Travel to Trinity -- Day 1

The Trinity Site in New Mexico, site of the detonation of the first atomic bomb as part of the Manhattan Project during World War II,is only open to the publc twice a year.  Saturday is the date for this year, so we decided to do a road trip to New Mexico. We pulled out of the driveway in geojeep this  morning at 7:45 and headed west.  (We squeezed everything in, but it was tight.  I think even a Smart car must have more cargo space than a Wrangler.  Of course, a Smart car is not the vehicle of choice for adventures in the remote southwest.  I am glad we have the Jeep for such adventures!)

It was slow going on FM1171 at US 377 and there was a little traffic in Fort Worth, but after that we had the road almost to ourselves.  What a pleasant change from so much of the driving last month back and forth to Ohio.  We took the interstate to just west of Sweetwater, then US 84 north to US 380.  Tonight we are in Roswell, New Mexico.

We did not take any pictures, but were blown away by the hundreds of windmills (I guess the correct term is 'wind turbines') along US 84 north of Sweetwater.  We had seen them along I-20, but had no idea there were so many more in other locations in the area.  I guess they have to be somewhere, since Texas is the largest producer of electricity from windmills of any state in the country.  I also found them less visually annoying out in these wide open spaces than crowded together in some of the passes in Southern California, but that is probably just me.

Roswell is, of course, the center of all things related to aliens.  Driving around town (and, surprisingly Roswell is much larger than we had expected) it seems that every business has their own alien standing somewhere or a welcome sign on the marquee for aliens.  Even our motel had its own alien standing in the lobby.  The UFO museum was closed by the time we stopped after dinner, but the gift shop across the street was happy to sell us a little green alien Gumby. (The Frog is now happy. :) )

Alien Gumby

We did see a very interesting display at the convention center of Henry Goddard's actual rocket launching tower that he used while launching rockets in Roswell.  Roswell is also home to the New Mexico Military Institute, which is a state-supported 4-year prep school and 2-year junior college. It has a beautiful campus and claims some really impressive alums, including Norman Brinker, Sam Donaldson, and Roger Staubach.  Who knew??  Not bad for a day expected to be only devoted to getting from Point A to Point B.