Butte. Say it, it's fun.

And somehow I made it. Everything in one piece. Leaving from Bozeman this morning, my sole detour was to stop in Butte, because, well, it's another fun name. I detoured to the World Mining Museum, because I thought it might be a place with canaries and helmet lights. Oops, turns out by mining they meant mined minerals. The museum was housed in one of the science buildings on the Montana Tech U campus. I saw florescent and phosphorescent minerals in one black light lit room. I also noticed my sneakers glowing nicely, but that is neither here nor there. Turns out, phosphorescent indicates the substances that will retain the ultraviolet light and radiate after the source of the light is turned off. Florescent, on the other hand, indicates the reflection of this light source. Also, discovered that the sapphire and the agate are Montana's "official" state minerals.


And then I drove out of town and came upon these signs. Oh, Butte, I knew you were fun.















Anything ending in "& opera house" can't be bad, right?





Then, I learned the hard way how "scenic" is synonymous with "long and slow" when I took an alternate route, along a scenic byway rather than continue on I-90. 50 miles later, I found I-90 again. I did happen to pass by a nice lake, and road signs pointing to the towns of, and I kid you not, "Opportunity" and "Wisdom". I glanced down the road indicated as the way to "Wisdom" and it was labeled as 30 miles away. Too far for me to go find Wisdom, so I kept driving.



Also, of note, are these chains of regional gas stations. Really, must we shorten "come" to this? Isn't it a simple-enough word and directive that it doesn't need totally destroyed into phonetic confusion? And it just doesn't look right. On the other hand, "Come and Go" is a total oxymoron anyway. Poor choice of name, I say.