WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18 NUCLEAR MUSEUM THEN NATURAL HISTORY,

Charlie was done with presentations yesterday.  Today he just had to attend meetings and discuss.....

I decided to go to the National Nuclear Museum.  It's a few miles past the airport.  I've been using my Google maps directions on my phone.  What a great app.  A lady talks me through my more doubt-filled moments.  I had, for no good reason decided to drive along Central Avenue rather than take the freeway.  When I seemed to be running out of Albuquerque, I pulled onto a small street.  The Google lady talked me back to the correct streets (I had just given up too soon), and I "found" the museum.

The museum was the history of the atomic bombs done in a series of displays.  Really a fascinating place.  A World War II section talked about the German's attempt to get the bomb.  How we found out about what they were doing, and succeeded.  There was another display about early studies about radioactive materials from Beckerel to Einstein.  I found out that if you really want to fission material you need radioactive material with an even number of protons and an odd number of neutrons.  Hence U-235 works well, but U-238 isn't so good.  More displays about bombing Japan, and the awful consequences.  A copy of Little Boy and Fat Man - the bombs that were used. The anti-nuclear stuff in the 60s showed up too.  One of the more interesting/odd pieces there was a huge yard filled with old missiles.  Titans, Jupiters, Thors, and some military planes.  I was fascinated by the Titan, ICBM - the one that had been stored in silos.  There is was - odd.

Nuclear Museum from outside

Little Boy and Fat Man copies

The Titan ICBM  - just laying there

After the nuclear museum, my Google friend helped me get back to the Natural History museum.  I expected that to be the same old, same old...  Actually there was a huge display about the history of computers that was great!  They had a Uniac, and lots of interactive displays about personal computers from the old toggle switch to the original Mac.  Given that New Mexico has lots of geology and paleontology, there was also lots of great dinosaur displays as well.  My favorite was Stan, a T-Rex that had died of old age, but had had his neck broken and been bitten in the head earlier in his life.

Charlie and I decided we'd walk to a local restaurant for dinner.  The problem... no one uses downtown Albuquerque by foot, except the local bums.  It was creepy.  We reached the restaurant, but it was closed.  Bah.  We walked back, and drove back to Cervantes for another New Mexican dinner.