radios and hot springs. but not together.

yesterday i headed south on i-25 from santa fe. my first stop was about 50 miles to the west of the highway at the very large array, or vla. now, you probably haven't heard of the vla. i just decided to stop here because i studied it in astronomy. the very large array is, in fact, an array of radio dishes 25 meters in diameter. what are radio dishes doing out in the middle of nowhere? they are listening to space. scientists arrange the dishes to listen to things like the milky way, and between the various dishes, can discern what things look like based on the radio waves they send out. super-cool--the images turn out looking something like this. they put it here, in the middle of nowhere, literally because it is high, dry, and the mountains which ring the basin block out radio signals from cities. its distance above sea level also makes the images less blurry, but how a few thousand feet could make a difference when you are measuring distant space, i don't know. the picture to the right is one that i took below a dish, but it doesn't really give you a good idea of how big they are. incidentally, they tell you to turn off your phones when you get there, which makes sense, but they also warn you not to go outside if there are clouds on the horizon, since they are understandably frequented by lightning strikes. luckily for me the skies were pretty clear. also interesting: i passed some border patrol officers just chilling on the roadside near the vla--this is still at least 150 miles from the border.
pretty soon after getting back on i-25 i exited for san antonio--new mexico, not texas. that would have been a long drive. i stopped here for the original green chile cheese burger at the owl bar and cafe. this place is literally world-famous, and word on the street is that the scientists who exploded the atomic bomb at the trinity site, a little to the south, used to eat here. as you can tell by the picture, it is nothing more than a dark, somewhat seedy bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but man was that burger delicious, and very spicy. since it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, i wolfed down my burger and hit the road again.i decided to take highway 1 south, which runs roughly parallel to i-25 and is a scenic alternative. i'm sure glad that i did. i got to drive through a wildlife preserve and enjoy the drive a little more. including watching the rain fall in the distance. this was a phenomenon i had experienced the past couple days as well, and i still think it's cool. it looks like God just took a painbrush, pulling the colors of the clouds down to earth. this isn't a very good picture, but it was the best i could do. for the record, it never actually rained on me yesterday, for which i was grateful.

i did make one pit-stop, at fort craig, which i had to drive down 5 miles of (nice) unpaved roads to reach. the fort, in commission from 1854-1844, was important back in the day. (that's what remains of the guardhouse next to the main gate of the fort up above). at first it served as an important protection against the indians, as dictated in the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo. by the beginning of the civil war, it was the biggest fort in the southwest, with 2000 soldiers. the confederates were never able to take the fort, in part being scared away by 'quaker guns,' guns made of wood to look like canons. today it is considered a 'national historic site,' and is probably not in the park system because it doesn't get enough visitors to be self-sufficient, which is sad. but it was neat to see, even in the 105 degree weather.






from fort craig i got back on i-25, heading for my destination: truth or consequences. the town, which sits on the rio grande, began its life in 1916 as hot springs, so-called because there are...hot springs. then in 1950, ralph edwards, the host of the nbc quiz show truth or consequences, said that he would air his show from the first town which changed its name to that of the show. hot springs won. now there is a park named after edwards, and the town still centers aroudn the hot springs it is famous for. i stayed at a motel called the riverbend hot springs, which i thought was great--that's it above. everything in t or c is cheerful and colorful. this motel, like many of those in town, also doubles as a spa. so i checked in, got settled in my room, and put on my bathing suit. the springs run a little over 100 degrees, and the one i sat in was 106. it was beautiful though. since my motel was right on the river, when i sat in the hot spring, the water flowed over the edge directly into the river below (picture at left). luckily, since there were storms on the horizon, the breeze was a little cooler than normal, but it was still pretty much like sitting in a hot tub. i soaked for a while, and then went to bed.

this morning i woke up, excited about exploring the town a little bit before hitting the road. truth or consequences is a colorful town, filled with spas and motels, as well as people who qualify as 'characters.' i headed to the happy belly deli for one of their famous breakfast burritos, which was as good as advertised. my waitress noticed that my bookmark was a frank lloyd wright design (which i picked up at taliesin), so we had a great discussion about him. she's seen a lot of his houses, particularly for someone who lives in southern new mexico. i walked around for a little, and after picking up some supplies at wal-mart, hit the road again.

i once again headed south on i-25, headed for las cruces, only 71 miles away. las cruces, in addition to being the second-largest new mexican city, is the home of new mexico state univiersity. since my motel last night did not have good enough wifi to blog, i found myself a cafe/gift shop near the university, called spirit winds, where i am currently sitting and typing away. it should be noted that i am drinking an iced coffee, since it was already 90 degrees when i left the motel at 9 this morning.