Reservoir & Waterfall

I've been doing a lot more outdoors stuff lately up here. I have to say, I'm pretty lazy, but it's been surprisingly enjoyable to get out and about. We've been doing some cliff jumping in a local reservoir and also hiked down a waterfall. I actually have something approaching a tan, and spending all day hungover in the mountains is a touch better than laying around hungover in sad sad Idaho Falls.

Today I went on a tour of something called "the site" at INL, about 1 hour away from town. It's basically the lab part of the complex where they condition spent fuel and where the advanced test reactor is located. We also saw EBR-1, which is the first power reactor in the world, and lit the town of Arco, ID for one glorious night in the 50s.

Two members of our tour group was assigned to wear dosimetry tags, which record the dose of radiation one is exposed to. I was one of the lucky tag bearers, so of course, as we are going through the metal detectors at one of the facilities, I put the tag through the x-ray machine. That is a big no-no, and when the data from the tag comes back, it'll look like I was fried pretty good. The tour guide was pretty cool about it, but I felt like a pretty big dumbass.

Overall the tour was pretty good, and I enjoyed seeing the army guide with their M-16s, and I also got to play with some of the robotic arms. Anything to get out of the office for a day...

Wind Cave Redux

So we attempted the Darby Wind Cave again on Sunday.

The vast snowfields and mudpits are gone, so that made for much easier going on the hike, although I still conversed with exhaustion through most of it.

(Exhaustion: Hi, I'm back again. Feel your lungs burning? See all those switchbacks up there? Yeah, I'll be your hiking buddy from now on. And that liter of water is nowhere near enough.
Me: Ok, gasp, um, you don't have to mock me, but you can stay, gasp, and you're much better company than that Common Sense guy)

Alright, so that exchange didn't actually happen, but we did make it into the cave. It was cold and windy and dark, with tight spaces to squeeze through and wet rock and freezing mountain water. I don't think I'll be going back to the cave, but I'm glad to have gotten there.

I wish I had a better picture of this cave, especially from inside, but if you look closely you can see a waterfall, and that is the mouth of the cave.

Big Baby Boredom

Yup, not much going on around here.

I went to trivia night again on Tuesday and won a round. They tried to give me a Jewel CD, but I exchanged it for Wyclef Jean, which sadly was the best thing they had. Actually, I did end up going to karaoke after that. I sang The Sign, which is by far one of my most favorite songs. I'm such a bad singer, but that's an easy one.

Tomorrow I am going rafting on the Snake River with a few of my bosses and other interns. The water level is high, so I think it's gonna be pretty rapidy. I've never been whitewater rafting, so hopefully I don't fall in or get seasick. I'm expecting exhilaration. Honestly.

This weekend I'm hoping to explore some of the swimming opportunities around the area. Supposedly there is a really cool lake with cliff jumping and a rope swing somewhere north.

Jackpot!

Some friends and I went to Jackpot, Nevada over the weekend to do some gambling. It's the closest place that offers real casinos with table games. It's true: gambling is for suckers. I lost a little bit of money, but we had fun, and the drinks are free.

Jackpot is right over the northern Nevada border, about 3 hours away. The town is nonexistent, basically several smallish casinos surrounded by a trailer park and discount liquor store. We stayed in a hotel/casino, and even went to the buffet and swam in the pool. I played mostly blackjack and watched my friends lose money in no-limit hold em. I think the key is to play penny slots till your arm falls off and keep the complementary drinks coming.

It's easy to get depressed in casinos. The median age is old, the Social Security checks of the vast majority of gamblers either trickling away in nickel slots or gushing forth in $10 buy-in black jack. If you can ignore the reek of loneliness and decrepitude, you might just have a good time. If not, at least you've reminded yourself of some of the worse 'what-ifs' in life, speeding back across the Sawtooths toward the loose embrace of a different kind of escape.