8-16-2025 Burns, OR Part II

Yes, we passed through here on the outbound leg of this trip.  But when the distance between two camps is too far, a midpoint is necessary and this was it.  I suspect that many others in this park think the same way.  They come in for the night and the next morning, they are outta here.  It’s a midway overnight stop.  We’ll be here 3 nights, though.  Just a decompression stop.  Nothing to do here, really, so we’ll fix a few small Noobee issues, pick up a few groceries, have a beer at Central Pastime (now, one of our fave diners, drive-ins and dives) and do the laundry.  Slow it down a little.

This little rascal lives next door
to our Burns camp.

 

It was an awful, squiggly drive from Pasco to Burns.  We took the direct route south.  Why?  Because we’ve never been on this road before and we avoid freeways for the back roads whenever possible.  OMG.  We like to switch off driving but when I got behind the wheel, my heart was in my throat.  Yes, the scenery is beautiful, rolling foothills, cattle, horses, hawks, geese, rivers and beautiful, tall trees.  But when you are driving, you don’t dare take your eyes off the road for a nanosecond or you are launched off a cliff.  They will find the remains in about 10 years.  I drove for 10 miles and then turned the wheel back over to My Beloved.  He is very confident and stable.  No problem for him.  Bottom line:  It took us 6 hours to drive 268 miles and Rob was exhausted from driving and I was exhausted from planning my memorial service.  Never again.  (The highway from Durango to Montrose is also a, “Never again highway,” for us.  But you don’t know what you don’t know, right?  “Wisdom is wasted on old people.”)

Some of the scenery was not so
beautiful.  OR seems to be the
mother lode of forest fires.

 

I forgot to tell you a few facts I learned at the Manhattan Project Visitor’s Center in Pasco.  One display was a SADM (Special Atomic Demolition Munition) that was used by our military parachutists during several wars.  It is also known as a, “Backpack nuke,” or a, “Suitcase nuke,” with a capability of 1 kiloton of TNT.  With fuses and all detonation devices included, the pack can weigh up to 150 pounds.  They were primarily used when infiltrating behind enemy lines for blowing up smaller stuff than cities, like bridges, dams and power plants.  The SADM is no longer a part of the armed forces’ arsenal.  Question:  How big is the chute that is necessary for a fully-equipped soldier carrying a 150-pound backpack nuke?!

This is how it's done, folks.  Easy-peasy.

SADM

Next is this:  As you know, Albert Einstein was a central figure at the Los Alamos site and his equation, E=mc2 published in 1905, changed the face of Physics to this day.  E is kinetic energy.  M is mass.  C2 is the speed of light.  “Einstein concluded that because the speed of light is constant, mass and energy are equal.”  Question:  How can mass and energy be equal?  I have a deplorable amount of mass and no energy. 

Good ol' Al.

 

Next stop:  Likely, CA.  I know, I know, CALIFORNIA?!  For shame!  It was on the straightest line home and a reasonable distance.  I didn’t have any choice.  Time to head for home and doctor appointments.