Puye Cliff Dwellings, Jane to Albuquerque, Socorro, White Sands, Roswell

 On Sunday we drove to and joined a guided tour of the Puye Cliff Dwellings, an historical landmark and home to he Santa Clara Puebla people, about an hour northwest of Santa Fe. After our visit there we ove to Los Alamos, the secret location where much of the work associated with the WWII Manhattan Project was conducted.

We were able to get a reservation for dinner at Geronimo, another of the top 5 restaurants in Santa Fe.  We were seated at the bar along with two charming Gay couples, one of whom was celebrating their first wedding anniversary. The service and the food were excellent and worth the expense.  Here we are before digging into our deserts.

Monday we resumed our convoy and drove from Santa Fe to the airport in Albuquerque where Jane returned the rental car and started her return trip to Ottawa via Chicago. I then made a stop at the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History. The exhibits are well done, particularly those that depict the history of the discovery of nuclear energy and the development of the bombs that would be dropped n Hiroshima and Nagasaki and that led to the surrender of Japan and the end of WWII, and the start of the Cold War and the ensuing arms race between the USSR and the USA.

After the stop at the museum I continued my journey south to Socorro where I spent the night.

Today I rode to White Sands National Park the furthest point south on this year’s trip. New Mexico is a vast state with some of the most beautiful scenery in the USA. The following pictures present some of the diversity of the landscape. The first two are of the Valley of Fire, a ancient volcanic lava flow that extends for miles and in which trails have been set up for visitors to walk on.  The last three are from the White Sands Dunes.

Today was a long day of riding under sunny skies with the temperature rising from 28 degrees when I set out from Socorro this morning to a high of 39 at White Sands. Stopping to rehydrate is really important. Tonight  I am in Roswell New Mexico. I have had a good dinner and, as yet, I have not met any aliens, though one couple at the restaurant looked a bit weird, or was that the Margarita I had. Well there’s always tomorrow.