We headed out of town on NM-68 and it wasn't until 40-miles later when we arrived in the town of Española that the scenery started being photo worthy.
It was at the 63-mile mark in our route that we came upon something unsettling.
We were in the town of Los Alamos, that may sound familiar if you were privy to the existence of the Manhattan Project from 1942 to 1947. Administrators in Los Alamos decided it was an ideal location for the secret laboratory where they designed and built the world's first atomic weapons.
The puzzling part for us was when the GPS guided us directly up to a military style check point. I stopped and pulled over to the far left lane that wasn't being used to decide what to do, use the turnaround lane and leave or proceed up to the guard gate.
I felt making a u-turn at this point might be worse than get told no at the gate, so I pulled forward and told the guard I was headed to Bandelier National Monument. He asked for my ID and then told me to go 4-1/2 miles up the road and turn left. DO NOT STOP, DO NOT pull over or turn left or right on any of the side streets. Plus, NO PHOTOGRAPHS!
When a man in uniform gives me instructions, I pay attention. I guess this is still an active site, but civilians are not welcome to pop in for a visit.
It wasn't very much further down the road when we arrived at the front entrance to Bandelier National Monument. After showing my ID and Lifetime Senior Pass to the attendant we avoided paying the $25 Entrance Fee.
After struggling to get all leveled up on our campsite, we headed down to the Visitor Center to eat lunch in the little café they have on site. Then it was time to get my Passport Book stamped, grab a hiking trail brochure and check out the museum.
Around 5:00PM a very familiar white van, named VanV, came into the campground and pulled into our site.
We haven't seen VerJean and Winston since we all got together last April in Texas to watch the Total Solar Eclipse. We knew they were coming here, but it was still a pleasant surprise to see them doing so well and to be able to give each one of them a big hug.
After a few hours of sitting in THE POD talking and catching up, they moved their van over to their own campsite on the other side of the loop and got settled in themselves.
We made plans to meet for lunch tomorrow back down at the café and then hike the 1.5-mile Pueblo Loop Trail here in the park. Of course all that depends on the weather, and right now we are supposed to get a fair amount of rain tomorrow with a few longer breaks when we might be able to sneak in our hike.
Tomorrow we move down to a city park for one night just outside of Albuquerque, NM. Winston and VerJean will also be joining us there and Katherine and John will be arriving later in the day.
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