'I'm riding somewhere south of heaven heading back toSanta Fe'
Bon Jovi - incase you didn't know.
Santa Fe is just gorgeous. Fabulous architecture, heavenly atmosphere and is what they call here 'upscale'. Go.
We moved on towards Los Alamos with breathtaking far reaching views of mesas and strange, beautifully eroded rocks. We were in a gas station in Los Alamos when a couple ran up to me and asked me if I knew Lori Carlson. They had seen our PLF stickers. They have just returned from 18 months in Cambodia working for another NGO and we knew many of the same people. Just incredible! We once met someone we knew next to a waterhole in Bandavgarh Tiger Reserve in central India. Another astonishing coincidence.
The home of The Manhattan Project is wonderful to visit. There is a top class museum detailing not just the history but also the current work of the Laboratory. Roosevelt commissioned it in 1942 and thousands of people went to worked there. There was nothing on the Mesa then except a school for 'delicate boys' which was requisitioned by the government. The school building was where the top scientists were housed; envied because it was the only accommodation with bathtubs. It was very all hastily built and the work began that brought an end to the war with Japan and caused so much devastation and loss of life.
Workers there were never allowed to use the words 'Los Alamos' it was all top, top secret. It was known as 'The Hill'. Everyone had the same address; a PO Box in Santa Fe. The place of birth on birth certificates was even given as the same PO Box number. Wives were encouraged to work in the tech dept. no doubt to keep them 'onside' and feeling part of the project. They all worked, and played, very hard. The average age was just 25. I had not appreciated, before today, that the two bombs were different. Hiroshima's was known as 'little boy' and Nagasaki's as 'fat man'.
You still needed a pass to enter until 12 years after the end of the war. The first person to enter freely was the Governor of New Mexico. Today 9000 scientists and engineers are employed at 'the lab' doing incredible work. This, as you can imagine, makes the towns' demographic very interesting. All fascinating. Yet another excellent day.
We have moved down to Albuqerque for the night and we plan to travel more 66 tomorrow into Arizona.
Santa Fe is just gorgeous. Fabulous architecture, heavenly atmosphere and is what they call here 'upscale'. Go.
We moved on towards Los Alamos with breathtaking far reaching views of mesas and strange, beautifully eroded rocks. We were in a gas station in Los Alamos when a couple ran up to me and asked me if I knew Lori Carlson. They had seen our PLF stickers. They have just returned from 18 months in Cambodia working for another NGO and we knew many of the same people. Just incredible! We once met someone we knew next to a waterhole in Bandavgarh Tiger Reserve in central India. Another astonishing coincidence.
The home of The Manhattan Project is wonderful to visit. There is a top class museum detailing not just the history but also the current work of the Laboratory. Roosevelt commissioned it in 1942 and thousands of people went to worked there. There was nothing on the Mesa then except a school for 'delicate boys' which was requisitioned by the government. The school building was where the top scientists were housed; envied because it was the only accommodation with bathtubs. It was very all hastily built and the work began that brought an end to the war with Japan and caused so much devastation and loss of life.
Workers there were never allowed to use the words 'Los Alamos' it was all top, top secret. It was known as 'The Hill'. Everyone had the same address; a PO Box in Santa Fe. The place of birth on birth certificates was even given as the same PO Box number. Wives were encouraged to work in the tech dept. no doubt to keep them 'onside' and feeling part of the project. They all worked, and played, very hard. The average age was just 25. I had not appreciated, before today, that the two bombs were different. Hiroshima's was known as 'little boy' and Nagasaki's as 'fat man'.
You still needed a pass to enter until 12 years after the end of the war. The first person to enter freely was the Governor of New Mexico. Today 9000 scientists and engineers are employed at 'the lab' doing incredible work. This, as you can imagine, makes the towns' demographic very interesting. All fascinating. Yet another excellent day.
We have moved down to Albuqerque for the night and we plan to travel more 66 tomorrow into Arizona.
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