Bob & Lisa's Great Alaska Adventure

An Automobile & Prison Museum, Some new Glass Flowers, and 3 Bison A Bison in the National Bison Reserve We began our day heading out of Butte, on our way to Coram, MT (near Glacier National Park). The route had me fondly remembering my childhood in Teaneck where I80 and I95 were the same road, even though one went East-West and the other North-South.  Here in Butte, I15 and I90 are also the same road, heading all directions at once. I15 & I90 are the same road in Butte, MT Our first stop of the day was the Old Montana Prison and Auto Museum. Lisa standing in front of the Old Montana Prison & Auto Museum We spend some time wandering around the prison, and Bob even found some Hokie orange chairs in the Montana Law Enforcement Museum section of the Prison exhibit. Bob finds Hokie Orange Chairs Some of his favorite car highlights are shown below: Old Cars at the Museum 1914 Detroit Electric Car 1929 Hudson 1960s Musta...

A Copper Mine, an Abandoned Copper Pit, and a Mineral Museum Entering the Orphan Girl Copper Mine in Butte, MT We began our day with a tour of the Orphan Girl copper mine at the World Museum of Mining. The picture above is us standing at the entrance of the mine, with LED-lighted hard hats waiting to descend. Back to that later. This was a diverse museum indeed.  Not only were there mine and mining related exhibits, like the one below featuring fluorescent minerals... Fluorescent Minerals at the World Museum of Mining (Note that Lisa and her Tumi backpack also fluoresced under black light) Lisa with her Tumi under black-light But for some strange reason there was also a large exhibit of sci-fi related action figures, like this set of Star Trek figures shown below.  Perhaps someone thought the copper mine was a place where no man had gone before. World Museum of Mining Star Trek Exhibit (Go Figure!) The World Museum of Mining also included a...

What a Long Strange Trip It's Been 80 MPH is The Legal Limit in WY, ID, MT Today we drove.  It is one of the longest single days of driving we had planned for our Great Alaska Adventure.  Luckily, in this part of the world, you can (legally) do long boring drives at 80 mph. I know that sounds amazing to you East Coasters-- but out here in the wide-open west 80 is the norm. M handled herself admirably, and purred along at 80 (or 85, or the occasional more than that when passing on a two lane road) just as she does as 65. The day began where we left off at the Holiday Inn in Rock Springs, WY.  We then crossed the border into Idaho where we spent several hours.  We continued on to Montana, where we stopped for the night in Butte.  Here are the highlights: Wyoming: We drove through the WY piece of the trip at 80 mph. (We also passed two of the power plants where Bob did very successful work.) Idaho This picture is of the Idaho drive-- ...

We Wish the House (& Dino) Farewell, and One False Start Later We are Off on Our Great Alaska Adventure! Dino Takes M's Place in the Garage This morning M ceded her spot in the Garage to Dino, and we wished him well as we were about to embark on our Great Alaska Adventure. So we locked up the house, set the house alarm, closed the garage, waved goodbye to Dino as he disappeared, and set out. Here's how it went: Yes, that was a local Jeffco Sheriff car you saw heading in the direction of our house.  Could there possibly be some problem with our alarm system?  When I set it before we left, it didn't engage right away. So as you can see we turned around, and drove back up to the house to take a look.  Sure enough, the sheriff was parked right at our house and told us they were responding to a silent panic alarm.  Apparently my alarm remote malfunctioned and set off the panic alarm rather than setting "Away" mode. We explained to t...

Ready as We're Ever Going To Be to Take Off on Our Great Alaska Adventure Lists Checked Off-- We're Ready! We've crossed off all the lists (well mostly-- see above), we've packed our bags, and the food bag, and the coats bag, and the books bag, and the electronics backpack.  Electronics Staged--a Veritable Noah's Ark of Gear Well the electronics bag is not quite packed yet, as you can see above.  Even 10 years ago it would be impossible to imagine taking this much electronic gear on vacation.  We did pare it down to two cameras (well three if you count the camera in the binoculars), two tablets, two phones, two extra battery packs-- this is starting to sound like Noah's Ark of gear-- and every type of cable you can imagine. The fridge is truly cleared out now (apparently except for a couple of green twister ties in the produce bins). That's my milk for the morning; and in case you're wondering there is one egg left in that carton, and it...

Ready to Hit The Road! Washed, Waxed, Plastic Wrapped, and Ready to Hit The Road M is ready to go.  She's washed, waxed, plastic wrapped, and shining bright thanks to Bob's hard work today. The trunk is packed, after several tries, and the culling was kept to a minimum. Packed (and packed) Trunk I was even able to fit in some cooking essentials like one good pan, two good knives, a good bottle of olive oil, and of course some critical spices. Spices for Home Cooking on the Road The interior is all decked out too.  There is a mount for the GoPro on the door (shown below).  This will allow filming out the side window, with it either up or down (depending on the type of animal being filmed). The GoPro Mounted on the Side Door, Filming Out the Window There is also one on the dash, shown here: GoPro Mounted on the Dash to Capture the Road Ahead This is the camera view from the dash-- should pick up the road ahead nicely. (If you look cl...