boom

I went to Meteor Crater yesterday. Once you come out of that place I will guarantee you will know more about meteors than you knew before you went in. You will know more about meteors than you ever wanted to know, more than any human should know.  That place just bombards you with knowledge, they have people standing around just throwing it at you like clowns throwing cream pies. Dudes in official looking ranger suits just throwing out facts. The best part was when I heard some lady from Back East somewhere loudly telling a ranger what SHE knew about meteors just so he could verify the information and let her know it was accurate.

'Don't they mostly burn up in the atmosphere? Don't most of the ones in our solar system come from the asteroid belt? Aren't we due for another big one any day now?' Etc etc YES LADY YOU WIN! I guess all those hours spent watching Discovery Kids channel really paid off!

The bad part is most of the knowledge is recycled and repackaged to you in different ways. I learned in five different places that some guy named Barringer was the first guy who worked to prove that it was an impact crater and not a volcano. In the brochure they handed out, in a big photo wall display in the museum, in a video playing on a TV in ANOTHER part of the museum, on a plaque outside overlooking the crater, and in the sit-down movie they showed in yet another part of the museum. And I'm sure it was tossed out by a couple of tour guides along the way as well but by that point I had filed the information in the 'overload' portion of my brain.

Don't misunderstand me, I liked the visit. I hadn't been there in years.  I just felt like I had a fucking PHD in Meteorology and not the weather kind by the time I came out. Maybe the next time I go, I can sit there and ask very pointed and well-informed questions to prove to the other tourists how much I know. Unfortunately, most of the other tourists don't even appear to speak english, so I guess that would be wated effort. Dammit.