Fighter Jets and Faux Snow

A funny thing happened on the the way to Alamogordo! Heading out of Las Cruces, we ascended the mountains that looked back down upon it. The climb was much steeper than it had looked. The big diesel engine strained a bit in the morning cold to carry us to the top. Once there, we were awestruck looking down over the other side. Before us stretched limitless expanses of high desert. In fact, the desert before us, the Chihuahuan (little dogs, big desert) Desert, including the White Sands National Monument and the White Sands Missile Range is the largest desert in North America. But at the summit we found a roadblock, a police force out in force. And a sign advising us to expect an hours delay for whatever was going on. But we found no delay and the police, or soldiers, or whatever they were waved us through. All seemed well. And for the next 15 minutes or so we cruised through the desert at around 50 miles an hour in a speed zone that allowed 75. Our speed was better for taking it all in, for seeing what there was to see. The vast expanses before us. The tan sands. The scrub brush. The white sands. But then there was, almost out of no where, a white car in my rear view mirror. On the inside lane of the two lane, divided highway. A white car with a low profile red and blue rack atop the vehicle. Police? Seemed so. He shadowed me for ten minutes or so before I felt a bit weirded out. If I went a bit faster, so did my shadow. If I slowed down, so did my shadow. Convinced I had done nothing wrong I maintained my speed and continued on. But my eyes looked to my rear view mirror every bit as much as they watched the vista before me. After an hour or so crossing the desert, a check point appeared before us. All vehicles stop. The white car with the dome lights was still behind me. This was no weight station. Customs. A hundred or so miles north of the border. In the middle of nowhere. A half dozed custom officers met us at the stopping point.
"Anyone else in the back of that rig?"
"No, sir. Just the two of us and our dog"
"Officer, if I am on the road to Mexico I am really truly lost."
Yes, you are!"
I am? Really?
"No. Just kidding. Have a nice day. Pull through."
Whew. What was that all about? We had just crossed the missile test range. The last vehicle allowed through before they closed the desert for test firing. They dogged us to make sure that A) we neither picked up nor left off any undesirables out on the range and B) we were off the range before the jets out of Holloman Air Force Base opened fire on their test targets. I blew in my hand as though to clear my throat to mimic the noise a two way radio makes when dialog begins:

" CHHHHHWWWWWWWW, F16 to base, locked and loaded on that fat ass Winnebago in the middle of the desert. Permission to fire?"

We joked about it, but honestly it was a bit unnerving to think about. At the far end of the range, traffic was backed up for a mile or so. It reinforced what we had figured out about what was going on. I don't know if comforting is the right word. But something like that. The fighter jets, 4 of them, took off over our heads as we cleared the roadblock. Loud. Very loud. Good hunting intrepid warriors. We be clear!Fire when ready.

An hour later we were happily set up in the shadow of the mountains in Alamogordo. Abby feeling better, or so it seems. We unhooked from the mother ship and headed back to the test range where the White Sands National Monument sits in proximity. The adobe buildings I wanted to show you last post are here today. Classic! And this time, what looks like snow is not snow at all, but 250 square miles of pure white gypsum sand. Eight miles into the surreal desert park we ventured. Less and less the desert looked like desert and the more it looked like an Alaskan white out - snow plowed roads and all. But there is no snow here. Just sand. Beautiful white sand. At the "Heart of the Sands Nature Center" we found (are you ready for this???) George Clooney shooting a film supposedly called "The Men Who Stare At Goats." The Jon Ronson book about a 1979 military scheme to make soldiers virtually invisible, able to walk through walls, and kill goats just by staring at them - has basis in the present day war on terror, at least according to the web site.

I thought a slide show would be the only satisfactory way to show you the look at the white sands. There are a lot of pull over educational displays, some hiking trails across the dunes with signage to explain what you are seeing...and why. Were it not a warm and pleasant day, it would have been easy at some interior spots in the park, to believe you were deep in the arctic..

Passing Las Cruces

Well, this is a look at the trip that took us, in high winds and rain and snow, both heavy at times from Carlsbad to Las Cruces. We changed our intended route and headed south around the Guadeloupe Mountains, instead of going up and over them, to avoid even worse weather in the mountains. Good thing I guess because what we drove through was a gigantic mess. One look at these babies and you can see why going around them in a snow storm might have been a really good idea. As it was an elevation of 4900 feet so as it was here.


