land was all cultivated here. I don't know if those were potato plants, but I like to think they were.

There was water spraying in almost every field I passed. I watched a man walk up to a sprinkler head that wasn't working and whack it with a hammer. It started working then.

I saw some potato cellars, which I recognized from the Expo Center yesterday. I also saw what I assume are older cellars: long buildings with sod growing over the top.

I saw a solitary mountain ahead and to my left. The top was bristling with antennae. I later learned that this was the first of the Three Buttes.

Just behind the Butte was a huge cloud bank. It tapered off to either side while peaking just in front of me so that it looked like a mountain range. It was a uniform distance from the ground all the way across. The front was a brilliant white, since the sun was behind me. The flat bottom was visible and very dark. I could see partly cloudy skies behind it.

It looked like the physical manifestation of the weather front diagrams they show on TV.

It was still chilly and mostly cloudy as I drove into INEEL, the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory. I suspect that the "Environmental" part is a recent addition.

I passed a few side roads that I couldn't take because the signs warned that only authorized vehicles were permitted. When it comes to the government in general and nuclear sites in particular, I find it best to obey all signs.

One of the signs said that this was Argonne West.

It occurred to me much too late that I should have contacted GNHN before visiting here, since I'm pretty sure he used to work in this area.

When I reached the intersection of 20 and 26 I turned south for a few miles to Atomic City. Atomic City is off the main road and looks almost deserted. There are a few buildings, but not many look used.

I pulled up to the Post Office/Gas Station/Grocery Store/Tavern. The front door was open, so I opened the screen door and went inside.

I didn't see anyone. I looked around for postcards but only found photographs of a few sights in town.

A woman came in the door and asked if she could help me. She was the only human I saw in Atomic City (I saw a dog in a pen next door who wanted to greet me so bad it made him whine).

She told me that one of her horses was loose and she'd gone to find someone to help her find it.

I bought a Gatorade, petted the dog, took some pictures, and left. I mailed myself a postcard. I know it won't have an Atomic City postmark, but I had to take the chance.

Back on 20 I drove a few more miles to EBR-1, Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1, "the first nuclear power plant in the Free World". (I don't know if the Soviet Union actually had one first or if they just aren't sure.)

I got a little late but joined a tour in progress. Since this lab was started in the late '40s and actually began generating electricity in the '50s, all of the electronics looks horribly dated. I'm sure this is the only time I'll be able to get this close to serious nuclear research equipment, especially the fuel rod storage area, so I'll take what I can get.

Among the highlights were windows made of 34 layers of glass. Too be able to see through them, mineral oil was put between the layers.

I learned something today, too. Uranium in nature is over 99% U238, but the rare U235 is the kind that makes reactions. However, if they put a layer of U238 around the reaction, then the molecules caught neutrons being cast off by the nuclear reaction and transformed into Plutonium (weight 239). This could be used as fuel. That's what made this a breeder reactor, since it not only generated heat to drive the turbines, it made its own fuel.

There was a big neon sign that claimed that all the electricity in the building came from nuclear power. Melanie told us that this was no longer the case. Big deal. All my power at home comes from nuclear power.

Since I'd missed the first part of the tour, Melanie started giving me a private tour from the beginning, but a couple of humorless people joined us, so I left when I got back to the place I'd begun.

Just west of EBR-1 was a rest stop next to the Big Lost River. I found it!

According to the sign, the Big Lost River flows by here when all the water isn't being snagged for irrigation upstream. A few miles from here it disappears into the ground (hence the "lost" part of the name). Then it resurfaces later in a collection of springs.

There was an information radio station, but it was just talking about the "noxious weeds" that were threatening to damage the ecosystem of "one of the largest protected areas of sagebrush steppe".

Traffic had picked up a big after U.S. 26 (from Blackfoot) had joined 20. There were large trucks and a lot of motor homes. On the plus side, while still cold, it was mostly sunny, with only scatter clouds. The mountains here were soft and covered with olive vegetation and had folds. The shadows of the clouds made distinct dark spots on the sides of the mountains that crawled along the surface, going in and out of the folds.

Arco isn't much, but it was the First City Powered by the Atom. A sign on the way into town said this, a big marquee over the visitor center said this, and an historic marker on the other side of town said this.

