What planet are you from?

“- Young Ellie: Dad, do you think there's people on other planets?
- Ted Arroway: I don't know, Sparks. But I guess I'd say if it is just us...
seems like an awful waste of space.”


  

As usual I was running late. The VLA (very large array) radio telescope is about 50 miles west of Socorro, NM. In the movie "Contact" it was supposed to be part of SETI. It is not part of SETI; but if I wasn't late, I wanted to stop at the visitors center to ask if they made contact yet. Oh well, I got a pretty good image post sunset.


When I'm in Arizona I usually take US 60 and AZ-260. It's a nice scenic route. Part of it was smokey today between Payson and Show Low. Fire somewhere south of the route. There was a lot more traffic today than I remember. Maybe it was travelers to home coming football games. I took an off-route excursion to Lakeside south of Show Low. There were a lot of people sitting in lawn chairs facing the road. I'm not sure why they weren't cheering as I passed... I suppose they were waiting for a parade. It's okay, I'm used to not rating.

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