Born there.
Been there. The Alien Museum looked like its exhibits were put together by a bunch of middle schoolers. Still though, it’s a nice distraction when you’re on your way to Alamogordo for a ski trip.
If you’re going east-west on I40 you could plan on see the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo TX and Roswell as two kitschy road trip stops. Carlsbad Caverns is neat.
When I was a kid we went to Carlsbad. Maybe that can be included on a circle trip. I love roadside attractions though.
In 2014 one of our stops was to a little town in SE Kansas called West Mineral. It’s attraction is Big Brutus, the largest earthmover ever made. I knew the stats before visiting but until you get right up by it it doesn’t hit you.
That’s two days per year. I think it’s the first saturday in April and the first saturday in October.
Um, no.
Some of the scientific personnel drove their own autos up the hill to Los Alamos. Others took the bus. None were spirited out the back door of a curiosity shop.
Mail for the facility mostly went to P.O. Box 1663, Santa Fe (a couple of other addresses were used by VIPs and for scientific journals). The primary reason was for central censorship of all outgoing and incoming mail, but the ranch school had never had rural delivery either. What was a bit unusual was that P.O. Box 1663 was even put on the birth certificates of babies born in Los Alamos during the war.
Had to stay a night there a few/several years/decade+ ago now. Cooling system died - the plastic thermostat housing actually melted some. Could have been some sort of alien disrupter beam I suppose. The unusual thing was the Motel 6; it was new construction and kind of upscale with a nice lobby and rooms - not some recycled tired chain motel take-over.
Tented in Bottomless Lakes State Park. In the middle of the night, two lights approached us and then a disembodied voice commanded us.
It was a state trooper. Turns out what we thought was a tent site was one of their bottomless lakes.
. . .
Spent an evening having dinner at a mom and daughter Mexican restaurant. There were no other customers. The mom and daughter just kept making food and bringing it out for a full evening – essentially a multi-hour tasting menu – and it was delicious. A very memorable meal.
They had reduced it to one day a year in the past few years (including last year) for budgetary reasons. I see they’re back up to two days a year for 2016.
We passed through it without stopping on a trip out West some years ago. We had a good time giggling and snapping pictures of anything alien-themed as we zoomed past.
Too late to edit: Maybe 2014 was the last year the Trinity Site was only open once. That was the year I visited; I thought it was 2015.
I’d read that story while living in Albuquerque. Here’s a link that seems to corroborate it:
“New residents of Los Alamos rode the train into tiny Lamy, New Mexico, the nearest station to Santa Fe. Then they checked in at 109 East Palace Ave. in Santa Fe where Dorothy McKibbin would make arrangements for everything from their luggage and household goods to their passes that would get them into the Secret City. Next, it was a 35-mile trip to the northwest, one that could take up to four hours, depending on the conditions of the dusty or muddy arroyos and the steep, winding mountain road.”
Another one:
**After arriving in Lamy, the scientists, SEDers, and families were directed to 109 E. Palace Avenue in Santa Fe. The building, constructed as a Spanish hacienda in the 1600s, is located just off the plaza in downtown Santa Fe. During World War II, it was the administrative hub of the Manhattan Project.
Dorothy Scarritt McKibbin was the first reassuring face the fatigued newcomers saw. At 109 E. Palace, McKibbin informed them that their journey continued another 35 miles along the winding road up to the Pajarito Plateau. In the early months, she dispatched an average of 65 people each day to “the Hill,” as Los Alamos was called. The steady stream of arrivals meant the office was often “bedlam,” as McKibbin described it. She issued passes and IDs and directed newcomers to their homes, received shipments of household items to be distributed to the Hill’s residents, and tended to personal matters as needed.
McKibbin was the perfect person for her job and quickly became indispensable as the “Gatekeeper” at 109 E. Palace Avenue and a close friend and confidante of Oppenheimer. She had a warm smile, an engaging personality and was reassuringly calm and efficient. In recognition of her contribution, McKibbin was awarded the title of “First Lady” of Los Alamos and declared a Living Treasure of Santa Fe.**
Admittedly, this may not not quite the same as what I’d read about being sneaked out the back of a nondescript shop.
My flying squadron deployed to the old Roswell AFB for a week in 1996 as part of an exercise. We were billeted in the old alert facility, and operated out of the hangars on the base (the base was no longer active, and was only used for exercises).
Never saw anything “alien” while on the airfield - ever made it into town.