In Hobbs, New Mexico, the high school closed and football was cancelled, while just across the state line in Texas, students seemed to be living nearly normal lives. Here’s how pandemic school closures exact their emotional toll on young people.
Americans are increasingly taking road trips that are about the skies as much as the land
The forecast was not promising. The sweeping New Mexican skies appeared clear, and ribbons of cerulean, violet, and indigo created an ombré horizon as the sun receded behind the West Mesa and the Rio Grande.
But the clouds would soon roll in. Outside the main house at Los Poblanos, a historic farm and inn on the edge of Albuquerque, an orange tabby curled up on a bench, an outdoor firepit was lit, a bottle of wine opened. There would be no stargazing this evening.
It hadn’t occurred to me that my entire quest—to trek across the high desert of the Southwest and into the mountains of Utah—could be thwarted by something as evanescent as the clouds. I flicked around an atmosphere-predicting app on my phone to see what the following evening might bring. Again, it augured obscurity.
The Manhattan Project, the program that developed the first nuclear weapons during World War II, worked out of three purpose-built cities in Tennessee, New Mexico, and Washington state. A new exhibition considers their design and legacy.
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