Brick Road Photo: 100 Mile Capture New Mexico

Our 100 mile capture continues with a trip through New Mexico. I will be posting an addendum for some of the states of things that didn't fall into the 100 mile mark but really needed to have its' photo taken, here is the one for Texas Side Notes of West Texas

Somewhere between mile 400 and mile 500 Texas was in our rearview mirror

Mile 500 found us in Tatum, New Mexico. Almost every merchant in town has a custom metal sign like the one here saying Howdy and Welcome, the street signs are also similar. Tatum has a population of less than 700 people and occupies 1.2 acres of land. Probably safe to say the sign maker is related to ~~everyone~~ someone in town.

Mile 600 was about 3 miles west of Roswell, New Mexico. We expected a quaint little town with funky alien shops etc. (Too much TV and Hollywood for us I assume) What we found was a small developed city. In the middle of it all was the Roswell UFO Museum and a few well placed gift shops selling little green men. This photo is of the most interesting thing outside of Roswell. See that mountain in the distance?? That's where we are headed, its like the light at the end of the tunnel.

Mile 700 This big Yucca plants was kind of a bright spot along the road near Socorro, New Mexico. I took several shots of them but liked this one for the road trip picture because it shows what the roads in this part of NM are really like. See that unlevel guardrail? That is exactly how level the road was. I would have loved a shot of the Yucca from down in the ditch looking up at that beautiful blue sky but since there was a snake in that brush, the roadway seemed like a better choice. This picture is a true representation of this part of New Mexico.

Mile 800 As we approached our 800th mile mark and Magdalena, New Mexico we could see these huge saucer shaped discs in the distance. I have to admit UFO did cross my mind. (again, too much TV) Turns out they are radio antennas and are part of a HUGE observatory called The National Radio Astronomy Observatory, The Very Large Array The VLA is a multi-purpose instrument designed to allow investigations of many astronomical objects, including radio galaxies, quasars, pulsars, supernova remnants, gamma ray bursts, radio-emitting stars, the sun and planets, astrophysical masers, black holes, and the hydrogen gas that constitutes a large portion of the Milky Way galaxy as well as external galaxies. In 1989 the VLA was used to receive radio communications from the Voyager 2 spacecraft as it flew by Neptune. It is not, despite depictions in popular culture, used to assist in the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. (see I told you, too much TV)
If you have time follow the link to their site. I had a zoom lens but these are a LONG way away and this is as close as we were allowed. They are HUGE!! Amazing the things you find in the middle of nowhere.