Sunday, June 26, 2011

Day 173 - Tombstone - Alamogordo

Distance travelled (by bike): 21,220 miles

Leaving the dusty streets of Tombstone behind i headed east into New Mexico, where as i learn last week the clocks jump forward one hour.
Stopping on the way at the cultural highlight of White Sands missile range museum. Seeing the signs on the road i had to see this, the museum is on the missile base, passing though a series of warning signs, then through a security check point i was at the museum. There was a huge outdoor display of the various US missiles, a oversight on my behalf was that it was sunday and the indoor museum was shut! Extremely hot i returned to the bike and backtracked to the highway.
Further down the road i stopped at White Sands National Park, an amazing place, 250 miles squared of white sand dunes completely surrounded by Holloman airforce base and NASA test facility. The dunes are visible from miles around glittering in the sun, most of the people in the park had come to sandboard or sledge down the dune, vehicles were not allowed! (A lot of the national forests and some of the regional parks are shut due the the extreme fire risk)
Been so close to the NASA test facility (where they have one of the runways for the space program) i had to visit the New Mexico Space museum and international space hall of fame, a quirky place (and employees) sitting on the side of a mountain it documents the people who inspired and influenced space travel. 


just parked on the side of the road

one of the many warning signs along the approach road to the missile testing site/museum 

proudly displayed missiles










the space museum 





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