Another good walking day through more rolling hills, a small town and higher elevation at over 7,000 ft. The highlight of the day was our visit to the VLA, Very Large Array, in the middle of nowhere. This is an installation of huge radio antennas that are like satellite dishes that together form the largest telescope. They are spread out over 13 miles in a 55 square mile dried up flat sand bed and arrayed in the shape of a Y. Astronomers from all over the world go there to study using these radio telescopes that observe spectrums outside the range of visible light and have discovered stars, black holes, nebulas, supernovas and more. The dishes are 83 feet wide - the length of 2 school busses and are moved around by transporters on 40 miles of old railroad tracks that were no longer in use. It was really interesting to see the film and take the walking tour. Several movies were shot there including Contact, Armageddon and Independence Day.
Tomorrow we drive to Albuquerque to pick up Mary Kay, so we are taking the whole day off to sightsee there. We deserve it after 16 days of walking over 500 miles.
We may not have wifi as we will be staying in some really small motels for the next couple of nights, so don't worry if we don't post for a couple of days.
Go Cubs!! We're looking forward to game 6.
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