New Mexico (NM) -

Land of Enchantment

White Sands Missile Range

Museum of Nuclear Science & History

Albuquerque Bio Botanical Park

Ice Cave & Bandera Volcano

The Flag

Red and yellow are the colors of Spain, brought to New Mexico by Spanish explorers in 1540.There are four groups of rays with four rays in each group. This is an ancient sun symbol of a Native American people called the Zia. The Zia believed that the giver of all good gave them gifts in groups of four. These gifts are:

  • The four directions - north, east, south and west.
  • The four seasons - spring, summer, fall and winter.
  • The day - sunrise, noon, evening and night.
  • Life itself - childhood, youth, middle years and old age.

All of these are bound by a circle of life and love, without a beginning or end.

Facts & Figures

Admission to Statehood: 1912-01-06 (47th State)

Size: 121,593 sq.mi

Capital City: Santa Fe

'New Mexico': Named by the Spanish for lands North of the Rio Grande river.

To Compare

Netherlands: 16,040 sq.mi

England:       50,301 sq.mi

All and all a pretty relaxed visit in a land where mostly security is adhered to in an almost paranoïc manner - you can simply go in and are allowed to take photos of everything (with exception of the sentinel) as long as you take them with the mountain range as backdrop (the test range being in the opposite direction).

Interesting, but the visit did trigger some conflicting emotions - where the discovery of the use by Pierrie and Marie Curie and the X-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen makes you proud, alternatively the same technology resulted in the creation of the automic bomb and the annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

On August 9th, 1945 another atomic bomb - 'Fat Man' (yellow) - was transported in a B-29 called Bockscar. Initially the target was the city of Kokura but due to bad weather Nagasaki was chosen as alternative. The same bad weather prevented the bomb to hit the city center and therefor 'only' killed 70,000 people inspite of the fact that this bomb was heavier than the first (10,300 pounds versus 9,700 pounds).

Did you know...........

.............Röntgen Rays first were called 'X-rays' as they were unknown rays. Now they are - rightfully - named after their discoverer.

But none of this prior to Arno coming to the rescue of two ladies with a broken down Prius; the man behind the till in the visitor center lost interest when he identified the type of car (in 2009 environmental friendly cars where only used by softies and the man's insights were as ancient as his filling station).

Driving on Route 66 for a little while in the city of Albuquerque where we passed Arno Street.

The Botanical Park is beautiful; especially the Japanse Garden.

Coming from the East (Tucson AZ) we travelled until we reached Las Cruces. From there we went in northerly direction to Albuquerque, passing the city of 'Truth or Consequences'. From Albuquerque we went East to return to the Northern parts of Arizona (Holbrook).

In New Mexico the White Sands Missile Range is located (in the middle of nowhere), birthplace of the American space program. Still an active base where testing of all sorts of missiles is taking place and where at the time the Spaceshuttles could deviate to for landing (this only happened once, in 1982).

In Albuquerque we visited the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

Albert Einstein warned President Roosevelt in 1939 of the destructive possibilities of an atomic bomb (full text: http://www.atomicarchive.com/Docs/Begin/Einstein.shtml).  The further development of the bomb continued and on August 06th, 1945 'Little Boy' (green) was dropped on Hiroshima by the Enola Gray (a Boeing B-29 Superfortress bomber - see photo). The bomb killed 78.000 people immediately; the death rate increasing to 237.062 at the end of 1945.

.............in the early days it was unknown that too much exposure to the rays is not healthy; they were used to check if newly bought shoes really did fit well.

Luckely insights did grow over time.

In Bandera we have made a brisk walk to a crater passing hardened lava and trees impersonating a cork screw due to the enormous winds in this area. The walk was topped with the 'Ice Cave' - a cave containing water frozen all year round.