Hassayampa / New Mexico

Trail: Hassayampa River
<BR>
Where: Near Wickenberg, AZ
<BR>
When: 03/21/2004
<BR>
<BR>
<I>Day one was an offroad trail with Miss Nicole. Day two and three was a road trip to see the VLA in New Mexico.</I>

• Jack looking pleased as punch.
• Champ bear, the Xterra mascot and Christmas gift from Nicole.
• Nicole's Floggy Molly bre, er, shirt.
• Moo "Friends"
• Gratuitous photo of myself.
• OK, we get the idea.
• After triumphantly climbing a hill. Took a few tries. ;)
• Yes, the Hassayampa delivers water year-round.
• Old McDonald had a farm...here it is!
• Stock Xterra: CLOWNED
• This photo was taken shortly before a guy named Bryan walked into our locked room. Or was it his room? Scottsdale Resort seemed confused too...
• Jack's second gratuitous Nicole mound shot du jour.
• Me, looking hosed.
• The last walk.
• Nicole and Jack.
• WTF. I wasn't pissed, but somehow I look that way.
• Har har, someone clever (and handsome) blocked the door to the pooper with junk and now Nicole is trapped.
• That traffic sign said something really funny, but alas the humor of AZDOT has ben lost to the ages. :(
• Mr. Dirt.
• This car was very slow.
• Look at the awesome tunnel near Miami, Arizona.
• MS Carriers...get it?
• Your options are pretty much limited...
• Springerville!
• More of the same.
• Geeze, I was obsessed for "unknown" reasons.
• Moving on...
• I think we're in New Mexico now. Nicole is back in Phoenix, BTW.
• This might be "Pie Town" in western New Mexico. I forget.
• Ditto.
• The clouds and rain appeared literally (no joke) as soon as we crossed the border to NM. It was a nice drive.
• Me.
• In the distance, the Very Large Array beckons.
• Another distance shot of the massive dishes.
• OK...
• A slightly less distance distance shot.
• Now we're in the parking lot. You can really start to see the dishes take shape.
• A friendly Astronomy Dog.
• This is a little demo for kids that was neat. You can hear whispers across 100 feet.
• You can see the dishes and in the foreground the railroad tracks used to reposition them.
• A little comm shack or something. Beautiful sky too.
• At last, one of the dishes. There are 27 of these.
• Here's the bottom of one of the 460,000 pound dishes.
• This is an attempt to get he entire 25 Meter dish in view.
• Another shot of the base, with other dishes in the backgruond.
• An entire dish, for your perusal. I feel so tiny!
• This is me in front of the dish.
• Jack in front of a dish.
• To give you persepctive, Jack is standing about 10 feet in front of the dish in this photo.
• Dishes and the railway linking them.
• Stupid camera strap.
• OK, this one came out better anyway.
• My artsy sunset photo shoot.
• Goodbye Astronomy Dog!
• We bid the VLA adieu. No more photos were taken of our trip to Albuquerque and back the following day. Crappy photographers that we are!