trip

BOISE, Idaho--Imagine you're on a camping trip with your family, and your kids are bored. They want to watch a movie, but you forgot your laptop at home. Hopeless? Not at all.

You pull out your fifth-generation iPhone--yes, this is a story about future technology--power it up, aim it at the wall of the tent, and start projecting their favorite film there.

This is one of the many potential promises of a new microdisplay technology from Displaytech, a recently acquired division of Boise-based Micron. Known as FLCOS, or fast liquid crystal on silicon, the technology is designed to make … Read more

CRATERS OF THE MOON, Idaho--It's hard for me to believe, because I still feel like I just started Road Trip 2009, but I've already driven enough miles to have crossed the entire United States.

Already it's been 18 days, and on Wednesday, I hit exactly 3,000 miles since I started this project. And it was in one of the most foreign and awe-inspiring places I've ever seen: alongside the road adjacent to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.

I'll post a story and photo gallery on this huge and incredible place tomorrow, … Read more

Update at 9:22 a.m. PDT: We have a winner. It's a BOMARC B--Boeing/Marc CIM-10B surface-to-air missile housed at the Hill Air Force Museum, near Ogden, Utah.

BOISE, Idaho--Out here on the highways of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho, I've seen a lot. I'm on Road Trip 2009 and making daily stops at military installations, national parks, small towns, big cities, energy research institutions, and more.

That means I take a lot of pictures, and every day from here until the end of Road Trip 2009, I'll be presenting you with one picture--and a challenge. … Read more

ARCO, Idaho--On July 17, 1955, this tiny town, which might otherwise have forever escaped notoriety of any kind, was put on the map for a very historic reason: It became the first place in the "free world" to be powered by "electrical energy developed from the atom."

The power was generated by an experimental reactor run by the nearby National Reactor Testing Station, and the flipping of the switch seemed to usher in a new era for the United States and the world: the nuclear era.

Over time, the U.S. and other countries grew more … Read more

ARCO, Idaho--For almost a year, I've owned an iPhone 3G. I've done lots of things with it and loaded a lot of apps on it. But now, Apple has released the iPhone 3GS, and it's got new features--including a compass, voice commands, video recording, and auto-focus.

Luckily for me, I'm on Road Trip 2009 and am testing a number of gadgets, including an iPhone 3GS that Apple lent me for my journeys through Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, and Colorado.

I've already downloaded Brushes, the amazing painting app that was used to draw the cover … Read more

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho--What should I do in Boise?

I'm on my Road Trip 2009 project, and am headed toward the Idaho capital. But the plan I had in place for Boise this Thursday looks like it's falling through, and I'm hoping you can help me figure out an alternative.

So far on Road Trip 2009, I've written stories and put together photo galleries about a wide variety of topics, including green building; preparing for a post peak-oil world; starting out at the Air Force Academy; the current state of Cheyenne Mountain; the incredible canyons, arches, and … Read more

PROMONTORY, Utah--"This is the world's biggest solid rocket motor."

Those eight words, with which Kevin Rees described the Ares 1 rocket to me on Monday, are at once entirely understated, and hugely consequential. Rees is the director of test services for ATK, the primary rocket contractor on NASA's Constellation program.

Since 1981, the Space Shuttle has been NASA's main program. But now, with just a few more Shuttle launches left, the space agency--and the huge ecosystem of contractors who support it--are seriously turning their attention to Constellation, the next program. Constellation is expected to … Read more

OGDEN, Utah--I love my iPhone, but usually, I try not to depend on it keeping a phone call active for that long if I'm moving around much.

But on Sunday, I had what I thought was a noteworthy session of iPhone continuity. On my Road Trip 2009 project, I was here in Ogden, Utah, nestled at the base of the Wasatch Mountains, about an hour north of Salt Lake City.

It was a stunningly beautiful day, and Ogden features hiking trails that go straight up into the canyons of these first few miles of the Wasatches. So I drove … Read more

DUGWAY, Utah--"We train warriors and test weapons."

That's how Col. Jeff Snell, the commander of the 388th Range Squadron, which operates the gargantuan Utah Test & Training Range (UTTR), summed up the main mission of his command.

I had spent the day visiting part of UTTR's Maryland-size facilities, and discovered that Snell's words were a very succinct way of explaining what really goes on at the range: Air Force pilots fly in there in screaming-fast aircraft to run bombing training missions, often in advance of deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan, and, less frequently, … Read more