Something I have learned on all the road trips I have taken over the years is that no matter where you go or which route or road you decide to take, you will end up running into road construction somewhere, and if its a two lane back road or highway, you will end up waiting.
The goal was to reach the very cool NRAO VLA, or National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array. Those of you who followed an earlier blog, I did about 2 or 3 years ago about my motorcycle trip, may remember me talking about this place and seeing pictures. Even though I have been here before, I think it is so cool that I wanted to take Cole there to see it. While Cole thought it was cool, I don't think he is quite as geeked out about it like I am. I just find this place so intriguing and fascinating. It amazes me that they move these massive satellite dishes closer or further apart and that they are all synchronized, and combined, they act as one very large satellite dish. The VLA is also part of what is called a Very Long Baseline Array, which is combines other satellite dish locations across the continental US, Hawaii, and the Caribbean to act as one huge dish. The VLA has also appeared in a number of movies, like Contact, 2010, Terminator Salvation,and Transformers:Dark of the Moon, as well as in a Bon Jovi music video, Night Ranger and Dire Straits Album covers.
After the VLA visit, we drove to Alamogordo, NM where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we plan on visiting the New Mexico Museum of Space History before making a hard push to cover as much distance to Frisco, TX as we can.
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