At Arco U.S. 93 joined the mix, so I was on three U.S. highways to Craters of the Moon National Park and beyond.

Craters of the Moon is a preserved area of raw volcanic rock. It is black and bleak, although there were a lot of tiny purple flowers blooming in the fields of rubble.

This park is pretty much one for hikers, and I violated my "no hiking" rule to go out where the caves were. They aren't really caves; they are lava tubes, formed when an outer layer of a fast-moving lava stream cooled, leaving the liquid center to run out the end.

The main walk out to the tubes was paved with asphalt, but it wasn't leveled much. To get to the actual caves from the main path required walking and climbing a bit over broken ground. When I say, "broken ground", I mean it. The lava crust was cracked and broken and it kept moving under my feet, especially when I started going down into the caves.

I appreciate the stark beauty of the place, and I understand that a lot of people love this stuff, but, frankly, I'll take a nice show cave with any day. Later in the day I in fact did go down into a show lava tube, but I'll talk about that later.

At Carey U.S. 20 broke from the crowd back west and soon passes through Picabo. This is the very same town that inspired Mr. and Mrs. Street to give their daughter the Olympic skier that name.

Instead of turning north toward Sun Valley I turned south toward Shoshone Ice Caves.

This is my kind of attraction. Although the sign at the base of the large chipped green sauropod statue asked that no one climb on the beast, a cave man bravely road the head. There were a few smaller dinosaurs and a large Indian statue.

The gift shop had tilt pens (generic Caves and Caverns ones with "Shoshone Ice Caves" stamped on the barrel (and the "Caves and Caverns" looks exactly as I remember on the brochure from the National Caves Association), bullwhips, plastic bows and arrows, rattlesnake rattles, spoons, thimbles, and more traditional stuff.

Our guide, Emily, plans to be a elementary school teacher some day.

There was an older couple in our group who had a bit of a problem making it down the stairs. This was nothing, though, compared to the couple who joined us in progress. They were breathing heavily and having trouble with footing on the way down. It's impressive that they made it all the way through the tour.

Ice forms naturally in this lava tube due to the air currents within, although during the summer water seeps in faster than it freezes, so they have to pump it out occasionally (Emily started and primed the pump during our tour).

The cave originally had a small natural opening from which ice crept out. After its discovery by white people, the small town of Shoshone (Emily didn't pronounce the final "e" when saying the town name) used it for an ice source. As they widened the opening, the ice inside began to melt. Then someone made an opening at the rear of the cave, which caused the ice to melt completely.

These openings were closed, leaving only a door at the main entrance, and the ice has returned.

It isn't that impressive as far as caves go, but the entire tour takes place on a narrow boardwalk (with handrails) over ice, which is pretty neat.

Since there were only six of us in the group, the tour was very friendly and informal. I had a great time.

I didn't have such a good time at a stop a few miles down the road, Idaho Mammoth Cave. The road to it was unpaved and very rough, and I decided when I got there that I didn't want to do it.

I was the only visitor, and the man had come in from whatever work he was doing to take me into the office. I felt very guilty and wanted to buy some souvenirs, but he really didn't have anything. I ended up with three little rocks for a dollar.

There were some pretty neat things in the office, including some mounted animals, some beaver skulls, and a bison skeleton. The place looked very run down and very lonely. I hope he gets more visitors later in the summer.

Originally I had planned to drive down into Nevada from here, then across into California at Donner Pass. The problem with this plan, I realized last night, was that I would end up in Reno on Saturday night. No matter how I looked at it, that's what I came up with.

Saturday is absolutely the worst night to spend in Reno or Lake Tahoe or any place close. All of the hotels and motels almost double their rates for Saturdays, some requiring a two-night stay. I really didn't want the hassles of dealing with that.

So in Shoshone I turned west and headed toward Boise. I ran into I 84 a bit later and couldn't find an alternate route.

I had intended to stop for the night in Boise, but I pushed ahead to Ontario, Oregon, where the motels are really cheap.

Tomorrow I am going to head off for the middle of Oregon, then drop down toward Crater Lake. Then I can go down into California to see the big trees, then work my way back up the coast.