2/5/2024
I left Fargo on Jan 27. I was planning on leaving earlier, but when I got an oil change, they told me that my oil filter housing was cracked and needed replacing. I did notice some oil dripping, more than normal. That repair set me back a couple of days and a thousand dollars. They made me get another oil change even though I told them that I just had one done.
Anyway, I left on the 27th and then made my way to Rapid City, SD. There was a ramen shop, Bokujo Ramen, that was on Diners Drive Inns and Dives that I wanted to check out. The ramen was good, but I really wanted the dumplings, but they only have those on the weekends.
After Rapid City, I made it to Denver. I stopped and hung out with Ashley for a couple days then continued my way South. I need to be in the Phoenix area by 2-9-24 for the Waste Management Phoenix Open. I stopped in Santa Fe, NM for the night yesterday. I couldn’t believe how many homeless people there were there. It was comparable to Portland, OR.
I got out of there pretty quickly, went through Albuquerque, NM, and on to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array. For those of you that don’t know, this is a set of radio telescopes set up in a three way array. Each leg is 13 miles long and the telescopes, huge satellite dishes, can be moved on rails along the legs. They way it was set up when I was there, each of the dishes were as close to each other as they could be.
By the time I got out to the array the visitors center just closed, but I was able to do the walking tour. It was really interesting to read about how they use the array to get super accurate snapshots of the universe. The array was also used in filming the movies Contact, Terminator: Salvation, and 2010: They Year We Make Contact.
