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Uncle Markie out and about.

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Mon
11
Sep '17

Trip Report: Road Trip to Eastern Washington

In an incredibly busy work week for my consulting business, but the trip to the Tri-Cities had been planned for months.

Brought two laptops so I could keep up with the work.

We picked a smoky week to travel with the top down…

We stopped in Cle Elem for gas and a BQ Pulled Pork:

Needed more BBQ sauce, but not bad for a chain. Even stopped in at a sausage company – which if we have time, we’ll stop at on the way home. No way to keep sausage from rotting in a black car in the heat of Eastern Washington.

Sadly, the Telephone Museum across the street wasn’t open either. Off through the smoke, to Kennewick we go!

Saw this sign at a rest stop….

Guess they are trying to stop “Trucker Bombs”. But the ragtop looks good…even in the smoke.

Made it to Kennewick and got checked into the Days Inn.

Rache went out for beer, he came back with a cocktail glass for me (I’d bitched about the paper cups in the room)!

And I got the “workstation” set up…

Since I write reviews for Trip Advisor, decided to use them to find us a spot – Barley’s BrewHub:

I had the special – which was a DAMNED FINE Rueben:

Rache had a burger and rings (rings GOOD):

Not a full bar, so I’m ordering off the cider menu:

I tried the Huckleberry and the Cider Green Apple. OK – but not a Manhattan.

Rache sensibly went out for breakfast – I went for the in-house cold biscuits and gravy, and got another hour of work in before we need to check out and head out to the real reason for this road trip:

Yep, that’s the visitor center for one of the three branches of the Manhattan Project National Park, the others are in Los Alamos, NM, and Oak Ridge, TN.

We board a HUGE bus for the six people on the tour – the early tour (8:30am) was worthy of the big bus. Ours had a lot of “smoke related” cancellations. The tour starts with a 12-minute film, which I saw most of after having to step out for a client call. I turned in the project — think 7ft tall by 10ft tradeshow backdrop and more artwork for the case that turns into a podium. This is the bottom 1/3 of the backdrop…

But back to the tour – it’s 30-45 minutes on the bus to the Hanford Nuclear Reactor B site. We get more information on the bus:

Some (including me) would say that I’ve never met a geeky tour I didn’t want to take. Guilty.

If it wasn’t so smoky, you could see more of the complex. In the distance, you can see Reactor D (twice the size of B), which has been cocooned (in concrete):

And other various sites:

But back to Reactor B (there is no A, no C, no E) and the tour:

The face of the reactor

And a early robot used to pull fuel rods:

The control panel for the reactor:

The picture below shows the inspection plates removed. The Russians come once a year to inspect this reactor as part of the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty.

You can’t run a reactor without lots of water…but really, the it probably just a boondoggle by the inspectors to get a trip to The States. And below, the backup water supply to shut the reactor safely without power:

And more pictures!

And the intercom system. Uncle Markie wants!

And a final look at the core of 1500+ rods:

Outside is the one of the trains used to move nuclear materials (including waste) around the site. When they were constructing this place, there were 45,000 workers on site. WOW.

Another 45 minutes back to the visitor’s center, which is in a complex where there are three breweries, a winery, and a distillery. Guess which one we did first! Solar Spirits:

After the tasting (four tiny pours out of the six they make), I took two of the cups out to the trunk and poured some of my hooch – which got a favorable nod from the mater distiller, who then gave us a private tour.

And because Rache is a craft beer fan, we stopped at Shrub Steppes Smokehouse Brewery. Rache enjoyed the beer, we both found the BBQ a little on the dry side – we both had the meat platter.

After our early dinner, it was back in the car for the three hour twenty five minute return trip, using the 4-lane route which is mileage-wise longer, and probably 30 minutes quicker.

Home by 9PM!

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