A Visit Worth The Drive

 Still in Billings - they think the days are hot but I'm enjoying the 80 degree weather. 

I'm still trying to catch up my blog posts. So where did I leave off? I spent my last night in Los Alamos. My drive the next day wasn't very far so I went to church Sunday morning before heading out. 

I had a beautiful drive through the mountains on a very narrow two lane road with lots of curves and traffic. I was following a fifth wheel and was happy it was him doing the towing and not me. 

We had one real scary moment. A wide load came around the corner headed towards us. No pilot car, just a banner strung across the front of the huge truck towing a trailer with a load that definitely hung over into our lane. I watched the driver of the fifth wheel jerk his vehicle over to the right and the tires of the RV threw up a bunch of dirt as they went off the road. He did some good driving getting that RV back on the road. I was able to get over far enough that we at least had a few inches to spare. I'm sure he was definitely not legal.  

No pictures. It was a beautiful drive but not one I'm in any hurry to do again. 

I made it safely to Trinidad, CO for a visit that I was really looking forward to. Jim's oldest son, Steve, and his wife, Jen, live in Trinidad. I haven't seen them for several years and I was excited to finally be able to meet up with them. 

Steve and Jen

 Steve was still at work so we decided that when he was finished, they would come to the motel and we would head out to dinner. Steve recommended the Trinidad Smokehouse and I'm really glad he did. However, everybody else in town had the same idea. The place was as packed as Apache Junction restaurants during snowbird season. Worth the wait and we got to visit.

Inside the restaurant

They told me some of the history of Trinidad. Did you know that it is called the sex-change capital of the world? I sure didn't. It is also called Weed Town USA. 

 

We did a lot of reminiscing and catching up. Steve reminds me of his dad in a lot of ways. For example, they both have the ability to take a problem and think it through to a solution. Not me. I just want the answer now!!

Dinner was really good and we even ended up with enuf left overs for them to take home. 

Trinidad used a lot of brick when they built the town. The kids gave me a short tour of the downtown so I could take pictures of some of the beautiful buildings. 

 

The Trinidad History Museum

Trinidad is someplace where I would like to spend a couple of days just wandering around looking at buildings.

Jen posing with one of the old fashioned street lamps.

Time really does go by quickly. I should have scheduled two nights here but I left the next morning, getting closer to Billings and more family time.
 

Bradbury Science Museum and More

 Los Alamos, NM   high in the upper 80s  lows in the 60s

I must admit, I did not plan this journey at all well. I do not like crowds of people. I get frustrated and give up easily at trying to find a parking spot, or joining hundreds of people trying to see something. And where I am headed next was nothing but crowds.

First up is Los Alamos, NM. The drive up the mountain was gorgeous but I have no pictures because I was driving and trying not to hold up too many other cars while looking at the countryside. Personally, I think the drive down the mountain is more beautiful than the drive up.

Los Alamos is famous for being one of the places that developed and created the atomic bomb which was the primary objective of the Manhattan Project at the Los Alamos Laboratory during WWII.

During the operation of the Manhattan Project, this was the main gate for those with top secret clearance to be able to enter Los Alamos.  The work being done in the Lab was a closely guarded secret until after the United States dropped the bomb on Hiroshima in 1945. That part of our history is fascinating and scary at the same time.

 

I arrived at the Bradbury Science Museum at opening time and was glad I did. It was overwhelming because of all the information they had. If I had tried to read everything on the walls and on the exhibits, I would have needed at least a week. And a lot of the information was very scientific and more involved than I could understand. 

This is the Mitchell 35mm movie camera. Four of these cameras were used to record the first nuclear explosion at the Trinity Site. 

They have a great 15 minute movie that really explained the creation of the bomb and the scientists who were involved. Especially J. Robert Oppenheimer, who was a theoretical physicist and was the Director of the Los Alamos Lab during the war.

This gadget was the world's first nuclear device, not yet weaponized, which was the same design as the Fat Man Bomb and was tested at the Trinity Site.

Fat Man

Little Boy

The museum has one area dedicated to the atomic bomb with replicas of the two bombs dropped on Japan - fat man and little boy. The rest of the museum covers the work that is still going on in the Lab and the advances in science that affect the world we live in now.

 

I spent a couple of hours wandering around the museum and using their interactive displays. By then the crowds had grown and you could hardly move. Time for me to explore elsewhere but that turned out to be a bust.

First up was Bath Tub Row which is currently completely torn up with road construction. Okay, so let's go find Oppenheimer's house. Well, what do you know. More construction. His house is somewhere down that street on the right hand side of the road.

 Okay, let's try Manhattan Project Park. There was absolutely no place to park anywhere near by. So I finally called it quits and grabbed a chicken sandwich for lunch. That's when disaster struck. I broke off one of my upper teeth. More on that saga later. That ended my day for me. Tomorrow wasn't much better.

Early the next morning I decided a drive up to the Rio Grande Gorge would be a good thing. And the drive up was wonderful. Not much traffic. Wide open spaces. Until you get close to the Gorge. And then there was traffic and people everywhere. There is a rest area with parking near the bridge, but the Navajo have taken over most of the rest area with all their goods to sell and their vehicles. So parking was limited and people were parking everywhere illegally.

