Anyway as per ancient and honorable tradition, the washers at the motel worked fine, but the dryers didn't. The clothes were still wet by check out time.

As we packed the van we discovered we had slept in the proximity of greatness. In the motel lot we found a stretch humvee adorned with WCW logos--the Spring Breakout Tour. We have no idea who was breaking out, but the humvee was impressive.

While the others went to a nearby Mexican restaurant I watched our clothes in a Laundromat. (Dan brought me a nice safe steak sandwich from Subway.) I entertained myself by watching the native Tusconians interact with the washing machines. One of them was having quite a long involved conversation--it ranged from the Kennedy assassination to some film company and elsewhere. Problem was she was having this conversation all alone, as she randomly put clothes in the drier and took them out. (It reminded me of home, but I take the city bus a lot.)

It was Kathy's turn for the Mark Fuhrman book--she thinks Bobby did it, in spite of the fact that he'd been dead for five years at the time of the murder--so I read a book I'd bought from the Celtic jewelry merchants across the road at Estrella. Martin Carvers Sutton Hoo : Burial Ground of Kings? covers the history of the excavation including the excavations in the 1990's and I recommend it whether or not you're in a mall laundromat on a Tuesday morning.

After lunch and laundry we went to the Desert Museum. If you've never been there--go. It's as much a zoo as it is a museum, and an arboretum as well. Also it has an artificial cave environment, with a mineral exhibit that's got some gorgeous gems. Kathy and I especially enjoyed the Cats exhibit. It has an upper and a lower area--the lower area has glassed in areas where you can get a close view of the animals. The ocelot woke up from its afternoon nap while we were down there and started prowling around. He--definitely a male--must have heard the excited voices of four or five women nearby and as it was near feeding time came to see if there was anything in it for him. He paced around the enclosure jumped up into a small square niche, behind glass in the lower exhibit, which is where I think he's fed from. He pawed at the door, and we got to see his beautiful markings at a distance of about 3 or 4 inches.

The prairie dog enclosure is a lot of fun. One of the males was alarmed by all the people, I guess, and stood up and gave the "DANGER" cry, which is this loud meeping noise made while standing on his hind legs. He was so into it he fell over backwards.... (Which the information at the park says is a defensive maneuver; it makes them a smaller target if something's swooping down to grab a quick lunch. And it also contributes to the overall cuteness quotient; which is prbably one reason they haven't been completely eradicated by now as I'd hate to have to walk, ride or drive through a prairie dog area--it's a broken ankle waiting to happen. )

It was feeding time at the mountain goat exhibit. (Ok, I've been told it's actually a Rocky Mountain Sheep. However, the sign said mountain goat. Either the sheep was in the wrong place or the sign was wrong.) Dan decided to get a picture of the critter poised looking picturesque, just as the goat ducked into the cave to eat. So Dan waited. Every so often the goat would peer out, and dart out for a moment only to hurry inside before Dan could get the camera up. Finally Dan stood with the camera waiting--and he got it. The goat darted out and Dan got the shot. Then realized he had a picturesque shot of a mountain goat taking a crap.....

My favorite critter, however, was the elf owl. I like owls, something I rarely admit because if I did people would inundate me with cute toy owls--and the one thing I don't need is dozens of fuzzy cute stuffed toys. OK, dozens more, cute fuzzy stuffed toys. Most of the Desert Museum has naturalized areas for the animals, but they still have an enclosure with birds caged either because they've been raised in captivity or are rescues with problems which would keep them from being able to survive in a more natural environment. One of the cages was marked "elf owl" and I looked and looked and didn't see anything at first. Then, literally in front of my nose there was a movement--the elf owl was right up against the mesh next to me. The owl blinked at me to let me know I'd disturbed it and went back to sleep. I could have touched it, but didn't because despite the fact it was only the size of my fist, it's beak looks pretty sharp.

Anyway, we took off when the museum closed at sunset and we made a small side trip for Dan to Benson, Az--a town Dan has always longed to see. This is only amusing if you've seen the movie Darkstar. Otherwise it's about as exciting as Ellettsville. (Note to Ellettsville residents--I'm sorry.)

While we tried to figure out where to spend the night we made one more unforgettable pilgrimage--we stopped to see The THING. It's a tourist trap on I-10 east of Tucson, with "See Rock City" type billboard saturation--i.e. every 10 feet or so. When you stop there you find yourself in yet another place selling Southwestern Souvenir Stuff, but for an extra $0.75 US you can see The THING. What you pay for is a very cheesy roadside museum, displaying old cars, adding machines (all of 30 years old--one was the model I was taught to use in business school in the mid-/70s) and dozens and dozens of critters made out of driftwood, and finally you come to a glass case housing The THING, which is a highly suspicious looking Indian mummy. I say highly suspicious because the straw hat covering the mummy's nether regions appears to be a cheap fake Chinese coolie hat. Plus, I figure the exploitation of this thing is so blatant some Native American group would have gotten a real mummy removed years ago. The driftwood critters were cute, the rest was about what most people could come up with out of a well-stocked garage, shed or attic.

