Socorro to Flagstaff

After a filling breakfast at El Camino Family Restaurant in downtown Socorro I set off west towards my first stop, the VLA (Very Large Array).  The road climbed steadily and it was only 16C when I got out at Magdalena to take a couple of photos.

The VLA is about 70kms west of Socorro and the control centre is 5kms off the main road. I was the first visitor of the day and watched the introductory video by myself in a small theatre that seats about 100 people. If you’ve seen the film Contact with Jodie Foster then the beginning where she hears the signal from outer space was filmed here.

The VLA is a radio telescope with 30 separate 25m dishes that can be moved about on 3 axes in a Y shape with each arm about 10km long. The signals from all the dishes are combined using a process called interferometry; I won’t bore you with any more details; those who want to know more can ask me. There isn’t much to see outside the visitor centre except to look a couple of the dishes that are being repaired.

My next stop was Pie Town; famous for pies and absolutely nothing else. Pie Town is just west of the Continental Divide (all rain falling runs either east or west on the respective side of the divide). The road crossed the divide at 7796 feet (2376m; Mt Mount Kosciuszko is 2228m).

I had a piece of blackberry pie and a large serve of current opinion from the proprietor, who decided to join me at my table. I was the only customer at 10.30am and his wife had already asked about my accent.

He had retired from the merchant marine in 1996 and despite having absolutely no previous experience in the food service industry moved to Pie Town (which is a long, long way from the nearest ocean). He asked if I’d ever spent any time at sea; only a month sailing around Antarctica, I replied. That, to use a nautical term, took the wind out of his sails.

By the time I reached Springerville (Arizona, so I put the clock back an hour) it was lunchtime so I stopped at McDonalds (I can’t visit America without at least one Macca’s meal). I was too late for breakfast otherwise I would have tried the biscuit with egg and sausage; a biscuit here being a giant scone! One of my fellow diners was carrying a pistol in a holster on his hip; not an old 6 shooter but a shiny new Glock semi-automatic; to my inexpert eye it looked like the 30SF model and I wasn’t about to ask for a closer look, although I think the owner would have been happy to show me.

I then headed north to join the Interstate 40 at Holbrook, but before I got there I visited the Petrified Forest National Park, which apart from vast quantities of petrified wood also has part of what is known as the Painted Desert, which is lots of pastel hued hills. It was about 35C and absolutely no humidity so I confined my examination of petrified wood and painted hills to a small area of the national park. The only upside of the heat is that I got to see lots of very large Americans looking uncomfortable in the heat. On the way into the park the ranger who collects the entrance fee says very seriously that taking petrified wood is not allowed. On the way out each car is stopped and a ranger asks you if you have taken any petrified wood; I’m not sure how dumb you’d have to be to answer ‘yes’, but I’m sure it happens. At the entrance to the park and in nearby Holbrook there are places that have industrial quantities of petrified wood for sale (and perhaps make it to order).

At Holbrook I joined the I-40 which had more traffic than I had seen since leaving Dallas on Monday. But everyone, including very large trucks, drives at way over the speed limit of 75mph, so it was a quick trip to where I turned off to see the Meteor Crater, located about 10kms off the I-40. This crater was formed 50,000 years ago by a meteor about 150m across. The crater is about 1km across and 250m deep and it is hard to appreciate the scale of the hole when looking at it because there is nothing in or near the crater to give it any sense of scale except the building on the northern rim that contain a museum and the inevitable gift shop.

Then it was 50kms to Flagstaff Arizona where I found a room at my now favorite place of accommodation; Motel 6. When navigating my way here I noticed a BBQ stand set up in the parking lot of a shopping centre so I went back there for dinner;  pulled bbq pork on a roll with special sauce, coleslaw and potato salad; YUM.