June 5, 2015, Thursday, Taos, NM
Day 36

We take full advantage of the White Rock plug in and leave the coach in the morning to visit the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. The museum tells the story of Project Y better known as the Manhattan Project. The town barely existed prior to 1943 when the military condemned the Los Alamos Ranch School for boys (which had existed since 1917) and some other properties. Construction of the town commenced in February, 1943, supervised by General Leslie Groves while Robert Oppenheimer recruited the best science minds in the world to come to Los Alamos, a town that was very primitive, to work for a secret project under strict military supervision. The initiative for the project was Albert Einstein’s letter in 1939 to FDR hypothesizing that a fission chain reaction creating a massive weapon was possible and that he believed Germany was pursuing such a course of action. The letter is in the museum as well as FDR’s reply.  Fortunately, FDR took the matter seriously and set the wheels in motion, ie. acquiring the needed uranium from Canada and Africa since it is not plentiful in the US. The project was completed successfully in only 27 months, an amazing feat. Mock ups of Little Boy and Fat Man are also present.  Little Boy was a uranium bomb with a gun trigger which the scientists were so sure it would work that it was never tested prior to being dropped on Hiroshima.  Fat Man was a plutonium implosion bomb developed after a determination that the trigger method would not work with plutonium. This bomb was tested, successfully, at the Trinity test site in southern NM. Fat Man was the bomb dropped on Nagasaki. A part of the museum includes testimonials from several soldiers as well as President Truman and others setting forth in detail how many US and allied lives, and also Japanese lives, would be lost in an invasion of Japan which was the next step in the war in 1945.  Estimates ranged upwards of 400,000, many more than were killed by the two atom bombs. The museum was not all history.  A section on the current developments at the Los Alamos Laboratories includes the development of supercomputers.  Soon to come is the exaflop, computing a million trillion (that’s a quintillion) calculations per second. We spent a half day in the museum but could easily have spent a day. Back to the coach and headed to Taos, a 60 mile drive with some spectacular scenery with snow covered mountains.  Sampled some NM wine at Vivac winery, not the best. Checked into the Taos Valley RV Park and visited Kit Carson’s grave before dinner at El Meze.  Buffalo Tamale in green chili soup with feta and cilantro with a 7 out of 10 on spiciness level.  Rosemary had grilled trout with lemon, mint, cilantro, garlic and Moroccan butter.  Very good meal. No walking tonight as its quite cold and our jackets are in the coach.

June 4, 2015, Thursday, White Rock, NM
Day 35

Departed Santa Fe and headed to Los Alamos.  On the spur of the moment we decide to go to the Bandelier National Monument which is on the way.  The visitor center is in White Rock which has a fairly new RV parking lot with electrical hookups and overnight parking for $20.  We decide to stay the night and plug in. We take the shuttle bus to Bandelier which is the only way to get there.  Bandelier, elevation over 7300 feet,  has about a 3 mile foot trail loop along the Frijoles Canyon and a tributary to the Rio Grande.  The trail passes cliff dwellings once occupied by Ancestral Puebloans dating from 1150 to 1600.  Ladders enable you to ascend into the cliff dwellings.  Petroglyphs etched into the cliffs are visible.  One dwelling called Alcove House requires climbing a series of ladders up 140 feet to reach it.  Scared of heights Rosemary agrees to go to the top and with encouragement and a little help she makes it up and, even more surprising, down with flying colors. We spent the entire afternoon there. It’s a must see if one is in the area. Supper at the Blue Window Bistro in Los Alamos was good, pork tenderloin with barbeque hollandaise sauce.  Rosemary had salmon.  After we eat we take the walking tour of the town.  Walk is cut a little short as Rosemary gets cold as the sunset nears.  Weather here is crazy.  Last night low was 49 so we have to run the heat at night.  However, in the morning, less than an hour after the heat is on we have to switch to a/c as the sun really heats things up with highs in the mid to upper 80's.