As we drove, the mountains turned white before our very eyes. Below you can clearly see it IS snow. Again, not what I came here expecting at this point in the year. Bad research on my part I guess. One local told us that this is the warmest winter they could remember in some time. Define "warmest" to me since the nighttime temps have been consistently in the low 20's please.

Any way after a dangerous ride on slippery roads through El Paso, which had tractor trailers jack-knifed and one accident after another slowing traffic, we arrived in Las Cruces. I should be talking about the old village of adobe houses and shops built around lovely courtyards and showing some pictures of those. But instead, all I have to offer is the view from our Hacienda RV Park. It is surely one of the finest we have stayed in anywhere in the country...and that worked out well as Abby, as she had been back a short while, got really sick again. Most of the time we didn't feel like we could leave her alone. Our few trips out were to veterinary hospitals and the drug store to fill prescriptions. We did manage to all take a ride around town one afternoon so we could at least get a feel for the place. There are some very beautiful spots. But the Organ Mountains which were in our front "picture" window for the duration of our stay provided a lovely spot to recoup. The added opportunity to catch up on some rest may just be a good thing for all of us.

A Living Desert

We spent a very full day exploring the desert. We visited the Lincoln National Forest with its true oasis at Sitting Bull Falls. Drove for miles in the boonies looking for cactus and critters to photograph. I'm working on extensive slide shows on both those topics so admittedly I am holding back some of the best photos. But I'm trying to keep enough of them in use to show the wide variety of experiences we are having along the way. We did visit a nature center called "THE LIVING DESERT" which showed us some of the animals and plants that we should be looking for as we tour. So some of these shots come from there. It is a stroll along a pathway that has recreated the different desert zones that exist out here with different elevations, water content, vegetation, and so on. Some animals that we are most certain not to see (because they have been virtually eliminated in the wild here, like bison and wolves, I have included in this post. But some of the very best shots we did in fact find in the wild. Oddly enough, my favorite shots are of the mule deer. You will see a fence behind him - as though he were in an enclosure. He was most certainly not. Marilyn spotted him outside the Lincoln Forest. There are cattle in the area so the fence keeps the cattle off the road- that's all. The" muley" was between the fence and the road and he ran back and forth, back and forth as though he was torn between running away and having his picture taken. That was lucky. I was a whole lot less luck with the road runners who were always gone by the time I could jump out of the van with the telephoto lens on. But I'm still working on that!

It looks like fun to pet the nice kitty, right? And this cat and this girl had some kind of bonding thing going on. It was very nice to see but a bit scary as well, as one wrong move from that cat, mountain lion actually, could have changed the experience in a big hurry. This is the female cat of the pair. The male was quite vocal that he was not so thrilled about his mate getting a rub down, but he seemed to leave it alone and just watched. It was hard to believe that we could get this close to the cats at all. But you can see for yourself- it wasn't hard at all. I'm thinking it's a horror show waiting to happen. On the other hand, it was a beautiful thing to see.



These wolves are extremely rare and have been virtually eliminated in the states. A few can still be found in Mexico. There is a program to protect and bring them back.


Scorpions anyone?
Peccarys look like pigs. They aren't. They are desert critters and while they can make a go of it as long as they have cactus with high water content to eat, they much prefer places where there is a water hole, a stream, or at least some limited wet land. Like foxes, they have a strong smell and you are likely to smell them, or even hear them grunting contentedly in the thick brush long before you will actually see them. Neat critters.


This is the first picture I've had a chance to take of prairie dogs since I have the new camera with the telephoto lens. Much better!

And here's our "muley."
And one cactus shot for good measure:

Sand, Wind, And Aliens

An intended 70 mile each way day trip to Roswell to visit the UFO Museum turned out to be more of an "alien" experience than we ever thought possible. It was windy as it has been when we left the Carlsbad KOA in the mid morning. The trip to Roswell went fairly uneventful. Pulled into the "UFO Parking Only" lot and went into the museum as planned.

Models of what supposedly happened here in 1947 were everywhere, along with supposed letters from every president of the US since detailing why the Freedom of Information type provisions of the law don't apply to release of what the government does and does not know about this incident and such others as Area 51. They even have a photo and text of then Governor Richardson just a few years ago saying that he did not believe the government had released everything it knew- and that an investigation, in his words, "to get to the bottom of the matter," should be launched.

The cowboy (actually he was a sheep farmer) who discovered the wreckage of the UFO is pictured over and over along with military and other dignitaries. And there are images, 2-D, 3-D, and projected of what the alien they supposedly found at the site looked like. Regardless of what others may think, there are a lot of believers here in this town. Even the streetlights have Alien faces painted on them. A bit creepy for my taste.


