South to Van Horn TX

Miles: 4482.5
Gallons Burned: 148.26
Caffeinated Drinks: 31

I left ABQ with fond memories and headed south toward Las Cruses and El Paso. My trip dossier told me to stop at Trinity.

A brief digression:
Trinity was the site of the single-most exceptional scientific even up to 16 July 1945. In the desert, sand was turned to glass (chemical name Trinitite) and windows shook 100 miles away. When the event occurred the man in charge, Dr. Oppenheimer, was reminded of the famous passage from the Bhagavad Gita, "Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
I wanted to go to this place. It is very remote and located on a military missile range.
I don't have a specific reason why, but it is the place where the paradigm of the entire world shifted from comprehensible war and destruction to a brave new world where extinction of humanity is possible. The site is not well-marked and sits as a relic, a deep scar in the Earth...
Upon reaching that site I anticipated feeling one of these six reactions:
1) Amazement at Mankind's creative ability
2) Terror at Mankind's hubris
3) Fear of assured mutual destruction
4) Hope of a world without the need for such weapons
5) Hope of the world to come where death isn't one "international incident" away
6) Pessimism about Mankind's future on Earth, yearning toward space as the only escape

What would you feel standing on the "kadosh" Earth where the first nuclear weapon detonated?
Feel free to comment.

Long story short, the military police officer that met me at the gate explained that the White Sands Missile Complex and Proving Grounds (actual name) was undergoing "Active Tests and Sorties" on Monday the 25th. I never found out what I would feel. I never held that sand in my hand and thought that from dust I came and to dust I will return.
Well in a distant and theoretical way, I have.

The rest of the day progressed without event. I topped up every time my tank fell below 3/4 on the long dead stretch between El Paso and San Antonio. When I reached Van Horn TX I pulled into a sleepy campground and slept under this tree: