Los Alamos... Where Laundry is a Joy

Saturday, Sept 30… 

Travel day – scenic route south to Los Alamos (Manhattan Project), where we’re actually camping in White Rock (near Bandelier Nat’l Monument – more on that tomorrow). Tired of US-285, we head due east on CO-160, then turn south on 159/522 (CO/NM) paralleling the Guadalupe Mts and the Red River. We skim the edge of Taos, turn onto NM-68 to follow a very muddy Rio Grande for several miles, gas up in Española, and cruise 30 or so miles until we pass the White Rock fire station and enter the Visitor Center parking lot.

Rio Grande, a Rushing River

This sort of landscape will become very familiar over the next few days.

White Rock's big on geology and preservation of ancient Pueblo ruins, but short on consumer services, so I need to find a laundry. One of the Visitor Center gals gives me directions for a place (perhaps the only place) in Los Alamos. I follow these carefully and eventually end up in exactly the little shopping center she’d described. I see all the stores she mentioned – except the laundromat. The mini-mart clerk tells me it’s inside the video rental store. Sure enough, there’s a dozen machines in a small room behind literally hundreds of videos on display. (This is a wonderful gathering place, w/ a Starbucks-like coffee bar (fresh pastries) and several tables in the browsing area. There’s even a monitor so you can watch a video while waiting for laundry. Very friendly staff too.) I'm still reading Exodus, and walking the sidewalk in front of the strip mall 30 times = 1 mile. The time passes easily. Gorgeous sky on the way home. Eventually I find a spot where I can pull over and take pictures.

The clouds here are just AMAZING.

(Yup, that's another
rainbow stub. What're
the odds of 2 in a row?)

PartingShot... Checking online for details about Film Festival, I stumbled on this photo of the gathering area and did a double-take. I may be wrong, but this looks exactly like the fellow I saw today at that table apparently doing paperwork related to his business. 

I loved this place. It's been a family business for years, and they added the laundry room "because people needed it." 
The shelves are reminiscent of Blockbuster Video at the bottom of Safeway Hill.