Awake: 6:43am Temp 53 sleep 6+10 mostly sunny overnight @ Pendleton, Oregon.
I slept well last night knowing that our anti-freeze would not be spotting our Suzuki car as we continued our travels.
We left the Lookout RV Park @ 10:40am & continued heading northwest on I-84. The strong winds were with us again today but the scenery is still comforting to enjoy.
@ Stanfield, we took a shortcut on U.S. Route-395 thru the town of Hermiston & then hooked up with I-82, & crossed the Columbia River into the State of Washington.
We've never spent time in the Tri-Cities area while living in Washington State, so we picked a campground in Kennewick, WA arriving @ the Tri-City RV Park @ 12:20pm.
Today's travel: 68 miles 2+15 travel time 13 gal used 5.3 mpg 30 avg speed.
Unfortunately, we missed seeing the campsite number assigned to us as we slowly crept thru the very tight & narrow campground roads... & ended up in a dead end corner. Probably some (40) min later, we were appropriately parked on a different campsite.
Meanwhile Kathy had been scouring her collection of pamphlets & brochures to find out what's interesting in this area. The BIG thing of yrs ago & located not too far from our campground...is the Hanford Site & the Alphabet homes.
Kathy programed our Garmin GPS toward Richland & the CREHST Museum (Columbia River Exhibition of History, Science & Technology), & away we went.
We were greeted inside the Museum by (2) well dressed & distinguished looking gentlemen; Roland is (86) & his partner age (97). We asked Roland what this museum was all about! "Well, come with me & I'll just tell you all about it" he said.
And he was good @ telling us about it because he was an electrical engineer & worked at the Hanford Site for some (30) yrs. With the assistance of pictures & dioramas in the museum, he explained: the Hanford Site, was the 1st nuclear production facility in the world, established in 1943 to produce plutonium for national defense. The site was selected by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers because it had abundant electrical power from the Grand Coulee Dam, a functional railroad, clean water from the Columbia River, & available sand & gravel for construction.
During the next (21) yrs, nine plutonium-production reactors were constructed by DOE (Department of Energy) on the Hanford Site, along with facilities to separate & purify the reactor products into required forms. All of these reactors were decommissioned by the late 1980's.
Many times Roland went over my head in describing the integral details of the nuclear process but, some of it was vaguely reminiscent of my experiences @ Brookhaven National Laboratory when I worked there during the 60's.
He covered the present day decontamination & clean-up process that is still going on & radiation areas that are being dealt with. Roland's mind was like an encyclopedia, every page was explained properly. We thanked Roland for the personal tour & his professional knowledge regarding this complicated subject. Then he said: "You're on your own if you go into the next room; I'm sure you can figure it all out without my help."
The next room contained a number of hands on units illustrating static electricity, generated electricity, nuclear power, hydro electric power, etc. Matthew would have loved seeing & having a hand in making low voltage electricity.
And then, we went downstairs & learned more about the Alphabet Homes.
During WWII, Richland was transformed from a quiet farming community, to the bustling Hanford Engineer Works, an operational personnel housing community. The population jumped from (250) to (20,000) residents between 1943 & 1949.
5,000 homes were built or transported to the city during the same timeframe; 3,740 were built within a two-yr period. These homes are referred to as Alphabet Homes because each type of home was designated a letter of the Alphabet. More than 160 homes were built in the Gold Coast Historic District providing housing for white-collar employees, executives, & managers of the Hanford Engineer Works.
Between 1957 & 1960, the entire town was sold to town residents & business owners. The sale of the town was reportedly the largest single-package real estate transaction in U.S. history @ that time.
This museum closed @ 5:00pm & that time was fast approaching. We were most appreciative to Roland for taking the time to carefully lead us around a high tech subject & reduce it to a common language that we both could understand a little better. By the way, both of these gentlemen did not act or look their age. Roland's partner, whose name I didn't retain, looked more like (80). Could there be something in the water or air around here for longevity?
Back in our Suzuki, we traversed the nearby Richland neighborhood & easily found the aforementioned Alphabet Homes; just as they advertised, they were of several different styles, floor plans & well kept. We saw no "for sale" signs.
Dinner: leftover Italian sausage stoup & "hay & straw."
Evening movie: "And now Miguel," a documentary with Pat Cardi, Michael Ansara, Guy Stockwell, Joe De Santis. Flavorful, leisurely paced account of young boy who wants to join his father on his summer mountain trip to graze sheep; set in New Mexico. 1966. Interesting & relaxing, & Kathy did enjoy the relaxation + she stayed awake!
Lights out: 11:15pm.
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