Once we all got up in the morning, we didn’t muck around. Jonah had to get ready and off to school and we had to be in Palo Alto by 9:30am for a tour of Ross’s workplace, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. We all jumped in cars on time, me in the Astro, everyone else in the airconditioned Passat. The temperature furiously rose as we drove further from the Pacific.
As instructed, I waited at a trail running carpark for the others to meet me. Jonah had been dropped off so there was room in the car for me. I jumped in the Passat and we drove over to SLAC where Ross flashed his badge to get us in. Ross’ father in law Tom was already waiting for us in the main building’s foyer. Tom was a veteran of this place having worked here for something like forty-six years so he still walked around like he owned the place. Funnily enough, when he retired two years ago, Ross slotted right into his job and took over.
After a brief visit to the security office, Ross took us on our tour, driving us over to the major control room. There were plenty of screens but not much action. The accelerators onsite were shut down for the summer since the university students that usually used them were on holiday so it was a good time for everyone to do maintenance. Tom and Ross ran through the things that would happen and be seen from this room and I could only imagine the hive of activity it would be during an experimental event.
We left the building and drove over to the klystron gallery that sits above the most powerful accelerator on the premises. Tom and Ross had been mentioning “klystrons” ever since we got on site and I tried to figure out what the hell they were on about. I thought maybe because of the name they were some sort of supercharged electrons, but when we saw the row of buzzing machinery in the shed above the accelerator tunnel, I had to ask the question. Standing at an opening to the 2.3 mile long shed, Tom pointed out a klystron. As far as I understood it (which is probably inaccurate), a klystron is a device that can output 1,000,000 volts. With one of these situated every twenty meters or so all working in tune with each other, the result is a powerful beam of electrons flowing through the tunnel buried 40 feet below. It was an intimidating set up, seemingly endless as we peered down the long shed.
Once we got let in to the gallery, we could see a section of the beam tunnel to get an idea of how it looked so far beneath the ground. Lots of tubes surrounded the main tunnel, all with the intent of focusing the beam to get the result sought by the scientists running experiments. This was still all over my head, but it was interesting to see anyway.
Next, we drove around the facility and into the particle collider building. There was a 1-mile diameter tunnel underground and the building we went into was where particle collisions happened. This had been the cutting edge before the Hadron collider came along so it has been out of use for a while. Everything was still in place and looked as if it could be operational if it wasn’t for the dust that covered everything.
Finally, we got to see where Ross worked. I can’t remember the acronym given to his accelerator, but it was a small one, only 50m in diameter. This one also wasn’t running and isn’t buried underground so we were able to go inside the tunnel to see that equipment that generates a low energy x-ray beam. I was overwhelmed by the amount of stuff making a perfect circle behind some thick concrete walls. There were bright orange coolant tubes everywhere and a collection of rotary magnets arranged every few meters. The whole thing was a mechanical/electrical work of art. It is beyond my imagination to know how people came up with designs like this.
At many points along the main ring, there were offshoots that sent the beam out of the tunnel and into the lab where Ross worked. After the separated beams pass through two feet of concrete, they are directed into small workspaces where rigs are set up to conduct whatever experiments are on for the day. It is in these small test areas that PhD students and scientists go to work. Ross is the enabler in the process, working with the researchers to provide the set up that they need to accomplish their goals. He told what I suspected, that he never had a dull day at work, his list of things to do were ever-changing.
We were introduced to a few of Ross’s colleagues, all of which knew Tom as well. His legacy had obviously not been forgotten. After seeing Ross’s work area, our tour was over and we were all hungry for lunch. Before that though, we had to sneak out some liquid nitrogen to use at the Paradise Park Cabin Crawl that evening. Tom filled up a container and we followed a path without security cameras to exit the building then carry the container down to the car.
