Saturday, October 6th, 2007

Time	Event
5:45a	Alamogordo, NM - Day 1 Greetings from the 'Gord. Flew out of Boston yesterday (an 11am flight...my planning was good, but more on that in a moment). Connected in Denver, flew into El Paso, then drove up from here. The 'Gord is about an hour north of El Paso. In July of 1945, the first atomic bomb was tested at the Trinity site, which is about a 90 minute drive from here. Twice a year, they allow people to visit the site. The last time I was here was in October of 2001 (as a coincidence, the dates line up and it was *exactly* six years ago today). I was in El Paso when I found out that they had decided not to have the tour that year due to 9/11. This time, I called a few times and made sure it was still happening. (smile) Planning: the idea was that I was going to get some sleep on Thursday night, since I'm working from home now. No one told the mainframe that, and she can be a jealous bitch at times. I did make it here safely, but I also went to bed as soon as I got here...I was over a day without sleep. I slept soundly. So I'm going to the site first thing this morning, then leaving before the crowds get there (knock on wood). I'll come back here and visit the Space Museum (we'll see), and leave there before the crowds get back from the site (again, knock on wood). By then I should be good for a nap, and then I can see what night life the 'Gord has. (Clue: absolutely none.) I fly back to Boston tomorrow. Just a quick trip to see a piece of history. All good. Current Music: Pet Shop Boys - "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" (1 Comment | Comment on this)
9:44p	Alamogordo, NM - Day 2 The drive time was more like two hours, but I got to the site and sat in line for 25 minutes with the other drivers to get on the post. The site is on the White Sands Missile Range, which is an Army facility. Every time we'd stop, people would get out of their cars or off of their motorcycles to see what the delay was. (They'd also take pictures, which wasn't illegal since we weren't on the post yet but wasn't very smart either.) Once we cleared the gate, it was 17 miles to the site. There were plenty of cars and people there already. One of the first things I did was take a bus over to the McDonald Ranch House. This building was used as the final assembly point for the Trinity device before it was taken to Ground Zero. One of the rooms actually has a sign hanging in it that says "Plutonium Assembly Room". That's classy. I took pictures of the house, inside and out...they've done very little to it since 1945, and it's nice to see what the architecture looked like. I then took the bus back to the parking lot, and walked down to Ground Zero. What's left of Jumbo is now in the parking area. (Jumbo was supposed to be used to capture the pieces of plutonium in case of a dud. They didn't use it because they felt confident that the device would work.) In the Ground Zero area, there are three items...the monument at Ground Zero, a mockup of the Fat Man device, and a sheltered area of the original crater. You can't see the original crater...it's all closed off or buried now. I took pictures. I also took a couple of videos...I'm not really happy about the quality, so I may not upload those. I was falling asleep by the time I got back to Alamogordo, so instead of going to the Museum I came back to the hotel room and crashed. I don't know if I'm going out tonight or not. There's actually work to do at the office (and I can do it from here). I leave tomorrow morning to head back to El Paso, then home. All good. (1 Comment | Comment on this)
9:59p	D-Oh! The pictures are here. (Comment on this)

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