After spending a day marveling at the galleries and enjoying the mellow ambiance of Santa Fe, I wanted something different, so we decided to visit nearby Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos. The National Monument has a huge number of Native American sites, but it was also the site of a devastating fire last year which closed most of the visitor’s areas. When we got there, a sign at the entrance station warned that there would be at least a 20 minute wait for parking. We drove down to the bottom of the canyon and they were right – so we came back. Now if I’d been riding my moto, there would have been ample parking. Oh well.
[singlepic id=35 w=320 h=240 float=left]We came back to view the supersecret Los Alamos National Laboratory which, I knew, was created in the remote New Mexico mountains in 1943 as part of the Manhattan Project to develop and perfect the atom bomb. There are many indications that trespassers are not welcome, including mysterious signs enclosed by a chain link fence with nasty razor wire and signs that warn you about undetonated explosives. We were required to pass through a very high tech security gate, although when the guard looked at us, he must have seen no threat in two retired folks in a Honda CRV, so he waved us through. It is obvious that they are still building something there, because there’s a lot of new construction mixed in with the seventy year old WWII temporary buildings.
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In addition, though, they featured hands-on science exhibits which were fascinating to the few kids there. I wish we could have brought Katy, Emily and Josh and some of Becky’s students with us to see the nanoparticle and nuclear fission exhibits. You could even admire life-sized replicas of the two nuclear bombs that ended WWII. I enjoyed it but Georgia was completely creeped out by what she saw.
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There were several other senior citizens there, and many of them had obviously worked on making the bomb. This man, in particular, was describing in minute detail his contribution to making nuclear bombs to a rapt audience.
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Finally, we had a meal at the AAA recommended Blue Door bistro, which was quite good, and I visited a weird surplus store which was recommended in the Santa Fe glossy magazine. It’s called the Black Hole, and is a huge, meandering warehouse filled with junk. [singlepic id=42 w=320 h=240 float=left]The roof leaked and the furnace didn’t work, and there was crap everywhere. And not a few geeky people looking for parts for art projects or electronics projects or – I’m not sure what many of them were looking for. There were no prices on anything, and when you took your purchase(s) outside, the proprietor asked to make an offer. I found a neat, complicated multipole switch that Josh might enjoy taking apart, and offered him $5. He accepted on the spot; which, of course, means that $5 was much too high.
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The next day, we learned that Terry and Christi had come to Santa Fe as a surprise vacation and were staying downtown at a classic old hotel that had been a monastery. We joined up, and drove part way back together. We hurried through Taos and stopped to vsit [singlepic id=46 w=320 h=240 float=left]the incredibly scary Rio Grande Canyon bridge. It is on US 64, and was built in 1964. Christi noticed that it swayed alarmingly when an 18-wheeler drove by, and I noticed that the concrete bridge bed was crumbling, and they were working on the bottom of the bridge, and I also noticed that the design looked very much like the I-35 bridge which recently collapsed in Minneapolis, and which was also built about the same time. [singlepic id=45 w=320 h=240 float=left]. After a bit of trinket purchasing, we headed back by way of Antonito, the ever-dismal Alamosa, and then Buena Vista and Tennessee Pass. Terry and Christi turned west at Saguache, Gunnison and Delta. We kept in touch by cell phone instant messages (which caused me to go over my monthly allowance!) and arrived at our house only a few minutes before they did.
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