There was ice in my water bottle and the fridge had gone down to 0*C. Not a good sign. I just hoped that at lower elevation it wouldn’t be so cold, I don’t think I can hack more consistently freezing weather, Florida made me soft. I only just managed to keep my fingers warmed up during my morning routine and sat in the sun for breakfast, but it didn’t offer any compelling heat. I left camp and continued on my way. There was no sign of my bacon friends of the night before.
I carried on the way I’d been heading yesterday and was happy with my camp since there wasn’t another option for at least an hour. I was back in the desert, and the highway was small and unpopulated, except for a few farms here and there. Most of the cars I saw were farmers in their beat up trucks hanging their arms out the window to indicate.
When I reached highway 60 heading east, I started looking out for the Very Large Array (VLA). A suggestion by Jon, I knew it was a collection of satellites somewhere out in the desert. I saw them from ten miles away and thought, “Is that it?” I maintained that thought when I pulled over at the rest stop adjacent to them and wasn’t too impressed, they were too far away and I was disappointed. A few miles on however, I discovered you could visit the array and its visitor’s centre.
Up close, the array is very cool. I paid $6 for entry and looked through the few exhibits in their modest visitor’s centre, watched the twenty minute movie about the installation and its capabilities, then head outside to do a self-guided walking tour. The place wasn’t crowded and I was glad to be out in the sun, trying to suck some warmth out of it. I read the signs around the walk about the funny sun dial and the facts of the array. There are 27 dishes, 9 in each leg of a Y-shape that can stretch up to 13 miles in each direction. I was lucky in that the dishes were arranged in their closest formation, so all 27 were within a few hundred meters of each other. Even luckier I was, because they all did a lot of moving while I stood beneath one of them. All in perfect unison, they searched the sky for their target universe. Me and the few other people around the dishes looked on in awe. The technology is from the 70s, but they’ve kept the technology up to date while keeping the dated infrastructure that moves the dishes around on railroad tracks and special rail cars.
I only wish there’d been someone around to answer questions. I wanted to know what the images would look like if they only had 18 dishes, instead of 27. Why were there three dishes pointing straight upward, as if in defiance? Why are they white? I was interested to learn that absolutely anyone was use the array for research, as long as your reasoning is more compelling than the hundreds of others that vie for a chance to use the technology.
I stood around the different parts of the complex for about an hour, reading the signs and just looking at the dishes. Like most things born of engineering, they looked brilliant against the natural backdrop without even trying. My last stop was “the barn” where dishes go for maintenance (there are actually 28 dishes, but one is always in the shop). I had a snack here as I looked back at the array, but all movement had ceased, the metal beasts remained still.
I drove back out onto the highway and when it ended, I got onto a major highway heading north. I stopped at a rest stop not far up for lunch and some catching up since it was the first time I had reception in a few days. The world had not collapsed without me. Onwards, I continued into Albuquerque. I didn’t really know my intentions here, but there was the option to go see some of the hotspots of the Breaking Bad TV series, like Walter White’s house and the carwash (more Jon recommendations), but after trying to drive through Old Town and hitting traffic and roadworks, I decided to give it a miss. I ended up pulling over and sitting in a park when Nick called, a tennis friend I’d made in Florida. It was great to catch up with him while sitting in the sun on a nice piece of grass. It was around 4pm and it had finally warmed up! I stayed on my patch of grass and spoke briefly to Kevin in preparation for him being here in a few days (it still hasn’t sunk in), then got back in the car. Bye Albuquerque, that was fun!
The highway east of Albs used to be Route 66 and was boring multi-lane highway except for the scenery. This forty-mile stretch of highway betweens Albs and a town called Grants must be where every cowboy scene has been filmed. It had the train tracks in the valley, with running trains, and clifftops nearby with red rocks where the cowboy would ride atop as he sussed out his target on the tracks below. Amazing, I only wish I could have stopped to take a photo, but there wasn’t really an opportunity.
When I got to the Walmart in Grants just off the highway, it looked like a good camp until I saw the massive “NO OVERNIGHT CAMPING” signs at the entrance. There goes that idea. Wtth limited options, I got onto freecampsites.net and found a spot a twenty minute drive off the highway. I didn’t want to drive that far off the highway since I wanted to have reception so I could get some stuff done (like my taxes, yay). Anyway, I didn’t really have another choice so off I went. I watched my signal like a hawk as I drove, looking out for potential back-up camps as I drove. When I pulled into the campground in the Wildlife Conservation Area, sure enough, my signal went to zero, but as soon as I drove to a site at the top of the hill, I had plenty. Perfect camp. This is easily the most heavily-equipped free camp. Covered picnic tables on concrete pads at every site, huge fire rings and stand-up grills and a sweet view!
I watched the sun set behind the cliff to the west while I spoke to Dad, telling him the stories of the past few days. I could tell it was going to be another cold (more like freezing) night. After dinner, I got to work on some admin stuff and happily made progress. When Mum mentioned she was concerned I wouldn’t be challenged in van life, she really had nothing to fear. Doing American taxes solo is a HUGE challenge.
