{"id":26456,"date":"2018-07-26T21:24:40","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T01:24:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.runkevinrun.com\/?p=26456"},"modified":"2018-07-26T21:52:04","modified_gmt":"2018-07-27T01:52:04","slug":"july-26-2018-the-long-and-winding-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runkevinrun.com\/?p=26456","title":{"rendered":"July 26, 2018 – The Long and Winding Road"},"content":{"rendered":"

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It started well… but things took a turn for the worse later in the day.<\/p>\n

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I thought I should do a short run this morning. I was slow and definitely still feeling the aches and pains of the races. But I\u2019m hoping to have a huckleberry shake and felt like I needed to earn it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s beautiful around here and the temperatures are a very pleasant 68 degrees in the morning. NPR keeps doing stories on the record heatwaves blanketing and blistering the country … and while that\u2019s super important to have climate change discussions.. and people need to be smart about hydration and checking in family and friends and neighbors, it all seems like fairly common sense stuff. Good reminders but seriously there\u2019s some crazy stuff happening in the world and we need to not lose sight of that either.<\/p>\n

But it is hot.\u00a0 No question of that.\u00a0 Just not as hot here in Idaho at the moment.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

I had never heard of the Craters of The Moon National Monument and Preserve. My AirBNB host told me about it when I said I was heading out to Arco, AKA Atomic City. She warned me that it was a pretty desolate place but if I went a bit past it I\u2019d come to this really cool, surreal, otherworldly lava field, a 750,000 acre wonderland of rock and sagebrush.\u00a0 I’m always up for otherworldly.\u00a0 And I’m always up for a road trip to strange sights.<\/p>\n

So here’s a shot from the road itself – I assume in the middle of road, anything is fair game.\u00a0 Gives new meaning to the term “roadkill.”<\/p>\n

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Anyway, onward.\u00a0 It turns out Arco is NOT Atomic City.\u00a0 That’s something else (more on that in a moment).\u00a0 What Arco IS is the first city powered by atomic energy, making it an atomic city (lower case “a”).<\/p>\n

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It’s a small town and I stopped on my way back for photos and lunch but thought I should hit the farthest point first on my road trip, lest I be tempted to just skip it and turn around for a shorter ride back to the AirBNB.\u00a0 So on I went…<\/p>\n

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Robert Limbert spent several years documenting landscape and published his pics and observations in a massive National Geographic spread.\u00a0 Calvin Coolidge used the 1906 Antiquities Act to proclaim the place a National Monument and called it “a weird and scenic landscape, peculiar to itself.”<\/p>\n

I made it to the Visitors Center and pondered the 7-mile driving loop and various hikes that were on offer.\u00a0 Just as I was about to head out, I heard the Ranger tell another guest that this area was free but the drive and hikes had a $20 per car admission fee.<\/p>\n

I’m a cheap guy, I know.\u00a0 I have my limits.\u00a0 And had it been $10 I wouldn’t have even hesitated.\u00a0 Fifteen and I might have hemmed and hawed but I would’ve plunked down my MasterCard.\u00a0 But twenty bucks, two Alexander Hamiltons, just seemed a bit steep.<\/p>\n

Besides, I was alone.\u00a0 And I don’t usually mind day tripping and sightseeing solo<\/a>, but sometimes it’s more fun with somebody else.\u00a0 As I watched the surprisingly good documentary “infomercial” in the visitors center, and wandered the freebie grounds of the park’s outskirts, I thought how much more fun I’d have here with my brother.\u00a0 Years ago he and I went to South Dakota to run the Deadwood Marathon (still one of the tougher runs I’ve done).\u00a0 And along the way we went to Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, and the Badlands.\u00a0 If I had my complete photo album hard drive I’d post a pic or two from those days.\u00a0 But just know it was a great brothers trip and I found myself missing Steve and wishing he were here to clamber about with me.\u00a0 So I made a vow that some day I’d come back to this place and he and I would do just that.\u00a0 I don’t think that was just an attempt to rationalize not paying the $20 either.<\/p>\n

A quick note though about the Craters of the Moon before I post some long lens shots — NASA used this place for the Apollo astronauts to train on moon-based missions in the 1960s.\u00a0 Today they’re using ti again to simulate a Mars landing for someone other than Matt Damon.\u00a0 And I can understand why — it has the terrain and feel of “the moon as seen through a telescope,” which is how geologist Harold T. Stearns described the area in 1923.<\/p>\n

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As it was getting on to noon, I thought I’d stop by one of the Roadside America highlights — the RA reviewers raved about the Atomic Burger at Pickle’s Place in Arco, ID.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the thing about the Atomic Burger — it was okay.\u00a0 The bun was a disappointment and the burger itself was adequate.\u00a0 It felt like a tourist trap… and I walked right into it.<\/p>\n

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Across the street from Pickle’s Place though was the Idaho Science Center… it was really more of a shed than anything else….<\/p>\n

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Oh, and the Devil’s Conning Tower of course:<\/p>\n

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By the way, that museum shed was SO top secret… you couldn’t even get inside.\u00a0 And believe me, I tried:<\/p>\n

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On the drive back to Idaho Falls, I stopped at the EBR-I Atomic Museum.\u00a0 This was the first power pant in the world to produce usable electricity using atomic energy.\u00a0 Their self-guided tour has a weird notation though:<\/p>\n

