(Day 2 Payson to Albuquerque)
(Ignore the times on these Google trip maps. They're for one portion, usually, not the whole day. To see the actual estimated times, you could map them out yourselves live if you like!)
 |
| (c) Google |
We left the Rodeway Inn pretty early, at 8:00 am. A trip to Albuquerque is a chance for a trip to the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, now situated at 601 Eubank, Albuquerque NM. STB had been here some twenty years ago, when it was housed at Kirtland Airforce base. Surveillance culture and post 9/11 paranoia forced it to move elsewhere (as seen on Breaking Bad, Breaking Bad fans!). Now it has its own grounds and building. Growth has changed it a little. Instead of a gritty history of learning to blow shit up, it’s now a combination of GHOLTBSU and displays possibly paid for by some nuclear authority, all about Happy Mr Atom and his power to light all our homes and shed x-ray light on all our bodily ills, supplemented with some displays about other types of power and a cheerful Prof Einstein manikin who said some stuff about physics – I can’t remember what, but it was pretty basic. To be fair, we were playing in the children’s “learning” section.
The basics of the museum – pictures of atomic piles, flattened Hiroshima, Los Alamos, stories about men who got a bit too close to criticality by nudging the wrong thing inside the pile of lead at the wrong time, mock-ups of Little Boy, Fat Man and “the Gadget” (first atomic device, exploded in the desert on July 16th, 1945) – were all present and correct. Outside is a graveyard of planes and missile launchers, all sitting in the desert like some Ballardian sculpture garden.
 |
| Nuclear Museum Grounds |
 |
| Nuclear Museum: Fat Man (model) and plane |
 |
| Nuclear Museum |
 |
| Nuclear Museum |
 |
| Nuclear Museum |
 |
| Nuclear Museum |
We filled up the RV yet again and set off on the 25 towards Santa Fe. Of that feted city, we stopped only for a cup of coffee at the DeVargas Center on Guadalupe St at a “kiosk” Starbucks who wouldn’t take my rewards card but didn’t sound very sorry about it. Then onwards.
We buckled down for some serious road. We took the 285 towards Taos and stopped for a short walk in the Rio Grande Gorge, where others were having a jolly warm kayaking time in the river. This was a truly idyllic view with its mountains and trails and a very splashy river obviously proud to be keeping up the traditions of attractive rivers. I found an ancient can of beer wedged between three river rocks as if left there to keep cool. (So that’s what the kayakers get up to. And they look so serious.) Its logo and text were badly faded, and its pull-ring topped with silt.
“What’s the ‘use by’ date on that?” I said in awe, expecting it to be a collector’s item from the sixties.
“December 17th 2017,” STB said.
We didn’t drink it.
 |
| Rio Grande Gorge |
I’d been to Taos before, in 1999, explored it and bought books. This time we didn’t stop. My main impression of it now was that it was largely composed of traffic. That’s a change from last time, when it seemed to live up to its mystical mountain retreat reputation. Still, if you looked away from the road there were certainly plenty of Laurel Canyon-style LA-dwelling-hippy signage and at least one geodesic dome, so it hasn’t changed that much.
Ever since I was a kid I’ve wanted to go to the sprawling adobe sacred houses at Taos Pueblo, but ever since I was a kid I’ve also been aware that nosy tourists aren’t anyone’s cup of tea, so we didn’t go. In fact, I couldn’t even see it. Like most of the very many Native American places we passed through on this trip, the part of the land where their activity happens was discreetly hidden.
 |
| Taos traffic |
 |
| Possibly in the general direction of Taos Pueblo |
More driving followed, towards Colorado on the 522 and the 159 through Fort Garland to get to the 25 at Walsenburg CO. The mountains look like watercolor paintings from the road. (Particularly if Payne’s Gray is your favorite pigment.)
 |
| Colorado coming up |
Pic: Not sure why that's so dark. It was still daylight.
Colorado watercolor mountains. Note the volcanic intrusions running like dry stone walls off to the left and the volcanic stock on the right. (Thanks, Phil Geo.)
We got to spend the night in Pueblo, Colorado, no relation to the Pueblo mentioned above. We parked for the night at the Walmart Supercenter at Dillon Dr, Pueblo just around nine. When I opened the fridge for some snacks all the Diet Coke rolled out and hit STB.
 |
| Welcome to Colorado |
 |
| Colorado Watercolor Mountains |
Colorado watercolor mountains. Note the volcanic intrusions running like dry stone walls off to the left and the volcanic stock on the right. (Thanks, Phil Geo.)
We got to spend the night in Pueblo, Colorado, no relation to the Pueblo mentioned above. We parked for the night at the Walmart Supercenter at Dillon Dr, Pueblo just around nine. When I opened the fridge for some snacks all the Diet Coke rolled out and hit STB.
We made the joke about contents having shifted.
No comments:
Post a Comment