When we planned the trip there were two things Dan really wanted to see--Barrington Meteor Crater, and the Very Large Array National Radio Telescope (the ones that figure in most of the movie Contact). We had to miss Meteor Crater Park, because it was originally scheduled for the outward leg of the trip and had to be canceled because of the time and money constraints.

The VLA. is on US 60, about 30-40 miles west of Socorro, so since Kathy and Marty wanted to go to Carlsbad, it meant a full day's side trip. (We also called the rental company and told them we needed the van a few days longer. They said we had to have it back by opening on Saturday because they needed it for a customer. We suspect they just figured up and decided that with the deposit we were paid through Friday, a suspicion we confirmed later.)

To avoid going all the way to Las Cruces we took a shortcut to Silver City and then cut over to I- 25 near Caballo. It was like most shortcuts--not as short as we'd thought. For the first, oh, two- thirds of the way to Caballo, we made great time. Then we hit the mountains (the Mimbres, if my map is correct). At that point we lost all the time the shortcut had made up, and it was worth every second! The mountains were lovely, and the road twisted and turned through them, going above the tree line. (We had to go through the whole routine with Chelsea again. "We're up too high." "We're on the ground!" "The ground's too high!" "Look at the nice view, Chelsea." etc. etc. again.)

We had lunch in Truth or Consequences, where I sent postcards off to friends and relatives who hadn't heard a word from me since before the event. Next to the very pleasant restaurant was a shop decorated with a tromp l'oeil cantina entrance. Realistic enough in fact that registered as a real entrance the first time I saw it. It wasn't until Kathy pointed out that it was painted that I looked closer. There were even beetles and a lizard painted at the base.

Dan was worried because it was almost dark as we approached the VLA--so the day's crisis was whether we'd get there in time having gone all this distance out of our way. The map showed that it was West of the tiny town of Magdalena and once we passed through it we started to scan the horizon. All of a sudden, we saw a row of tiny little mushrooms ahead of us--and realized that these mushrooms were actually satellite dishes 80 feet across.

The area closes to visitors at dark, so we only had about an hour. There are 28 dishes (one of which is being worked on in the maintenance shed at any given time); they are moved from place to place on a railroad car which sets them on a concrete tripods in whatever configuration is necessary. There is a visitor's center and a self guided walking tour of the facilities. (We were guided by a roadrunner who took off ahead of us as we headed out.) Kathy and I did part of the visitors' walk, then retired to the nice warm visitors' center and looked at the displays. Dan, Marty and Chelsea did the whole walk, but missed the observation room where you can watch the area where the data is coming in. As a matter of fact, Dan had climbed up the stairs to what he thought was an observation platform overlooking the dishes; if he had turned around he would have seen the control center behind him. He didn't figure out until later when he read some of the pamphlets we'd picked up.

We picked up a lot of literature, and Dan had a great time. I've suggested that he suggest the SETI League see if they can get a special tour.

In the visitors's center is a bulletin board with articles from area papers about the shooting of Contact on location there. Apparently it was pouring rain the entire time they were shooting the scene where Jodie Foster first hears the signal. They show a still of Foster, sitting on the hood of the car wearing the headset, with three guys holding umbrellas over her. The money made by the VLA. from the movie is eventually going to be used to upgrade the visitors center .

Here too we had to get a shot of the restrooms. The tiles have galaxies, planets, and satellite dishes. (You can order these tiles from the VLA. I'm considering getting some for my kitchen.)

We headed back to Socorro, enjoying the lovely show the moon, Venus and Jupiter put on for us. It was still a week before a major alignment was to occur, but the planets and moon were in an almost perfect straight line from our point of view.

We stopped for the night in Socorro and lucked out. We asked if we could get a rollaway for Chelsea and they offered us a two bedroom suite for the price of a regular room. It was great, and one of the suite's little features was an issue of New Mexico magazine, which had articles on Space and Science in New Mexico. It featured articles on scientists and SF writers in the area, and a writeup on the Alien Zone in Roswell--one of our planned stops.

We all felt better after the night in Socorro. The dissonant snoring of four adults and one ten-year-old with the remains of a head-cold night after night had gotten on all our nerves, so being able to have separate rooms for the couples, and even private baths, was great. Through the night we were serenaded by the sounds of Nickelodeon filtered in from the sitting room as Chelsea fell asleep with the TV on. We didn't have much room to talk--Dan insisted on watching the Daria marathon on MTV, until I threatened him with sleeping in the bathtub. My capacity for Daria is limited to about 5 minutes.

Before we left Kathy and I bought some of the kachina dolls that were on sale in the hotel lobby. She got an assortment of small ones; I got a medium sized owl kachina. And, of course, postcards.