Goodbye, Hello

 Monday, August 1, 2022

Today, the remaining family members (of the 40 that made the trip!) loaded up for their respective trips home to Indiana, Michigan, Georgia, North Carolina and Oregon.  The railroad riders were supposed to leave from Salt Lake City at 3 am.  The train was 2 1/2 hours late--they could have gotten a few more hours sleep!   Three groups on different flights were overbooked and/or overweight and were offered incentives from $1,000-$1,200 to take a bump!  Kinda tempting, but nobody jumped on it.  We offered to give somebody a ride home, but nobody accepted...they wouldn't get home until the end of the month!  

We gave our goodbye hugs to Taylor, Tom and Heather . Taylor will take home plenty of memories and stories from the week.  (They've already figured out their strategy if offered a bump!)

We left Jackson Hole and drove 180 miles to say Hello to Arco, Idaho.   The landscape changed from hills and streams to desert and fields.  We are beginning to see the haze from the California fires making it's way eastward.  

The City of Arco has a population of 995 people and is known as the first city lit by atomic power. There are signs all over this small city as a reminder.  Even the local mechanic shop is called "Atomic Lube".

Arco was chosen by the Atomic Energy Commission for an experiment in the peaceful use of atomic power.  On July 17, 1955, Arco became the first town to be served by electric energy formed from the atom.  The energy for this experiment came from the National Reactor Testing station in the desert southwest from here.  There's supposed to be a museum that we may try to find and check it out.

As we drove in, we could see "Numbers Hill" in the distance.  It was a strange sight to see these large numbers painted in the side of the rock.  We later found out it is a tradition for graduating classes, to paint their graduation year on the rocky cliffs.  It started in 1920!  

We are staying at the Arco KOA, and I knew I would like this place when I went to the office and found they serve free waffles in the morning, and the Paper Plate Kafe will deliver lunch or dinner to your rig.  Even better is the sale they have on swimsuits and cover-ups!  (Yes, I helped reduce the inventory.)