POTATO MUSEUM (Day 2 - part 2)

One of the best exhibits was a “potato virtual reality” station! When you looked through the goggles, it felt like you were in the front seat of a large potato-harvesting tractor. You could look around in all directions as the machine moved along through a field collecting spuds. Excellent!

These singing potatoes were fun but also slightly creepy. Faces were projected onto plain dolls which then sang a song about... yup, you guessed it ... potatoes.

This next room contained all sorts of large equipment.

Tools for potato consumption, from slicers to cooking spikes

An assortment of Potato Head toys

A science experiment section ... including the highly-questionable potato launcher. Ah, the good ol' days.

Potato comic books

After the museum, we stopped in the cafe for a bite. There was a wide assortment as to how one could consume a spud, but we went with a traditional baked potato.

Outside was another wonderful exhibit ... old potato harvesting machinery, as far back as the 1920s.

The back side of the museum (the old train station) faced the railroad tracks.

This train was stopped, but I think I'd still be slightly intimidated driving directly across its path.

We continued on. We had hoped to visit EBR-1 (Experimental Breeder Reactor I)... the world's first breeder reactor (now decommissioned, of course). Unfortunately tours didn't begin for another week.

Not too far away was the town of Arco, with its claim of being the first city in the world to be lighted by atomic power.... for a full hour on July 17, 1955.

This large hill is Graduation Mountain. Starting in 1920, each graduating high school class has been allowed to paint its number up there.

(left photo) The preserved sail of the nuclear submarine USS Hawkbill (SSN-666) was installed in 2003. It's also known as the Submarine In The Desert or the Devil Boat (simply because of its assigned number, nothing actually sinister).

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