Liz and Mike loose in an RV: New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Panama City

Liz on 2016 after Tucson

First stop - Elephant Butte State Park for a tour of Spaceport America.

Smithsonian Magazine listed Spaceport America as a notable destination so I booked a tour for $45 per person. Spaceport's visitor's center and tour begins in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico. Truth or Consequences is a convenient 300 miles east of Tucson. I took notes on the long bus ride from Truth or Consequences to Spaceport America. The tour guide owns the tour company.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside Spaceport with a few exceptions. No aircraft were displayed.

Spaceport America is owned by the state of New Mexico. Virgin Galactic and Space X are customers.

Edwards Air Base in the Mojave desert in California has so much air traffic, too much for daily operations so it cannot compete with Spaceport America. Mojave Aerospace won $10M prize in 2004 due to talent of aerospace engineer Burt Rutan. Paul Allen financed Burt with $20M.

Spaceport has really long runways and one acre of floor space. Unlike an old military base which shoe-horns in old technology Spaceport is set up with the latest.
Nations may buy commercially available habitats. Applications are available. Spaceport is not theoretical. It engages its workforce by using games. "Apollo is a zenith of productivity." Games for guests with children are most helpful. Elon Musk is famous to teenagers, not so much to adults.

Astronauts are sailors of the cosmos.

Spaceport America

Historically Spanish settlements of the Southwest caused

conflict with the natives drove the Spanish out for 12 years. Summer 1680 Pueblo Revolt. Kill priests. Journey of Death. Mass Exodus. Jornado del Muerto is a volcanic shield and lava bed. Final push to the river.

Native Americans recognized Space.

Territorial times. Merchants used El Camino Real via stage coaches. After the Battle of Glorietta Pass. Fierce fighters from the Civil War. RR tracks. Sante Fe RR. Outlaws Billy the Kid. Apache uprisings.

New Mexico became 47th state in 1912 with cities, towns, farms and ranches.

Charles Lindberg told Robert Goddard to go to New Mexico. His ground breaking calculations are foundation of space flight. Oppenheimer searched for bases and talent. Scientists like Werner Von Braun were brokered out to NM. White Sands Missile Range.

New Mexico offers clear skies and wide open spaces with a latitude closer to equator and an elevation that saves fuel. This in turn increases payload. Elevation is higher than Cape Canaveral so 1st mile is free. Study in 1990's $9M savings at launch.

18000 acres mean no aircraft traffic. Ted Turner owns 1 million acres making him the biggest land owner in NM.

18,000 acres mean no air traffic over Spaceport America.

First stage boosters fall off aimlessly. Spaceport has removed the chains of the coast and security concerns in international waters. Lord Norman Foster is architect and when googled he is very distinguished. Building has earth berm to blend in to the hill. Gold lead is standard and lighting is natural.

Blue Origin Space Company founder is Jeff Bezos. He visited Spaceport. New Shepherd is his sub orbital vehicle. Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen 6 person vehicle. 320,000 miles and back to earth. In November 2015 perfect landing. PR occurred only after the event.

Space X launchpad is at Spaceport too. Under power entire time with rocket grade liquid hydrogen. $25M savings on $2.9B

Boeing's award $4B. No customers.

Boeing announced that they will build fly back booster.

3 people v. 50 government employees.

Photo shoot for Range Rover.

Fabrication done in Mojave.

Mothership flies them in.

Virgin Galactic is known for flying millionaires into space. TSC is competing with Boeing.

Time to market matter. Trans-world connections assist.

Tours given to Europeans, Japanese and Abu Dhabians. Suborbital experiments conducted for NASA and Fed Ex. Fly across the world in a few hours. For what? Organ transplant is example.

"Uber" of small satellite launch. Big deals are likely for Silicon Valley. Companies have no control of when a small satellite launches. Internet is needed in remote places. Mike comments that Southeast Asia is wired. Why deficit here in US? Vacuum of space reduces need for copper and fiber optic.

Firetruck in Spaceport America

Fire is a big deal in a spaceport. Drop foam is used for fire.

Genesis is a sculpture funded by the state of New Mexico state Art fund. See photo below.

