Travel

Bozeman, Montana, a hot bed of technology. Down the street from the Museum of the Rockies is the American Computer and Robotics Museum. I asked at the welcome desk if they had my first computer on display. They did not, but they had one in the basement.

It was not surprising to find the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana. What was surprising was that most of the area was devoted to Da Vinci. We took a quick pass through the local artifacts and dinosaurs and spent a great deal of time with the Renaissance master’s paintings and devices.

They call it a museum, but it’s really a mine plus an ersatz mining town: The World Museum of Mining in Butte Montana. They offer underground mine tours which we skipped. There is plenty to see without going underground.

We spent a lot of time paralleling rivers. Today it’s the Columbia. We passed some dams, including this one. There are 27 main generators plus two smaller ones to supply power to the powerhouse itself. From the dam overlook’s sign:…

I admit I never heard of Winthrop, Washington until I planned our return route. It is not a bad little town. There were no chain hotels so I chose the Hotel Rio Vista. A good choice.

Three hours from Seattle is North Cascades National Park. Beautiful scenery and chilly temperatures.

Small town America scores another nice museum: Baker Heritage Museum. Housed in the former Natatorium, it features items from local history.

There were two falls near here on the Snake River (north of the town). We didn’t see the one remaining falls (a dam diverted water from the other). Twin Falls, Idaho is a nice little city with some adjacent scenery. And it’s near the site where Evel Knievel tried to jump the Snake River Canyon.

Things to do in Idaho: visit one of the two National Monuments, Hagerman Fossil Beds National Monument. Kind of a disappointment, really. You can’t actually visit the fossil beds. But the visitor center was interesting. And there are wagon ruts from the Oregon Trail.

Small towns and small universities sometimes surprise. Prehistoric Museum in Price, Utah run by Utah State University Eastern surprised me. I expected one set of dinosaur bones and got dozens with excellent explanations. Add in some prehistoric Indian history and this was a great find.