New Adventures in New Mexico

Due to the international success of my first blog, Joe Brown in Cape Town, I decided start this blog detailing my adventures for this summer.  For those who are not aware, I am a rising senior Mechanical Engineering major at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Worcester MA.  This summer I have accepted a research position at Los Alamos National Labs, in Los Alamos, New Mexico.  Los Alamos is located 45 minutes from Santa Fe, (New Mexico's capital, for you 5th grade geography buffs) and 2 hours from Albuquerque, a major city made famous by television's Breaking Bad, and comedian "Weird Al" Yankovic.  Located in the middle of nowhere, Los Alamos is the perfect location to build a nuclear bomb, which the United States government did in a little known endeavor called the Manhattan Project (for all you history buffs).  My job does not involve splitting atoms or cooking methamphetamine.  Since I am working for the government, I will not be posting information related to my project, as I did in my last blog.  Though my work is not as directly humanitarian in nature as say bringing waterless toilets to South African shantytowns, I am very excited about my project and see great potential in the research I am doing.  This public domain video can give you an idea of some of the things I may encounter this summer.

So this blog will be purely an account of my adventures getting to and exploring New Mexico.  And what better way to get to New Mexico than a good old fashioned road trip on Route 66?  Tomorrow morning I will depart on a 5-day road trip with two high school friends, Chris and Jeff for the adventure of, well, this month!  First stop: Chicago!