Sculpture named Genesis announces Spaceport America. New Mexico requires business ventures to feature an art work.

Spaceport America before camera shut off.

Returning to Tour Shuttle bus.

Werner Von Braun developed V2 Rocket. WWII diaspora of German talent increased US power.

We tried out a G-force trainer as if we were scientists and others who are not test pilots.

Elephant Butte State Park looks over a huge lake. When we pulled out to go to San Antonio the trailer fell out of the hitch and onto the truck's bedrails. It was unnerving and resulted in cosmetic damage.

After a brief stop at the White Sands National Monument Visitor's Center we drove to Alamogordo's New Mexico Museum of Space History, camping nearby.

View from Alamogordo's space history museum.

Alamogordo has space history on display.

Exhibit in Space History Museum

After New Mexico we headed across Texas boon docking in a rest area along the way. Mike carried a 5 gallon can of diesel fuel just in case. Too easy to be too far from a station with a 23 gallon gas tank.

We arrived a day too early for our reservation in San Antonio so we stopped in an RV park, Cascade Caverns in Bourne, north of San Antonio. Odd to find a privately owned cave inside an RV park, but wait, story gets better. We chatted with another couple, a female physician and her engineer husband in a class-C motorhome. She drives their RV by herself insisting on independence from even her most understanding and helpful husband. Glad I don't feel that way. If/when she retires she wants to practice medicine on Rennies, Renaissance Festival participants. We took a walk with them around the park after breakfast. When Mike noticed this:

Find of a Life Time: Archaic Undifferentiated Biface 1500-8000 years old.

What a treasure! Mike has looked for an arrowhead since boyhood. This fits perfectly in left hand. We like it more since are both left handed. The chip edges indicate that it was used as a skinning tool. Cascade Caverns cave was a very wet limestone cave. The fastest growing stalactites and stalacmites of any cave we've visited must have provided welcome relief for native Americans from the heat in Texas.

Next stop Riverwalk RV Park in San Antonio. San Antonio has loads of construction thanks to record oil revenues in recent years. Heavy traffic slows the inadequate interstate highways around San Antonio.

Construction Projects Abound in San Antonio. Oil Company Profits Come Home to Roost.

The Riverwalk runs through San Antonio, the "Venice" of the USA.

Sculpture on the Riverwalk

Egyptian in Stunning San Antonio Museum of Art

In San Antonio (instead of Naples).

Chinese collection as good as any in China.

San Antonio Riverwalk is a feast for art lovers.

Why Remember the Alamo?

Old Juxtaposed Against Bold New

We spent a weekend in Austin and visited Bruce and Ellen Thelen for a few hours. We told them about the fantastic museum and that we walked 22000 steps.

Austin is home to great progressives like Jim Hightower.

In Covington, La. we stayed in an RV park on Million Dollar Road but arrived after a storm raised their river and flooded the whole road. Park's big annual festival weekend was a bust due to unseasonably chilly weather.

Collin Thelen like Pokémon and has friends in his new school.

Owen Thelen copied a duck straight out of a Michigan bird field guide.

We walked through a nearby nature preserve with Mike's son Zachary's sons and X-wife Amanda Duncan. The map of New Orleans is being redrawn with less and less land. Seen award winning movie, "Beasts of the Southern Wild"? It is a bayou masterpiece. After 2016's horrendous floods in Louisiana we are relieved that Amanda and Ryan chose a lovely place that has not been flooded (yet).

We visited New Orleans for a day. We plan to return for 2 weeks in April 2017.

Nature Walk with loads of Turtles

Amanda Duncan

Owen Thelen

Collin Thelen

High Water and Street Flooding in Suburban Lake Pontchartrain

We headed to Panama City arriving at my son Ben's place with a flat tire. Mike checks tires at every stop but in a matter of minutes a tire found a nail. Good that we enjoyed our visit and did not have to hurry off while we waited for a tire store. We enjoyed old Florida charm in Panama City in their restaurants. We played in Trivia competitions and listened to music in contrast to the built-up and commercial Panama City Beach. We passed by Destin and other tony beach towns.