The X-Files: The Experience - Day 0 - The Truth Is Out There

“The X-Files: The Experience”

4/1/16, “The Truth Is Out There”

Aboard B6 65, En Route JFK-ABQ

In a few hours, Uncle Frankie and I will be landing at the Sunport, as it’s called, in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  This is my third time aboard this flight in the past 14 months.  The first two times were to visit World Heritage Sites and National Parks.  This time it’s a lot a different.  Twice a year the Trinity Missile test site is open to the public.  This was where Oppenheimer prophesized, “I have become death, destroyer of worlds.”  When Frankie forwarded me the information, I was quick to suggest that we go.  That is what is happening tomorrow.

The truth is out there.  I will not go into an epistemological exploration of truth.  To many people, they believe there is a fundamental failure in the way the world has been presented to them.  The philosophers believed that they could find the truth through reason.  The religious scholars thought only through god could they find the truth.  The conspiracy theorists believe the government was hiding the truth from them.  While the sites we will visit on this trip most closely relate to the last category, there is a common thread here in the people who believe that the truth is out there.

Me, I believe the truth is already known, for the most part.  It is possible that aliens landed before recorded history, and we may never know that, but I do not believe that our government covered anything up at Roswell.  We do not know the exact process by which a nuclear bomb is utilized, but we know enough, and we will see tomorrow what there is to see.  Then, Sunday, we will race around to a few National Park Sites as I trudge my way towards “New Mexico Complete.”  Monday morning we will be back at the office, and it will be a great trip as we tell our coworkers about our adventure.

Today began much like any other Day 0.  I had gone for autographs last night (a success with Ed Harris and his wife), and I wound staying up later than I needed to just to pack and get ready.  It was close to 2 AM when I finally fell asleep, and I woke up to get ready, arriving a little late at work.  I got done everything I needed to do over the course of the day, forgetting completely about my no longer traditional pre-departure lunch at Hop Won, as I had some leftover McDonald’s in the fridge.  I was going to get a new bag to replace my broken computer bag, but the luggage store had closed down a couple of weeks ago after being there for years.  I was thwarted.  I would have to continue to use my ripped computer bag.

Frankie (and the other inspectors) had a meeting until a little after 4:30 PM, and I had arranged a car to meet as at the cigar shop at 5 PM.  I finished up at work after my boss came out of the meeting, and we then said our goodbyes before heading the cigar store, where I introduced Uncle Frankie to everyone.  I had left a cigar there, a My Father special edition, during lunch, and I smoked it a bit until 5 PM.  There was more than half a cigar left, but the driver let me smoke as we made our way to the airport.  We tipped well.  The flight was a few minutes after 8 PM, and we got to the airport a little after 6 PM, so we were good.

There was a long line for security, but it moved quickly.  It was around 6:30 PM by the time we cleared security.  We went to a nice restaurant past security and got burgers and fries and something called Philly Cheesesteak egg rolls.  I stopped to get some chocolate, and we met at the gate, right before they started boarding.  When we booked the flights, I had suggested we choose a window and an aisle seat in the second to last row, figuring that the middle seat between us would be the least desirable seat on the plane, so we would get the three seater to ourselves.  I figured right.  There was a long delay on the tarmac due to weather conditions, and it was 9:30 PM by the time we took off, an hour and a half behind schedule.  Once we were airborne, I updated my travel spreadsheets and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, as the beverage service is now here, and I will try to rest my eyes after that.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Here I am, back in the land of enchantment, though I am not exactly in the most enchanted part.  We are at the airport hotel, where we will sleep for less than 5 hours before making our way south to the Trinity site.  That is the main draw of the trip, though other attractions will include Roswell, some new NPS, and revisiting my favorite locations in the Albuquerque area if time permits Sunday night.  It is past 3 AM in New York, past 1 AM local time, so I will be brief.

I fell asleep almost as soon as I was done with my drink and snack, waking up in time for us to make our final descent.  We took the shuttle to the rental car station and I tried to recall the last time I took a rental car bus.  We just had to walk up to the car, get in, drive out, showing my ID at the gate.  I put in the hotel into the GPS, and it was a 7-minute drive, enough time for Frankie to have a cigarette, not enough time for me to even think about a cigar.  We got to the hotel, or rather, where the GPS said the hotel should be.  No hotel.  I used my phone, and it turned out to be back towards the car rental place, probably only a minute away.  In other words, it took us 15 minutes to get the hotel instead of 5 minutes, no big deal.

When we got there, we checked in, grabbed some coffee, and headed up to the room before heading back down for a smoke.  I find a nice area blocked from the wind, so the cold was tolerable.  Frankie lit up a cigarette, while I opted for a L’Atelier, my shortest cigar.  As we smoked, he told me about his past selling water treatment chemicals in Rhode Island.  This was before 9/11, when a flight from Islip airport to Providence was probably quicker than driving into Manhattan.  After two cigarettes, Frankie went upstairs, and I proceeded to write this entry, which I will close so that I can publish and get to sleep.