October 6, 2007 PM

October 6, 2007 PM

I would have liked to have stuck around the Balloon Fiesta and enjoyed the party atmosphere, but I have a schedule to meet today. From Albuquerque, NM Aimee and I make a smooth getaway onto I25 and head south for some eighty miles. In the town of San Antonio we head east on Rt. 380 to the Stallion gate entrance to the White Sands Missile Range. After passing thru an army checkpoint we drive another eighteen miles thru the range to the Trinity site. It is only open to the public twice a year and based on the steady stream of cars coming and going I am not the only one interested.

Trinity is the code word for the location of the first atomic bomb blast on July 16, 1945. It was the test proof that the Manhattan Project was a success. After parking the RV we make the short quarter mile walk to ground zero. It is a little anticlimactic. The army placed a lava rock obelisk where the bomb exploded to commemorate the site but little else remains. Everything else was removed. Even the crater and the melted sand floor (called Trinitite) have all been bulldozed over. All that is left is a desert field surrounded by a round fence. You have to take the army’s word that this is THE Trinity site. We spend the night at a private park in the little town of Socorro, NM.