After Denver, it was time to leave the Rocky Mountains and head south to the desert. We were trying to make it to the Very Large Array (from the Movie Contact) in Socorro before motoring on down to El Paso all in the same day. Most people who have never been to the West Texas / New Mexico area of the country have very little conception of just how damn beautiful it is. Open Country and Open Sky makes for an Open Mind.
Of course, some minor car problems prevented us from making it very far (like running out of gas), and we spent the night in Socorro, planning to go to the telescopes the next day.
We stopped at a tex-mex joint to eat and watch some of the Lakers/Celtics game, and Sean began chatting with some local fire fighters about what we were up to and our various adventures. We still weren't sure where we were going to stay for the night, and Sean in all his charismatic magic managed to get an offer for one of the firefighters rooms! The firefighters were doing a training exercise in Socorro, and they had about 5 rooms at the local Econolodge. Some of their crew were late, and they gave us one of the empty rooms for $30. After settling in, we invited them to our room for some beers, and we stayed up late into the night listening to them tell fire stories.
My favorite was "Don't ever cheat on a smart woman." A couple months previous, a woman had found out her husband was having an affair. So....she soaked the whole house with gasoline, put a piece of steel wool on the edge of the front door, and placed a 9V battery on the wall near the door jam. The cheating heart came home after a night of adultery, opened the door, the steel wool made contact with the 9 V battery, and..well..that was the end of that.
There were a bunch of other stories; their knowledge of chemistry and how things burn was rather impressive. I've personally never held any stereotypes about firefighters; it seems like an admirable enough public job to me, but they said multiple times: "Man, people think all firefighters do is play cards and watch porn. That's not true. This is hard ass work, with 48 hour shifts sometimes." But they did say, with all the administrative bulls**t and restrictions on their offjob behavior they have to put up with, the job is ultimately rewarding: Bringing people back to life never becomes mundane.
The next morning we woke up a little fogheaded, had some huevos rancheros at the local diner (where cowboy hats and the Spanish language are the norm), then we headed west on a small state road to the telescopes. I had visited them before with my family when I was in college, but I was totally down for seeing it again, and Eric and Sean had never seen them before.
I love big Science. Neuroscience is exciting and mysterious in its own obvious ways (as in, what makes us what we are?), but there is a much bigger question beyond the C-word: What is the nature of the universe? How old is it? How did it come about? In the desert, surrounded by beef cattle ranches, you come up on the plain and witness that functional monument to humanity's attempt to understand itself.
Of course, the happy nerd that I am, I had to channel Jodie Foster for a little while. Back in the day in early graduate school, when I spent a summer in California, I had a chance to meet the real scientist Jodie Foster's character is based on.
And after an hour viewing the big science, I thought maybe our neuroscience is not so interesting after all. It's an odd feeling, being in the desert amongst the telescopes...it's not as if you drive to the middle of New Mexico to see someone doing whole cell recording of a dorsal root ganglion. What I love about astronomy is that the instruments are always in your face....staring at you..taunting you...asking you..."What are you doing with your life? I am a tool to answer the grandest questions of all."
Eventually we got back into the car and made it down to El Paso by the late afternoon, and I had a happy reunion with my mother and sister. The last time I showed up in El Paso with my own wheels was eight years ago, when I was a junior in college. Every time since I have flown in, which always diminishes the distance. I am in Detroit, and 6 hours later I am in El Paso. On wheels and motors, I rolled in, covered in sweat, in a packed car, and having been on the road for two weeks. Obviously, arriving into El Paso in that fashion makes you realize how far away West Texas is from Michigan.
I hung out with my sister that evening, and I dropped the idea of going into Juarez, Mexico (the border city to El Paso, literally a couple miles from my house), because whenever I go back to El Paso, I like to spend an afternoon in Juarez, get something to eat, maybe buy some belts or clothes, grab a beer, and walk along the streets of the sad border town. But my sister was defiant. She would not come with me. She said, "Ay No! There's major gang wars going on now. The drug cartels sent an e-mail out to the cops saying no one would be spared. 40 people have been shot in broad daylight in the past month!" (I love the fact the drug cartels sent an e-mail. Subject: We are at war. Die?) But Sean and Eric, having never been there, really wanted to go, and we figured the US authorities at the border would tell us whether it was safe or not. So we drove the short drive from my house to the border bridge. The shaky movie below depicts the 30 ft boundary between Texas and Mexico...
And sure enough, when we crossed the pedestrian bridge, there were 18 year old military police with assault rifles watching everyone coming across the border (sorry, apprehensive Tim didn't take any pictures). The streets were noticeably vacant. During normal business hours you usually see many folks going about their business. The streets weren't dead, as in "let's get the hell out of here" dead, but I would say there was only about 30% of the normal foot traffic on the streets. No matter. It was so hot out anyway, we quickly forgot about the whole thing. But notice how few people are in the picture below...
After walking around for a bit, we decided to stop for a beer at the "Kentucky Club" on the main drag near the bridge and watch the Celtics/Lakers game. Twas a rather cool bar, with us drinking Sols, simply enjoying ourselves, and watching the Mexican businessmen with their "just a little too hot, and just a little too young" dates.
I am always a little on guard when I am in Juarez, and to tell you the truth, the only time I have been there at night was once in high school and a couple times at home from college. Having been around the world on many adventures, I hate to admit I get uncomfortable in a city so close to one of my hometowns, but Juarez is a den of pestilence and poverty, especially given the current climate with the drug wars. There's always stories of hueros being caught in the wrong place in the wrong time. The gal I took to my high school prom in El Paso actually had a friend who was shot and killed by random gunfire in one of the night clubs. So when the sun began to set, we walked back across the bridge, passed through border control, and arrived back in El Paso, Texas, land of the free and home of the brave.
As our last bit of fun before leaving West Texas, I suggested we stop at my favorite country & western bar close to my mom's house to hear some live country music. But...drat..that night was karaoke night, so we had to provide our own entertainment. Being somewhat of a drama queen who loves being on stage, I immediately signed up for a few songs. Below you can hear my rendition of David Allen Coe's "Long Haired Redneck."
I gave my mom and sister a call, and though it was late, they came out to join me and my friends. I convinced my Mom to come up with me and sing "Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles (when she was growing up, she remembers her parents really liking that song). We tried to get my sister to come up as well, but she's a bit shy about public performance. It felt so good to be back home, if only for a little bit...
Following the night at the bar, Sean parted ways with us and went home back to Michigan via bus ("bent to it again, gone. - Kerouac-). Eric and I went to bed, again too late, and again regretting the next morning when we would hop back into the car for another long ride to the next city...
Coming Up Next: The cat comes back. Seeing Austin again.
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