This was the rest area.

This was the only picture I got of the bridge through the car window.

I thought Taos would be an interesting place to visit and the road ran along side the Rio Grande River with a few places to pull over and watch the rafting. That was interesting because their were so many tour rafts on the water they could hardly move.  No pictures of their traffic jams on the water. 

Taos was a drive through with no stopping because there were people everywhere. I'm sure a lot of people come up here to get out of the city and enjoy the cooler temperatures. So I made the pretty drive back to the motel and called it quits.

And this blog post is way longer than I had planned for it so I am signing off now.

Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary

 Into the 90s so it's really hot in the sun

This is another stop that Jim and I made way back when. It's only about 15 miles from El Morro out in the country a ways. They only had the lower level of land at this visit but have now acquired more land and have an upper area giving them a lot more room for all the animals.

During our first visit they were busy taking care of 54 animals. They have really expanded the sanctuary and have 106 animals that they have saved. They have foxes and coyotes but most of the animals are wolf dogs, not pure bred wolves. Of course, there are idiots out there who breed the dog and wolf and have the cutest puppies. Someone falls in love with the puppy and buys it. Then as it gets to maturity, they find out just how dangerous it can be. Then the animal gets dumped or turned into the sanctuary. It is also illegal to own a wolf or wolf dog. 

The tour is 1 1/2 to 2 hours and they are located at over 7000 feet. It was also hot and most of the animals were in the back of their pens in the shade. So I decided not to finish the tour. I'm definitely learning my limitations. 

This guy thought the guide had goodies in her hands, so he was willing to brave the heat.

They do have a camping area with no hookups and the road is rough getting there. But Jim and I camped there and it was amazing. At night it was cool enough we could have the windows open and we could hear the wolves howling and the coyotes would sing back their response. What a great experience. 

The animals all live here until they die and they have some graveyards for those who have finished their lives here. 

I took this picture back in 2011, but I love those gorgeous golden eyes of this wolf.

El Morro National Monument

 Still in Billings

Left Gallup heading south. You'all know I'm not a point A to point B kind of traveler. Two places I wanted to visit today but the day is heating up rapidly into the 90's.

My first stop is El Morro National Monument. The U. S.'s second oldest National Monument. (The oldest national monument, if you're interested, is Devil's Tower in Wyoming.)

El Morro has a small pool on it's east side that has water year round from rain and snow melt. For that reason it became the camping ground for all travelers through this area. There are over 2000 inscriptions and petroglyphs carved into the rocks.

 

Don Juan de Oñate was the first Spaniard to sign in at El Morro. He visited El Morro in April, 1605 while traveling home to San Gabriel from an expedition to the Pacific, carving his name in the rock 15 years before the Pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock. 

 

Jim and I stopped here back in 2011. This stop proved to me what a difference 14 years can make to my body and my ability to do things. I thought I could walk the inscription trail but it was not to be. I had forgotten that it was uphill most of the way and then several steps to go down and then back up and down a couple more times. And it was HOT. May was a much better time to make this stop.

I had my water which is a good thing. I went as far as I could until I came to a down slope in the trail. My ankle no longer works to go down anything that is steep. There was nothing for me to hold on to, so I made the decision to turn around and head back to the visitor center.

 I enjoyed the part of the trail I did walk. There was no one else on the trail except some four legged critters. It was peaceful and beautiful.  I thought about all the thousands of people who passed this way throughout history. Worth every step that I took.

 If you would like to see some of the petroglyphs, check out my post from May 10, 2011 - El Morrow

Clouds, Chimney Cakes and Departure

 Billings, MT   High 82  Low 60

As you can tell (if you look at my weather location), I am really far behind in posting blogs. So this post is a little bit of catch up and a little bit of travel.

First of all some cloud pictures. During the summer in AZ, we don't often see clouds so it's always a joy for me when we do have them.

Also before I left town, Pat and I had chimney cakes. Jim and I had them a few years ago but Pat had never heard of them. So we headed off for a really great treat.

Chimney cake, also known as Kürtőskalács in Hungarian and Trdelník in Czech and Slovak, is a traditional sweet pastry from Eastern Europe known for its hollow, cylindrical shape resembling a chimney. They cook them when you order and then fill them with all kinds of good stuff.

The temperature in AJ is going up and it is time for me to get on the road heading north. 

My first stop was in Gallup, NM. Made for an easy day of driving to get me back in the swing of things. I really wanted to go to the Code Talkers museum. Easier said then done. I headed towards the museum but there was a wreck completely blocking the road with ambulances and firetruck plus police. So we were all turning around and I had no idea any other direction to get to the museum. 

I drove out to Red Rock Park to see what it offered. Nothing happening that day but took a few pictures of the beautiful red rocks.

 

Figured I'd make one more try to get to the museum and this time the wreck was cleared and the road was open. Found the museum and went into the building. The receptionist was super nice but she informed me that the museum was actually closed because they were holding some kind of conference of the Navajo Nation. So after a couple of pictures, I gave up. Checked into the hotel and relaxed. Hoping I have better luck with tomorrows stops.

 

 I really like this mural on a building in downtown Gallup.

 And I found this building to be interesting. I did not go into it.