I haven't done a full blown ride report in some time. It's hard to even compare with the great stories DDT posts during his extensive travels.
I have had a trip out to the southwest in the works for some time. The main interest in my departure for 1st of April was to see the Trinity Site at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. It is only open to the public 2 days out of the year (First Saturday in Spring, First Saturday in Fall). With Easter falling on April fools day this year, I thought it was a good plan to tie some Holiday time off in with personal time off work.
I departed on Good Friday morning from god's country (That's East TN - SMokinJoe trademark). Headed some to Southern IL to spend the Holiday weekend with family. My original plans were to takeoff from Shipman IL after stuffing my face with Easter fixings. Unfortunately, the weather man feller on TV kept showing this large white cloud moving along I-70 in Missouri, as if Jack Frost himself squatted over the Show-Me state and gave out a grunt.
Easter afternoon, it commenced to sleeting, snowing, and eventually in the later hours began thunder snowing. I pretty much knew at that point the Goldwing's lack of 4X4 capabilities was going to put a damper on my leave out plans. I woke up Monday morning before dusk to witness a white blanket across the landscape. I paced around the house, wondering is my efforts would be better to turn my plans around and head back to the great state of TN....
By 9AM Monday morning I said F*$% IT!!! I'm going west regardless. I started adding on layers over my Gerbings and kept my fingers crossed as I slowly crept out of my parents ice covered driveway, hoping the main state highway was dry and cleared. Luckily, IDOT had done it's job! I made it into the St. Louis area without problem, but did get a lot of WTF looks from the fellow cagers on the road.
Monday, with a late departure, I made it to Emporia KS before I decided enough was enough for the day. Feeling was slipping in my toes, my heated insoles couldn't keep up with my demand for warmth.
Ice accumulating on my windshield near Columbia MO.
free upload imageTuesday morning, I awoke from my motel room with temps in the lower 30's, rain, and 30MPH winds. As I made my westerly track across KS, the temps began to rise along with wind speeds
I road across KS taking route 50 and 400 before crossing the CO border onto CO RT 10. I parked for the night in Alamosa CO. It was great to see those mountains appear in the distance, and to feel the wind finally die down. I kept having a fear my trailer door latches were going to fail, the lid would open up, and the Kansas crosswinds were going to Marry Poppins my ass across the highway.
Wednesday morning I departed from Alamosa with temps in the lower 20's. My destination by the end of the day was to meet my Old College roommate who resides in Scottdale AZ. He called me that morning as he was on a business flight and would not be landing until 7pm. With that in mind I had some time to kill, and decided to make a pit stop and see the grand canyon on my way south. I started my track out on US160, crossing through Pagosa Springs, Colorado and passing through Durango and Cortez before hooking up on US491 towards the 4 corners monument.
gif uploader
photo share
Some locals told me this was a great place to get "Herbal Medication"
uploading pictures
It was great to feel 70 degree temps across Arizona
screen grabI have not been to the Grand Canyon since I was very young. After entering the park, I road about 10 miles before being cutoff several times by Mini-vans. You obviously do not get in the way of families on vacation. After 20 minutes I had enough of it, and jetted south.
I hooked up on I-17 to make up time to get to Scottsdale. It was a beautiful site seeing the sun set over the desert.
I spend all day Thursday in Scottsdale, visiting with my former roommate and seeing the wealthy establishments around town. Friday morning I departed and headed for Socorro NM where I had a motel reservation for the Trinity Site viewing Saturday morning. I really enjoyed the roads and scenery crossing through the Gila National forest in NM.
I made it into Socorro Friday evening. After posting a travel update on facebook that night, shortly as I was getting ready to crash for an early rise on Saturday, I received a FB message from an old shipmate I served with on the USS Harry S Truman. "Bro.... I live in Socorro." Luckily he was in town and we agreed to meet at the local McDonalds the next morning for breakfast. I hadn't seen Daniel Wagner in about 11 years. I remember he volunteered for a ground deployment to Afghanistan shortly after I returned from my volunteered deployment to the same providence. It was truly an honor to see him again and meet his wife and family. Man how times change from when we were just punk teenagers till now. It was probably the most memorable moment of my trip
After a great McDonalds breakfast.... I headed out to middle of nowhere NM to gaze upon the blast zone of the world first atomic bomb. Although, there really were no visual implications to assume a nuclear blast occurred in the area. The feeling in general was a majestic one, just knowing that this is the epicenter that started the atomic age of history. I sat back and wondered in my thoughts as to what the feeling had to be 73 years ago when man gazed upon the power of imploding plutonium.
Trinity from Wikipedia -
Trinity was the code name of the first detonation of a nuclear weapon. It was conducted by the United States Army at 5:29 a.m. on July 16, 1945, as part of the Manhattan Project. The test was conducted in the Jornada del Muerto desert about 35 miles (56 km) southeast of Socorro, New Mexico, on what was then the USAAF Alamogordo Bombing and Gunnery Range, now part of White Sands Missile Range. The only structures originally in the vicinity were the McDonald Ranch House and its ancillary buildings, which scientists used as a laboratory for testing bomb components. A base camp was constructed, and there were 425 people present on the weekend of the test.
The code name "Trinity" was assigned by J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos Laboratory, inspired by the poetry of John Donne. The test was of an implosion-design plutonium device, informally nicknamed "The Gadget", of the same design as the Fat Man bomb later detonated over Nagasaki, Japan, on August 9, 1945. The complexity of the design required a major effort from the Los Alamos Laboratory, and concerns about whether it would work led to a decision to conduct the first nuclear test. The test was planned and directed by Kenneth Bainbridge.
Fears of a fizzle led to the construction of a steel containment vessel called Jumbo that could contain the plutonium, allowing it to be recovered, but Jumbo was not used. A rehearsal was held on May 7, 1945, in which 108 short tons (96 long tons; 98 t) of high explosive spiked with radioactive isotopes were detonated. The Gadget's detonation released the explosive energy of about 22 kilotons of TNT (92 TJ). Observers included Vannevar Bush, James Chadwick, James Conant, Thomas Farrell, Enrico Fermi, Richard Feynman, Leslie Groves, Robert Oppenheimer, Geoffrey Taylor, and Richard Tolman.
The test site was declared a National Historic Landmark district in 1965, and listed on the National Register of Historic Places the following year.
After spending a few hours at Trinity, It was time to departs and start the eastern blast back to gods country. I stopped at a few interesting historical markers along the way. One in particular marked the first ICMB system in the US
I road into Amarillo TX Saturday night and began blasting across I-40 on Sunday. I stopped Sunday night just east of Memphis TN before making it back to Greeneville on Monday evening. I don't believe I will be making any Spring trips north of I-40 in the future. It is still winter time in many parts of this great land
