Monday, September 8, 2014

Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument




Sunday September 7,2014

Worship started at 10:00 at a Presbyterian Church.  We experienced a blend of high church and downhome welcoming community.  It was worshipful and we were blessed.   The pastor then said to "get out of Dodge" because the big parade of the Santa Fe Fiesta was forming near the church and if we did not get out we would be blocked in.  We "got out of Dodge" and skipped the parade.

Los Alamos was about 25 miles from Santa Fe.  We went there to learn about the development of the A bomb.  Bradbury Science Museum gave us a good perspective.  I just wish our friend Dale Mowry was along to interpret what we were seeing. The A Bomb project was huge.  They broke ground in 1943 and had a bomb in 2 years.  The scientists and others who worked on the Manhattan Project basically disappeared from their families. It was interesting to read their stories.  There was only a little space dedicated to those who lived in the area or worked at the lab who were negatively affected for the rest of their lives because of the exposure to radiation.  There remains controversy about the development and use of the bomb.  The Los Alamos Lab continues to be huge with over 10,000 employees and a  $2,000,000,000 per year budget.


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Bandelier National Monument was close to Los Alamos.  We had never heard of it. Some folks at church strongly encouraged us not to miss it.  So - we went in our "Sunday best" and enjoyed a wonderful hike,  The native peoples were very resourceful in using materials to build cliff dwellings.  The folks who build these cliff dwellings were descendants of those who build the ones in Mesa Verde.  We will be there in two days.

This was once a multistory community of 100 people.
We went hiking in our Sunday best.

Dirk didn't think he wanted to live is this one room condo.


 

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