Tonight is our second night in Roswell, New Mexico. We took today to do some alien sightseeing. I was thinking about a number of you friends who are alien fans…
Then we regrouped. We washed the car, did some laundry, mailed off some packages and did some serious hanging out. It feels good to tidy up our small traveling world. We tallied up a bunch of numbers in our log, and have driven over 2600 miles so far. Today was also our two week marker.
Yesterday was a long drive through southern New Mexico. Although New Mexico neighbors Arizona, it is not as extreme an environment. It also has more of what I consider a “typical” southwestern feel to it. Here are some pictures:
Great sky! It is still sagebrush country, but it has a lot more grass, and lots of pine trees as you head up into the mountain passes.
We stopped in Las Cruces at Old Mesilla (thanks David!). It is a interesting old plaza and neigborhood with a rich history. There were lots of classic adobe homes and the plaza is all old western storefronts.
The Organ Mountains, which are just outside of town remind me of the flatirons in Boulder, Colorado. I thought they were spectacular. I would have loved to explore Las Cruces some more. The town had a good feel to it.
Then we traveled through the White Sands Missile Range. It is an impressively large desolate space. Southern NM appears to have a lot of military and other government programs as a large piece of its economy. All vehicles had to exit the highway for a border patrol check at the edge of the missile range. That was our first experience being inspected. (We’ve been listening to Alice’s Restaurant as a telling aside…)
Next, we made a stop at White Sands National Monument (thanks again, David!). It is an interesting geologic area- gypsum sand that was leached out and had nowhere to go, so it gathered and created this large area of intensely white sand dunes. Theo and I went sand sledding, but bright white sand on a hot day in June won’t permit you to be outside for too long before you get almost literally cooked.
Once we cooled down we headed on towards Roswell, passing through beautiful open areas and forested mountain passes.
Tomorrow we are back on the road. We will go to Carlsbad cavern and give you a full report. I am excited about both the cave and the bats.
