The Space History Museum has both outside and inside displays. The outside area has many missile on display although not a many as the White Sands Missile Museum and, sadly, the missiles are again mostly military. Once inside the museum, you are presented with many floors of peacetime space history. For space nuts, like myself, this is a must see. For more information see: http://www.nmspacemuseum.org/
"What, no CD player"
Our next stop was Sunspot, the National Solar observatory located on Sacramento peak above Alamogordo. http://www.nso.edu/
The road to Sunspot is a relatively drive. It was a surprisingly gradual climb without tight hairpin turns or steep inclines. We saw a small herd of elk grazing along the roadway.
The visitors’ center has a very good presentation with hands on demonstrations. Entry fee is only $3 for adults. For us seniors, it’s only $1 --- a real bargain either way. We also took the free self-guided tour that covers most of the telescopes. You can even go inside the telescope building and watch the scientists working. The view overlooking Alamogordo is worth the drive up the mountain.
Once we were down from Sunspot, the New Mexico landscape returned to desert as we traveled east on highway 82. The smell of crude oil covers the area between Artesia and Hobbs. An uncountable number of “walking beam” or “rocking beam” pumps cover the landscape for a far as we could see. We always thought of Texas being the oil state, but New Mexico seems to have its share.
Hobbs and the surrounding area seem to be economically depressed. I can’t actually put my finger on why we feel that way. It’s more a feeling than something tangible. We spent the night in the Hobbs Wal-mart parking lot. At first we were a little uncomfortable because there was only one other camper spending the night. One nice thing is the McDonalds that is located in the parking lot, about 50-yards from where we are parked.
I couldn’t see my APRS unit being repeated so I don’t think the signal is reaching the Internet. I tried to make a contact on my 2-meter rig but the Repeater handbook doesn’t show a repeater in the Hobbs area. Even several scans across the band failed to turn up a single signal.
Gas price in Hobbs: $2.879
I’ve posted our Alamogordo to Hobbs pictures on Picasa.