We dropped Tom off to his car and Ross gave me a lift back to the Astro. I had to go meet Vanessa at her work to pick up her apartment keys and the others were off for a shop at REI before we all head to Kylie’s place for a swim. I drove into Palo Alto and Vanessa met me at my car. I planned to move into her place in San Francisco tomorrow and since she was away for the weekend we were meeting now to do the key handover. With the keys in hand, I left the carpark, only to stop when I saw Kylie and Derek in the driveway! Derek and Vanessa work together so it wasn’t strange to run into them, just a happy coincidence. Kylie was there to pick up their new car to replace their written off VW and drove off in a fancy bright red family van.
I followed Kylie to her new place where I got Emma out of the car and we went into the apartment. The family had settled in ok to their new (tiny) place and Emma was enjoying the thrill of it all. She was desperate for a swim but we waited for the others to arrive with lunch before we went out to the pool. After eating my sandwich, I got Emma dressed and ready for swimming and we walked out to the communal pool in the middle of the apartment complex. Jayne, Ash, Kylie and Ross came out shortly after, just as Emma was making her way past the steps of the pool. We splashed around for a while enjoying the cool off. The more time we spent the happier Emma was in the water and Oliver was pretty chuffed with his first time in open water.
Jayne, Ross and Ash head off to get back to Santa Cruz and pick up Jonah but I stayed a while longer jumping in the pool with Emma and floating around with Oliver. Kylie was grateful for the swim and we had a fun time. With our fingers turned to prunes and the noisy lawn mower drawing ever closer to Emma’s sensitive ears, we each carried a child back to the apartment. We got ourselves dried off and I left shortly after, hoping that my wet clothes would give me some air conditioning for the hot drive.
I got a message from Jayne just after I left telling me to leave as soon as possible since the traffic was bad, being a Friday afternoon before a long weekend. I was already on the road but she was right. The closer I got to Santa Cruz, the slower the traffic became but I didn’t mind, there was no rush for me to get anywhere. The traffic was all thanks to a guy that had parked in the middle of a lane with his hazard lights on and his bonnet up. Thanks dickhead, you could have pulled over! In Paradise Park, we all helped out to get ready for the cabin crawl that was starting where we were. Jen had been busy making dips and drinks for the shindig so we all got involved. Somehow in the middle of all that, me and Jonah managed to play a couple of rounds of the Phase 10 card game.
When 6:30pm rolled around, so did some people! We were introduced to the locals and quickly forgot all their names but the chatting was non stop. Amongst all the drinking and talking, the kids were busy freezing stuff with liquid nitrogen and smashing it with hammers. Ash got right into it, filling a soda bottle with the liquid cold, placing it far away from the party goers until it exploded with a loud bang. Science is definitely fun.
After about an hour, we all moved on to the next cabin, following the crowd down the road until someone with authority instructed us to stop. Jayne, Ash and I sat around an outdoor fire and ate some delicious pulled pork rolls until we were told to move on to the next place. And so the night continued, going between beautiful cabins amongst the redwoods, each with their own unique charm and the hosts putting on a brilliant spread of food and drinks. These people sure know how to have a good time. The best cabin by far belonged to Shane and Kerry, a mix of vintage and modern, the living space was gorgeous, but the best bit was the huge man cave and garage that existed downstairs. It was such a huge area surrounded by concrete, the potential was right up there.
Jayne and Ash called it a night early but me, Ross and Jen stuck it out to the last cabin. The highlight here was a black bunny that had a crooked neck. It was creepy how it’s head stuck out to one side as if it had been broken and stayed that way. It didn’t seem to cause him any pain, just made him look ridiculous. I bailed before Jen and Ross and walked my way home along the quiet streets, managing not to get myself lost. Jayne was sleeping on the window bed in the living room when I came in, staying inside so she could be near Jonah whom she’d put to sleep. When she saw me come in, she retreated into the back shed with Ash and I took over her spot. My head was spinning as I lay myself down and I dreaded the hangover that would come in the morning.