Nov 14, 2019
Got up and checked out of Boot Hill and made another quick stop at Pistachioland before heading the New Mexico Museum of Space History which was in Alamogordo. Alamogordo might not seem like much of a town but it is actually very central to nuclear and space research. It is near the White Sands Missile Test range, it is near the Very Large Array radio telescopes that are often featured in movies, it is the closest town to the Trinity site, where the first atomic bomb was tested and just down the road is the famous Roswell, NM.
Therefore it is not that surprising that this dusty little town has a pretty decent space history museum. Located in a large four story gold building on the hill overlooking Alamogordo the museum had a cool little rocket park outside and was chock full of space exhibits. We went for the reasonable $11 per person admission and planetarium combo ticket and walked around the museum first. We learned about the history of space exploration, marveled at a real moon rock, saw examples of real astronaut food over the years, tried the Space Shuttle landing simulator and Olivia even got to dress up as an astronaut.
We then went down to the planetarium where we saw the star show and learned a lot about the Constellations. It was a nice compliment to the stars we saw at Bryce Canyon. After the show we discovered that there was a cool little outdoor children’s play area which a few kids in it so of course we had to stay there for an extra hour. By the time we left it was closing and we headed back to the White Sands Mall.
Back at Smiley’s Café we were pleasantly surprised at the freshness and number of different dishes that such a small place offered. The taste and quality of the food was at least Panda Express level while offering a larger variety of all you can eat dishes. They had the expected broccoli beef, orange chicken, teriyaki chicken, noodles, fried rice, etc but also had cheesy mussels, breaded shrimp, and seafood casserole, all for less than the price of a Panda Express two item plate.
I guess this shows where my priorities are, the Grand Canyon was OK but a decent all you can eat buffet for $7 is amazing. LOL. After dinner we waddled to the nearby Walmart and enjoyed watching Frozen downloaded from the Disney Plus before turning in.