A long driving day today. Here are some notes from the road.
One: If you ever find yourself in San Antonio, New Mexico, make sure you drop in for a green chile hamburger and several of the coldest beers in the West at the Owl Bar. Would also be good if you brought a designated driver. The place looks like a run-down old shack but the atmosphere and people are great. The bar is said to be from Conrad Hilton's first hotel. The other interesting story is that back in the mid-1940s, the Owl was the hang-out for a bunch of guys who identified themselves as prospectors. Turns out they were the research team on the Manhattan Project. Not surprisingly, the Trinity Test Site is a few miles southeast of town.
Two: The best place to get lost in the West is Roswell, New Mexico. Happened to me today when I could not find US 380 East. After wandering around a bit, I got back on track but not before driving by the UFO Museum in downtown Roswell. All I can say is that I drive 6,000 miles and get lost only once -- in Roswell. Sounds as if aliens are messing with my internal navigation. Or, aliens think the Airstream is their mother ship, arriving to pick them up for their return trip.
Three: West Texas may be known for oil and cattle but there is a new sheriff in town -- wind turbines. Hundreds, no thousands, of wind turbines mark the West Texas plains. I have no idea how much electricity is produced by the turbines but I know that I drove through thirty miles of them. I saw a few in Kansas on the way out but these wind farms in Texas are huge and they stretch across the landscape.
Will try to make my way across another part of Texas tomorrow. Texas is like eating an elephant, you take one bite at a time.
At Los Alamos, scientists manually brought together fissile materials to determine Critical Mass values. This was referred to as "tickling the dragon's tail." Very dangerous. Maybe they just needed to take the dragon to the Owl bar first and fill him full of green chile cheeseburgers and beer.
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