The campground that we stayed in on our way to Los Alamos was at a national monument. Most of these campgrounds are inexpensive and don’t have a lot of frills, so they’re great for one night. Unfortunately, this one didn’t have showers, so there was some disappointment.

We made it to Los Alamos by 9:00am, just as they were opening. Most of the kids weren’t very familiar with the Manhattan Project, so we did some explaining.

Most of the town structures that were built by the government during World War II aren’t still standing. They were put together quickly and not meant to last long periods of time. Fuller Lodge was an older building left over from a boys’ prep school that was in Los Alamos prior to the government taking over. It was used as a lodging place for important guests and such that came to visit Los Alamos during the Manhattan Project. We were also able to view two houses that were reserved for General Leslie Groves and J. Robert Oppenheimer.

I wasn’t aware that Los Alamos has continued to be a government project site. The Los Alamos National Laboratory is located there. I did ask one of our guides what is studied at the laboratory. She replied that there is epidemiological research as well as studies in renewable energy, national security, space exploration, etc.

We were also able to visit the Bradbury Science Museum in Los Alamos. They had many hands-on exhibits with a great movie that educated us all more about the Manhattan Project, originally known as Project Y, and the science behind it. Most all of us found the museum fascinating and didn’t want to leave. It was really hard to pull some of them out of there when it was time to get going!

One of the things that we have found challenging on this trip is trying to keep up with the grief counseling that we’ve been participating in. A month or two before this trip, Alex was trying to decide if she would be traveling with us. She finally looked at me and said, “I can’t go two months without talking to my grief counselor.” For some reason, I hadn’t even thought of that. Charlie and I began participating in group therapy through an organization in Charlotte called Kindermourn (https://www.kindermourn.org/) back last July. We also got each of the kids seeing their own grief therapist through the same organization in July. In November, after their football and cheer seasons were over, they also started with group therapy, which they have all found very helpful and not wanted to miss a session. I certainly couldn’t expect them to travel with us for two months without participating in their therapy, so we arranged to have some phone/video sessions while we are traveling. I thought it wouldn’t be too big of a deal for us to be driving down the road and let a kid go into the bedroom in the RV with a white noise machine on outside the room for privacy during a telehealth appointment. However, I wasn’t prepared for the lack of cell service that exists out here, so we’ve had to try to schedule appointments and traveling around each other to make sure that we would have at least some kind of cell service. That has meant multiple occasions of getting a kid to the RV for an appointment while the rest of us are seeing the sights. It was one of those crazy coordination days when we were in Los Alamos, but we succeeded, and the kids are continuing to get their therapy.

Today was the first day that my cold started letting up – over a week of not feeling well at all.

Annette put together a few of her own thoughts.

Today we went to Los Alamos where the Manhattan Project (project Y) took place. Los Alamos is also where the Oppenheimer movie was filmed. It was very interesting walking around town and getting to see some of the historic buildings, homes, and the history museum about the project. I learned a lot from what I saw and heard.

One of my favorite things I learned was about how they determined the homes for people; they had based everything off of points and there was a formula that helped determine the points each family or individual would have. One point for each dollar of monthly salary plus two points for each month of service. Everyone in the town had a job. The men worked, women had to work and take care of household chores while still being a mother, and even the local natives had a job. Throughout the entire town there were only two houses that had bathtubs which were made out of cast iron; everyone else had showers. The General and his wife would invite their friends over to have a bath since they lived in one of the two locations that had bathtubs. The reason why there were only two bathtubs was because they were made of iron, and they didn’t want to use too much iron since it was needed for the war.

Prior to the war, a boarding school for wealthy boys existed in Los Alamos. Each boy had to have his own horse and care for it. They attended class, received wilderness training, grew up there and much more until the U.S. government took over. There was one boy, a member of the last graduating class, who realized what was happening with the government takeover. He decided he wouldn’t tell anyone about what he knew so that he could graduate. This man went off to college, and after getting his degree, he returned back to work in the labs. I found this story quite fascinating. 

Annette