One thing I wish was that I could schedule a trip that didn’t involve waking up incredibly early. Alas this trip involved waking up at buttcrack o’clock to get to the Harrisburg airport for our 6:15 flight to Dallas and then on to Albuquerque. Once we got to Albuquerque we had a new mission for us: rent a car from the President’s Circle at Hertz. Adela didn’t quite believe me that we literally just got to pick any car, so we missed out on the Charger (in the long run I’m glad we did!) and snagged a Nissan Rogue. After a brief period of acclimating to driving a car that doesn’t brake on its on we headed off to the Sawmill Market to meet Adela’s parents for some lunch. We all got the exact same thing we got the last time we were there, as I try to ingest as much green chile as possible while in New Mexico.
After getting lunch we had some extra time to kill so we decided to check off another of Albuquerques attractions with a visit to the zoo. We got some waters to allow us northerners to hydrate as we wandered through the various habitats. We saved the reptiles for last, which turned out to be the wrong decision since the building closed at 4! After padding out steps at the zoo the next stop was the hotel for check in before heading out for some New Mexican food for dinner. The next day involved very different activities for the three parties of people. I went out for breakfast with Adela’s mom and dad… while Adela was busy learning at the women’s health conference at the hotel. After breakfast my day got even more stressful as I had a nap planned, followed by some reading while Adela got drinks with her friend from undergrad. I did manage to find a coffee shop of our favorite New Mexico coffee brand after my nap and got a bischochito latte, which was delicious.
Saturday began the real adventure of the trip. To continue the theme it began with waking up at O dark thirty (actually closer to five ish am) and driving south towards Socorro. Along the way Adela made a comment about the Very Large Array and I happened to check their website to see that they were having an open house. With it only being a whole-afternoon detour of course I booked a time for a tour! Afternoon plans accomplished it brought us to the real purpose of the trip… visiting the Trinity Test site at the White Sands Missile Range. They only open the site up twice a year and the website made special mention that they were expecting a large crowd this year – so we showed up around an hour early. Turns out nerds in general are planners because there was already a pretty long line of cars considering the gate didn’t open till 8. In true military fashion that meant it opened at around 8:20 and an hour or so later we made it through. The site itself is pretty deep in the base so it took another thirty minutes or so to make it there.
The parking situation was surprisingly good! Adela had warned me to temper my expectations and I’d say she was pretty correct with what to expect. There are two things left from the explosion – one is a teeny little bit of concrete sticking up from the ground and the other is little bits of Trinitite all over the ground. Trinitite is the green, slightly radioactive, glass leftover from when the bombs went. They bulldozed most of it, but little bits of it are scattered everywhere for you to pick up and examine, but definitely not take! The other nice thing was how… civilized people were about taking pictures. There’s an obelisk set up directly under where the bomb was. And while it was first come first serve… nobody would get in the way of your picture. And everyone was offering to take pictures of other couples and groups! To culminate the experience I stamped my national park passport book with a special edition stamp (it’s green!) Of course I messed it up, I think in recent years I’m 1/4 for proper stamping,
Anywho, Trinity Site complete we began our trek out to the Very Large Array. No road trip is complete with food, so we stopped at the subway in Socorro to re-energize for the hourish drive out in to the dessert. The Very Large Array is a group of 28 radio telescopes in the middle of the desert where they do cool science-y stuff. By that I mean take pictures of space of course. They timed their open house to coincide with the Trinity site open house to maximize attendance. And boy was it the coolest thing, we were given a tour by an “associate scientist” which I think just means that you’re under the age of 50. The array was in the “D” configuration which meant that all of the telescopes were as close together as possible. The wildest thing is… there are four configurations and the TELESCOPES CAN BE MOVED. These things are massive constructs, and they just pick them up and move them at a brisk walk pace somewhere else. They also can do all sorts of maintenance on them on site, in the nearby telescope barn. I’m glad Adela mentioned this at the ungodly hour of the morning that she did, because the VLA was one of the best tours I’ve been on. Probably because science is awesome and stuff.
Science complete we began our journey back to Albuquerque. It was my turn to drive and after about thirty minutes Adela asked me if I wanted to take a different route that ran parallel to the main highway but through the national forest. According to Google it was only like a fifteen or twenty minute detour, so of course the scenic route sounded good. Well… I got a little concerned at the first sign saying no state maintenance. This was shortly followed by a section of dirt road. Then more paved highway. My concern came back as the highway got a little rough, but oh well. Of course it was then validated when we passed over a cattle guard and saw a sign next to the road that just said “Open Range” Luckily there was still a “road” although… let’s just say I was very glad we had an SUV rented. The closest thing I can equate it to is the circle road at south mountain… but two lane and for like fifteen miles. I’ve never been so happy to drive on pavement as I was after that. We rested a little after we got back before meeting some of Adela’s friends from med school for dinner. We woke up the next morning and went back to the Piñon coffee shop where Adela got a steaming hot burrito and I got a room temperature bear claw (I think Adela won breakfast).