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So wait — did this thing just generate enough electricity to power itself?\u00a0 Turns out, no… it’s just a weirdly written intro.<\/p>\n

The docent at the door said I had just missed a tour so I could either catch up to them or just go on my own.\u00a0 I didn’t need a full 90 minute tour (it’s not that big of a place… even if it IS a nuclear power plant), so I went with Option B.\u00a0 Ya know, for “By Myself.”<\/p>\n

I ambled and shuffled and read along and got a little bored and then took some photos.\u00a0 I overheard some of the various tours going round and honestly it was fairly interesting but VERY thorough — a little too thorough for my “just passing through” attention span.\u00a0 I did however appreciate them pointing out the Emergency Shut-Down button:<\/p>\n

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In any case, some stray photos from my walkabout:<\/p>\n

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So as I was reading the last room’s plaque, a woman in a safety vest came by and told me I had to stay in the building and rejoin my group.\u00a0 I was puzzled as I was in the building and then held up my “self-guided tour” pamphlet saying, “What group?\u00a0 I’m here by myself.”<\/p>\n

“Oh,” she said, “I thought you were with that school group.”<\/p>\n

“No.”<\/p>\n

“Well, doesn’t matter.\u00a0 You have to head up front and stay here in the building.\u00a0 We have a shipment coming in and we’ll let you know when you can leave.”\u00a0 And with that she walked off.\u00a0 I was really confused and walked back to the front door.\u00a0 I asked the docent I had spoken to when I first arrived what was happening and she explained that it would only be 20 minutes — they had to move some equipment and no one could leave.\u00a0 “What?” I said.\u00a0 I saw the informational signpost at the front of the building:<\/p>\n

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This place isn’t in operation anymore.\u00a0 I have to be honest, I felt like the woman in the vest had been rude in the first instance (it’s hard to convey her tone in the above but know that it was… passive aggressive).\u00a0 She actually struck me as a bit of a bully… and I don’t much care for bullies.\u00a0 I feel like they only derive their power when people fail to stand up to them and call them out.\u00a0 Unfortunately my solution is to return the bullying passive-aggressive language with my own passive-aggressive acts.\u00a0 It’s not a good look on me and I have to admit I was a bit of a jerk here.\u00a0 But I didn’t like being held hostage either.\u00a0 When I told the docent that maybe they should warn people they could be detained here she said they never know when they’re going to do these things.\u00a0 Another guy, either the teacher of the school group or a docent or just a know-it-all, intervened to tell me that they normally do these things at 2 AM so they minimize inconvenience.\u00a0 Another guest chimed in, “yeah, but it’s not 2 AM.”\u00a0 The know-it-all said, “Welcome to Idaho!”<\/p>\n

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Trapped.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I shook my head in dismay and asked if they had any idea how long this would take.\u00a0 The docent said, “Fifteen, 20 minutes… maybe more.\u00a0 At least we aren’t sheltering in place from the tornadoes like last week; that was 3 hours!”\u00a0 I sighed heavily, resigned to being kept here against my will.<\/p>\n

So here’s where it went even more pear-shaped.\u00a0 The know-it-all asked me where I was from.\u00a0 I for some reason took real umbrage at that… partly because on the drive out here I lost NPR and as I spun the dial past religious stations, country stations, the same 3 classic rock songs on two stations, and FOUR stations with Rush Limbaugh spitting his right wing conspiracies.\u00a0 I didn’t say this but in the back of my head I thought, “What do you mean where am I from?\u00a0 Is this a question of my citizenship?”\u00a0 Maybe he was just trying to pass the time with idle chit-chat but ya know what?\u00a0 I was in no mood for that.\u00a0 Option B — By Myself, Mr. Know-It-All.\u00a0 But where am I from?\u00a0 I’m an American, born and raised, and I believe in freedoms and treating people decently.\u00a0 I’m sure I was over-reacting to the whole thing but it all felt so… creepy.<\/p>\n

Twenty minutes later, we were “released.”\u00a0 As I walked out into the fresh air, I still had a bad taste in my mouth.\u00a0 It kinda ruined my day — I let them ruin my day and I was complicit in ruining my day as I was a just as if not more of a passive-aggressive jerk.\u00a0 It made for a knot in my stomach and for feelings of regret.\u00a0 I regretted going to the place.\u00a0 I regretted how they acted and my not voicing my feelings in a firm but respectful manner.\u00a0 I regretted how I acted.<\/p>\n

I found myself, you might say, in a depressed area:<\/p>\n

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Seriously — who would build something like this?\u00a0 And why would you label it?\u00a0 And put a guard rail around it.\u00a0 Just fill in the hole.<\/p>\n

***<\/p>\n

As I started driving back to Idaho Falls, I passed signs telling me I would reach Atomic City.\u00a0 I missed the turn off and shrugged my shoulders.\u00a0 I had lost my enthusiasm.\u00a0 I was in a snit and I decided who the hell cared about Atomic City?\u00a0 I had wanted it to be like the opening of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull<\/em> (2008).\u00a0 A lot of you may have blocked out that installment in the adventures of Dr. Henry Jones, Jr., but it opens with him surviving a nuclear bomb test by sealing himself inside a lead lined fridge.<\/p>\n

Re-reading the Roadside America description<\/a>, I don’t think it would’ve looked like this:<\/p>\n