With all the issues we were having with the house and trailer, I was pleasantly surprised that we actually left Lake Havasu the day we were supposed to.
Our first stop was El Paso, sort of. It takes us two days to drive that far so we have to stop overnight in the Tucson area along the way. Our good friends Tom and Dianne, up until extremely recently, lived in Bayfield CO, and staying with them for a few days was already in our plans. But then they sold their house! Not to worry though, they bought one in Sierra Vista AZ, relatively near Tucson. They arrived there on the 20th, and we arrived on the 21st, about an hour after the moving truck left.
It was nice to get to see their new place and always fun to spend time with them, plus as a bonus, we saw our friends Jeff and Tina. Unfortunately we could only stay one night, but we will try to stay longer next time.
From there we landed in El Paso, where we spent a few days with Paul’s mom. I wish I could say that all our bad luck was left in Havasu but at least a little bit of it followed us. I occasionally have episodes of Atrial Fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat, and wouldn’t you know, my heart “kicked out” while we were in Sierra Vista. My handy dandy Apple watch alerts me, and also does an EKG. I sent a PDF of the EKG to my cardiologist, and let her know what my plan was- as long as the heart rate stayed low, I would wait it out, if it got too fast, I would head to the Emergency Room. She agreed with my plan, so, wait it out I did. It’s not a lot of fun since I can’t walk very fast or do very much. This bout lasted longer than usual, but finally resolved after about 5 days- after we left El Paso.
The small town of Bernalillo New Mexico, just north of Albuquerque, was our next stop on the way to Colorado. Our original plan was to spend 6 days hiking and with my heart back to normal and my foot getting better, I was itching to get back on the trail.
My first, and really only hike here, was the 2 mile Capulin Peak Trail at the top of the the nearby Sandia Mountains. The temperature at the rig was 97 and at Sandia Peak it was 67- a huge difference.
There were nice views at the end of the trail, plus we drove further up the road to get a view of Albuquerque.
Although my foot did ok, I didn’t want push it, so the following day we elected to explore the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The first section of the museum was about World War II, The Manhattan Project, and The Atomic Bomb.
As I was reading through the displays- and it’s a LOT of reading- I began to wonder how Germany didn’t beat us to the punch with the atomic bomb. There are several reasons as it turns out- they lacked resources, Hitler didn’t make it a priority because he was more interested in instant gratification rather than the long game, and the German scientists focused more on theoretical physics rather than experimental physics.
In the meantime, the United States was secretly working their way towards creating an atomic bomb. There were three sites in the U.S. that were involved- Oak Ridge Tennessee produced the uranium, Hanford Washington supplied the plutonium, and Los Alamos New Mexico was home to the design and production centers for nuclear weapons. The project was called The Manhattan Project and Los Alamos was referred to Site Y.
It actually became pretty much a secret city. The scientists, as well as their families, were essentially sequestered in this make shift military base/town. Initially, living conditions were very primitive, but as time went on, many improvements were made, and life was more “normalized”. In fact it was so normal that they experienced a baby boom in 1944, creating a severe shortage of diapers and hospital beds.
The birth certificates of children born there during this time listed P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe NM, as the place of birth. Also creating a sense of normalcy were things like a youth center, a school, a church, a playground, etc.
Drivers licenses of people living in Los Alamos were secretive, listing a number as a name, and on the signature line the typed words “Not Required”.
After years in the making, on July 16, 1945, the atomic bomb, called Gadget for test and security purposes, was successfully tested at the Trinity Site in New Mexico.
A very short time later, August 6, 1945, Paul Tibbets Jr. and his crew aboard the Enola Gay, dropped the Atomic Bomb, Little Boy, on Hiroshima Japan, changing the course of history and the nature of warfare forever.
Three days later, a second atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki Japan. The reason for the short time span between the two bombs was to create the illusion that the U.S. had plenty of bombs and was going to keep dropping them, with the hope that Japan would surrender. And they did. Fighting ended on August 14, 1945.
The museum didn’t just focus on warfare and bombs, it also had sections about other, less deadly, but just as important, uses for nuclear power- such as nuclear power plants and nuclear medicine.
There was even a display of the DeLorean from Back To The Future- a car that was “actually” a plutonium fueled time machine. The use of the car in the movie increased sales of DeLorean cars for a while, but not for long enough to keep the company afloat.
Our final outing in Albuquerque was a trip up Sandia Peak, via the tram. With us was our friend Teresa.
Once at the top we started out on a hike, but my foot wasn’t up for too much so we cut it short and headed back for lunch. The wait for the restaurant at the peak was way too long, so we headed back down to find someplace for a late lunch.
And then, we moved on to Colorado.
