ALLGBMINI

I’ve always wanted to visit the Very Large Array (VLA); but it’s a long way from everywhere – 50 miles from the highway at Socorro which itself is 80 miles from Alburquerque … but we made sure to visit, and got treated to the best!

The array consists of about 27 huge radio telescopes which can be moved closer together or further apart along three rail tracks – they can cover more than 20 miles, or be brought closer for higher resolution telescopy. We were very lucky that all the antennas were together, giving great views. Even more, the antennas were active, swinging through about 100 degrees, and back, during the time we were there!

It’s hard to find on maps etc; go here on Google Maps and you can see the three track lines extending out from the center of the VLA! It’s open Sunrise to Sunset (can’t see anything in the dark!) and as well as an interesting visitor center with various information and a movie, you just get to walk around the array, pretty close to the antennas …

GPMINI drove through 40,000 miles today on our way from Alburquerque to Socorro! And she’s just as much fun to drive as she was when new 🙂

The only worry is that she’s now (2 days) out of warranty! A first for me owning a MINI, or any car, in USA …

Yesterday GPMINI decided to light it’s Service Engine Soon indicator, though she otherwise seemed to drive perfectly fine. I didn’t really want to drive back to Florida worried, and remembered back in 2006 how great Sandia MINI in Albuquerque was – only about 250 miles away!
I emailed the Service Manager Chad, who said they were very busy but … so I visited anyway as we were sort-of passing by! Sandia MINI did all they could for me; Service Advisor Andrew personally set up GPMINI and read out the codes, confirming that the warning was an unimportant “lean fuel” indicator, likely a result of GPMINI’s unusual diet of 91 octane and 10,000ft elevation. They cleared the code and confirmed all was well. What’s more, they even washed GPMINI for me – and didn’t charge me anything.