Boom!

15 April - Last night's festivities made me late to do my chores and I was given a little bit of a reproval from John, the surlier member of staff here at the hostel but all was forgiven as I’ve decided to stay another day. For breakfast I had my first sampling of grits (not instant of course, because no self respecting southerner would ever eat instant grits - and they don’t come much more southern than a 'strine like me). Headed out to a place called Tent Rocks which was supposed to have some very good hikes and my route took me through Los Alamos, the birthplace of the atomic bomb. Dropped into the Bradbury Museum which had a very one sided view of the justification of dropping the two most devestating weapons ever deployed in the history of the world upon civilian targets but it was interesting nonetheless. I'm hoping that the lattnt radiation from the constant nuclear experiments which ar still going on there will give me some more superpowers to go along with static man's already impressive arsenal but only time will tell on that front. It turned out that the route to the Tent Rocks park would be over a pretty horrible dirt road and a guy who gave me directions suggested I should head back to Santa Fe and take another route from there. Not wanting to waste any time I decided to change my destination to Bandelier, a very pleasant national park about 20m from LA. Did a very easy 5m hike out past some waterfalls and to the rio grande river. It was nice - not nearly as spectacular as the grand canyon or yosemite but also not as many people either and a very pleasant way to shake off the lingering hangover I was still suffering from throughout the day. Lots of signs all over santa fe about the importance of conservation of water because it is a desert town but it seems that the drought has ended, which has got to be a pretty spectacular thing.