South Dakota

We traveled north through Kansas, Nebraska and then South Dakota.  We crossed the Missouri River and had to get a picture of the bridge over the river at Chamberlain.  Someday we would like to walleye fish here -- and we would be able to buy resident fishing licenses.  We are always buying nonresident license and they can be outrageously expensive.  We are happy that Minnesota non resident license are a pretty good deal.

 After spending a few days waiting for the wind and rain to let up in Sioux Falls, SD we got as far as Faribault, MN and camped there praying no tornados hit.  The second morning it tried to snow on us.  We had to take a little trip to Cabelas in Owatonna while we were in the neighborhood.  We got to see Babe Winkelman and Gary Roach, well known walleye fishermen, while we were there.  It got us really excited to get up north and hit the water. 

We will be heading up to our job on Sunday the 29th.  We are praying the weather is going to improve -- as in warm up- so that we can get out on the water without freezing to death. 

Ancient Petroglyphs & the Atomic Age

We went to the Three Rivers Petroglyph site. There are thousands of rock drawings clustered on a hilltop out in the middle of the desert. It was along a route that the ancients traveled and they left their mark here. The petroglyphs haven't really been interpreted. Who knows maybe it was just ancient graffitti.

We had the chance to go to the Trinity site. This is where the first atomic bomb was tested. The scientists came down from Los Alamos to the White Sands Missile Base to do the test. The trinity site is in the north central portion of White Sands and is still in an area of active military testing. Twice a year they let civilians in to the site to look at the artifacts they have there. The obelisk made out of the black lava rock found near the site is where ground zero was. The amount of radiation in this area is supposedly the same as having an xray taken. There is green crystally rock on the ground -- it is called trinitite and is radioactive. You aren't allowed to pick any up.

We also enjoyed some interesting eating and drinking establishments while in the Alamogordo area. The Nuckleweed Place is a restaurant in a converted mobile home. You need to call for reservations and sometimes even call ahead to order. We also had a beer at the No Scum Allowed bar in White Oaks. White Oaks is an old gold mining town that is almost a ghost town except for the 50 residents who keep it going.

We have now traveled from New Mexico to Minnesota. We will be staying in the Twin city area until the last weekend in April. We will then finish the last leg of our journey up to Lake Kabetogoma.

Observatories

We stopped in Alamogordo, New Mexico for a few days to visit friends and enjoy warm weather. We drove up in the Sacromento mountains to Sacromento peak to Sunspot. There we toured the Evans Solar Facility where there is a giant solar telescope. This is the triangular shaped building -- in it is the telescope and half of it is above ground but the main portion is below ground. We got to go inside and watch them work -- mainly looking at data on a bunch of computer monitors. There was a nice visitor center with lots of interactive displays.

There is also another night sky observatory called Apache observatory in the same area-- the largest telescope there is housed in the squared topped building in the picture. The view from the property these different telescopes sit on is spectacular. You look down over the whole Tularosa basin and you can see the White Sands below. The drive up to the observatories was beautiful and we even saw some snow in the shady places because we were at an altitude of over 9000 feet. We got to see a herd of mule deer along the way as well as an interesting old log trestle bridge built high over a gorge.

More to come next blog on sightseeing around Alamogordo.

Tall Blooms

We were April Fooled by mother nature. We had hoped to leave Yuma on Sunday but the wind was howling. It was blowing over 20mph with gusts up to 50mph. When you are driving a very tall, very long train you don't drive in that kind of wind.

I got some last pictures of a Palo Verde tree in bloom. Very pretty yellow blooms on a green tree. The bark of the trunk and branches are green. The ocotillo has pretty orange blossoms on top. Usually when it blooms all of the green leaves on the branches are gone but this one kept its leaves while it was blooming.

We are now in Benson, Az at over 3500 ft above sea level and its going to get down to 35 degrees tonight. It's hard to believe we've been enjoying temps in the 90's and lows in the high 50's to low 60's at night. Although it sounds like its been very warm in Minnesota --- good -- we like it warmmmmm.