Monday, August 5, 2013

Day 6: Albuquerque, NM to Winslow, AZ

First, an apology and explanation about the blog. I'm back home in the Chicago suburbs after my 5,500 mile trek. One thing I learned about driving Route 66 is that it takes a long, LONG time compared to the interstate. Looking back at my tracking data, I can see that I averaged between 30-35 miles per hour, and that was driving with the intentionality of making certain cities by the end of the day. Most days, especially out West, were about 300 miles. Therefore, with stops to eat, get gas, and take pictures, I was in the car for 10 hours a day leaving me little time to sleep, let alone write. Word to the wise: Don't try and "do" Route 66 in less than two weeks! There's so much that I wanted to stop and see that I just couldn't in order to make that night's destination. More about Day 6 after the jump...

Day 6 was supposed to be one of the shorter days: under 300 miles, lots of interstate due to much of Route 66 simply not existing, so I decided to start the day at the National Museum of Nuclear Science in Albuquerque. I write this on the eve of my 39th birthday, August 6th, which has the dubious distinction of being the first day that an atomic weapon was used in war when the Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy" on Hiroshima, Japan. This fact along with being a child of the late cold war, meant that nuclear weapons figured more prominently in my life than others. I recently finished American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer and remembered hearing from others that Albuquerque, not Los Alamos, was the best place to explore nuclear history.
The museum was very interesting and presented this complex subject with a sensitivity that I didn't expect. A few retirees from the nuclear program were around the museum as volunteers guiding visitors and answering questions. I did manage to ask a question that received the answer: "that's classified," so I figure it was a good one. I got the sense from the museum and its volunteers that the ethical questions never strayed far from the minds of those responsible for developing these horrific weapons, and I was thankful for that. I spent more time at the museum than I expected and soon it was late morning and time to get back on the road.

The car was doing very well overall, but it was time to do a bit more thorough checking under the hood. I pulled into PepBoys and found the transmission fluid was about a pint low. Unlike motor oil, transmission fluid is a pain to check, add, and there are dire warnings about overfilling. In other words, it takes time to get it right. It was now after noon, hot, and I was still in Albuquerque! This was going to be a long day.

Once I made it out of town, I got to see some neat lava beds, the Continental Divide, some glimpses of early Route 66 through railroad trestles, the "supermoon" rising over eastern Arizona, and the Wigwam Motel in Holbrook, AZ. The pictures from the day are here and the Google Map of my trip for the day is here. Again, be sure to click the "2" at the bottom of the list of steps to see the whole trip. Thanks for keeping up with me. More to follow!

No comments:

Post a Comment