April 8 Lake Valley

 We stayed at the Murray Hotel in downtown Silver City.  The location was wonderful.  I wanted to try a historic hotel, but would not do it again.  This one had very little ambiance.  There was no bar or kitchen.  The free continental breakfast was minimal.  Our room was very tiny - with room only for the two beds in it.  There were not chairs or a desk.  The bathroom was just as tiny with only room for one person at a time.  After our sumptuous breakfast, we headed to Lake Valley.  Luckily we had checked out directions  ahead of time and knew that the road we had hoped to take was closed due to the road being washed out.  Our trip took 90 some miles instead of the 50 we were expecting.

Lake Valley looks like a Ghost town should.  Lots of dilapidated buildings - and no civilization around.  One building had been redone and was set up as part museum and part school house.

Again, I was experimenting with color verses black and white.  Some I had a clear liking for one or the other.  But sometimes I liked them both.  Let me know any opinions.

Contrast of very bright red car and beige buildings and landscape.

I found the church interesting.  It has obviously been rehabilitated.

Up the hill from the church were these storage tanks.

This does not look like farm country.  But they seemed to raise some cattle.  Mainly this is a mining town as silver was discovered close by.

The museum is in front of this part that is set up as a country school.  It looked very much like the country school I attended.

April 7 The Very Large Array

 Our next stop was at the Very Large Array.  Michael and I were both excited that this was located on our way to Silver City.  We had tried to get an appointment ahead of time, but we waited too long and there were none available.  We decided to go anyway.  Turns out there is a short self-guided tour you can take that takes you right up to one of the antennas.

The museum is very informative.  If you enlarge the photos you should be able to read the information yourselves.  I will just give a brief overview.  This is a radio telescope and when it was put into operation in 1976 it was the largest and finest of its type.  Since then others have been built around the world.  This on has been updated and still is in use today.

Then we went outside to take the tour.  It was getting very windy and colder by the minute.  So we sort of rushed through this part.  This is a smaller version that you can get close to.

One antenna with the "mover" at a distance.

There are 27 antennas in the Array.  

The Antenna's in the Large Array can be moved into four different configurations depending on what they are studying.  

I was most fascinated by the method used to move the antenna into the different configurations.  The tracks lead to each one of the antennas and the different locations they can be in.  The "mover" drives under the antenna and lifts them off the pedestals with hydraulics.  Then they are moved to the next location and installed there.  I only saw one of these vehicles.  If there is only one it must take quite some time to get the antennas all in position.  

We still had a 5 hour drive to Silver City so no more stops for us.