The Flight of Bear Canada

Day 33 - May 15th
Albuquerque to Las Vegas...New Mexico

I spent the first part of the day romping around Old Town Albuquerque, doing some souvenir pillaging.

0530

A side alley in Old Town

0533

One of the restaurants in Old Town.

0534

Statue of the Virgin Mary outside a shrine.

0544

Entrance to one of the Markets.

Then I rode north. I had picked up Motorcycle Touring in the Southwest. The fastest route north would be I-25, but I decided to meander a bit and rode up AZ-4 towards Jemez. The road was nice and twisty.

0545

An oven at the Jemez Pueblo Information Center

0547

An old indian temporary home.

0554

Seems like an understatement.

I then rode up to a security gate. I thought I had made a wrong turn. It actually was the right road to Santa Fe, however I was approaching Los Alamos. Yup, that Los Alamos, location of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, and some little weapons project known as the Manhattan Project. I stopped in a little museum and found out more about the history of the area. Los Alamos was originally the location of a Boy Scout camp where boys were turned into men with exposure to the outdoors. It was felt that a regimen of exercise and outdoor activity could help the sickly kids become stronger.

0555

The Los Alamos Museum.

This lasted until 1943, when the Army moved in and wiped Los Alamos off the map. Los Alamos was not listed on any maps, the place ceased to exsist. Mail was delivered to a postal box in Santa Fe. Residents drove cars with license plates bearing only numbers. Their driver's licenses also had numbers insead of names. Mail was sent out in unsealed envelopes so that censors didn't have to steam them open. This secrecy was essential. Germany was also working on a nuclear weapon. Japan may have well been working on a nuclear bomb, but evidence of that dissappeared into Russia when the Soviet Union invaded Korea on Aug 1st 1945. Also Russia began infiltrate spies into the American weapons program after World War II. This place would make an excellent stop on a Cold War themed tour, along with the Titan Missle Museum and the Trinity site.

Reflecting on my route, I was glad the Cold War is over. I rode past several nuclear targets. (Los Alamos, Yuma, San Diego, China Lake, etc...) And I don't usually listed to the radio when I ride, so hostilities could have ramped up while I was riding and the soonest I would know is when I saw the blinding flash.

Maybe I think too much when I ride. :)

Day 34 - May 16th
Las Vegas NM to Boulder CO.

The riding today was cool, literally. I-25 stretched north and rose in altitude. The landscape was flat and green.

0556

Downtown Las Vegas...New Mexico.


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Contents Copyright (C) Michael Fodor 2012.