Even the Alien autopsy is displayed in the primary showcase....that was really disturbing!


Weird. Whether it makes you think...or believe...or even consider for the moment, you shouldn't have to emerge from the quiet of the museum to the unsettled and unsettling atmosphere outside. The wind had whipped beyond where I have been describing of late. The light had that threatening yellow cast to it. The air had gone hazy. And the smell of the dust from the desert permeated the air.

"We're gonna have a dust storm. Now"

My comment was met with the look of "And how would you know that?" though it went unspoken. But any disbelief was short lived as within two minutes it was hard to see across the street. A dust ball blew into town. Severe winds blew without warning. Tumbleweeds showed up and blocked the road before us. Plastic sheets, trash cans, signs, all nature of debris blew down the street. Even one dumpster came whipping across in front of us. A number of stop signs were uprooted - hard to believe but true. The sky grew black. The thought of tornado hit us simultaneously as we headed home as fast as the wind allowed, which wasn't very fast. Ranchers were out with pitch forks throwing the tumbleweeds which had become lodged in the fencing and threatened to blow even the wire fences down. Holding the wheel to keep us on the road hurt my hands. It was not something I would have believed had it not happened to us first hand. It lasted for the full hour ride home. And then disappeared just as mysteriously as it had come upon us. The sky cleared and only the straight line wind that we had before remained.

With weather like this, it is certainly understandable why people believe that "other worldly" matters occur here. I can't say one way or the other about any aliens or UFO's. But the weather is pretty out of this world!

Christmas On The Pecos

As part of our holiday preparedness, Marilyn booked us on a downtown nighttime boat ride in beautiful downtown Carlsbad called "Christmas On The Pecos." It is the New Mexico version of "drive around town to see the pretty lights." They do it every year. Homeowners, sponsored by local businesses, do an absolutely extravagant job of decorating their water front properties. This is the desert. So you can well imagine that these properties are muy grande to begin with. In every town I have ever lived in at Christmas time, there were a few properties that went to these ends to decorate. Here, everyone does it, and the town makes money hand over fist from Thanksgiving until New Years. From dark 'til late, boat after boat hauls visitors and locals up and down the river for a 45 minute tour of the light show. Our scheduled trip departed the boat dock at 7:45 and blessed as we were the wind stopped blowing long enough for our ride. It was a delightful night. Hot chocolate and funnel cakes on the river walk. People strolling along the lighted path beside the slowly flowing river. Christmas spirit in the South West. Some times I need to make apologies for using less than spectacular photos. The camera is fine. But I certainly don't have the talents to make great night shots of lights in the distance with a slow shutter speed and a moving boat. But with the intention of sharing at least the general feel of the evening, here is a slide show of "Christmas On The Pecos."

A Day At The Bat Cave

Holy Guano, Bat Man! The bats have all gone south for the winter! Silly me! I thought this WAS south for the winter. But it's too cold for insects. So if it's too cold for them, there would be nothing to eat for the bats. I reckon they are in Acapulco about now. But never mind, the ride to the Carlsbad Caverns was breath-taking and the long steep walk down into the cavern was even better. Perhaps the most famous cavern in the world for the daily (in season) flight of the bats, it is also quite noteworthy for the beautiful structures inside the cavern as well. I visited here with my family, as I had with some of the other places we visited, some 50 years ago. You hold a memory of things this grand for a long time. I had remembered the appearance of the natural entrance to the cavern quite well. And I had told Marilyn about the huge cafeteria 750 feet down into the cavern. I remembered it as big, bright, and noteworthy. But when we got down there, we found only a small snack stand in a dimly lit corner next to the elevators that whisk you back to the surface. (Walking down is strenuous in and of itself - doubt there are many who could hoof it back up even if they wanted to...) It was hard to understand how a memory so strong could have proved so different. But back at the surface in the gift shop, Marilyn found a postcard of the very same cafeteria I had remembered. "Could we possibly have missed it?" we asked the clerk. "No, it hasn't been down there since 1960 when it was removed."
Other than the location of the cafeteria, about the only thing that has changed visibly was a change or two in the path to the bottom and a stainless steel railing- which helped us old timers out quite a bit. The cavern is full of lovely images top to bottom. Here are some of them in a slide show:

Things You See On The Road

Texas is to states what "double-wide" is to trailers. Just plain big. And everyone, not just me, thinks of Texas as an oil state. Oil wells. Oil derricks. Oil pumps. Oil tanker trucks. Oil refineries. All of that is true and self evident as you drive across the panhandle plains of the state. But what really grabbed our attention and rendered us quite "amazed" was the lead that Texas has already taken in the field of alternative energy- specifically wind energy. I have photographed and written about wind turbine power in the past. It intrigues me to be sure. But, to use the analogy to describe the status here in the state of Texas - well, this could "just blow you away." Heading out of Abilene, we started counting. It wasn't the typical one or even a dozen windmills. This was a lot of windmills. A whole lot of them. At one hundred we stopped counting and started estimating "by the mile." This process continued on and on and eventually we just kept track of the mileage. From Abilene through Sweetwater and beyond, some 58 miles in all, we drove non-stop past more windmills than you could shake a stick at. Thousands doesn't cover it. Even 10,000 is probably a short report. We venture to say the windmills numbered 10's of thousands. Certainly 25,000. Maybe even a hundred thousand. I am going to try to get that info, but for now I just don't know. But imagine wind mills on one side of the road, or both, for 58 miles of driving- so many in any one spot you could not count them all. As far in depth as the eye could see...and then some. It was perhaps one of the most amazing man-made sights we have ever seen. And it was very beautiful. I have long said we do not need government to move us in the direction of sustainable energy generation. Game. Set. Match. To Texas. Well, howdy, buckaroo!



So the rancher who has cattle grazing on his land is doing well, yes? And if he also has oil derricks pumping dollar bills into a barrel- all that much better. Erect some wind turbines to harvest that aspect of the revenue stream. And then plant some cotton so that you can make your own wranglers. Beginning to see the pattern? Texans know about making money and living with the land- on, above, and below. Cotton bales like those below sit everywhere waiting to be picked up by a truck that they fit into just perfectly for hauling to the auction, where they are purchased and sent on their way to the highest bidder. I didn't measure them but they are much taller than I am at 6'3", about 8 feet wide and maybe 30 -40 feet long. If you think cotton, compressed like this, is light - think again.


I don't know if there are any productive or lucrative uses for tumble weed other than for use in cowboy songs, but that works too. And in this extremely cold wind we are having day after day, they can roll across the plain or the highway or even the dog walk at will....and do! Note: Abby sees the next one headed right for her below:

The Texas equivalent of the Hawaiian grass skirt????

I've been telling friends about the RV I saw where the owner had figured out a unique way to haul more toys than anyone I had ever seen before. Saw him for the first time in Thousand Trails in Orlando, Florida....but caught up with him at a rest stop in Texas near the New Mexico border.

So for the last three states (Oklahoma, Texas, and now New Mexico) we have had a devil of a time walking the dog because what looks like grass may well not be. Just some camouflaged foliage that masks millions of sharp little burrs that make walking for the dog very painful and rolling around or sitting down just plain unbearable. So our very first project in NM was to head on over to the Petsense - a chain of pet supply stores in this region of the country. Ah, yes, doggie cowboy boots for Abby to protect from those nasty little pickers. Look good too. Now if we can only find a cowboy hat that fits her as well!

Abilene, Teaxas

Posting this from Abilene, Texas. Essentially I have nothing profound to say. Doesn't matter. I felt compelled to tell you we are here! Some city names just hit me as "classic"! It is still mighty windy. It is still mighty cold. A balmy Texas night hitting 27 degrees is not my idea of being in Texas the beginning of December - BUT - reality tends to trump what I think was, is, or should be. There are lots of cattle farms here (uh, I mean ranches). There are lots of oil rigs here. Driving past the Dallas skyline was not like I remembered it some 50 years ago (last time I did that with my family), but it was still pretty neat. JR, I'm in town, Bubba. Wanna take me and the little woman (yea, right) out for a steak. Mind you, Marilyn can still eat a whopping prime rib (though she doesn't). We are old enough (and smart enough) to have down-sized our red meat portions; however, if you're paying? Well, maybe we should re-consider this one time.

Now, so I don't mislead anyone intentionally, I did NOT see the following photos on the road in either Oklahoma OR Texas today. But our dearest of dear friend Miss Joan, who follows the blog like a hound on a fox, sent us these real life Oklahoma shots which I feel duty bound to share with the masses. Not because they are so outrageous, but because I feel relatively CERTAIN I COULD HAVE SEEN THEM anywhere along the way.... It is Texas! All concepts are LARGE!

Oklahoma......OK

Ooook-lahoma, where the wind comes sweepin' down the plain

And the wavin' wheat can sure smell sweet
When the wind comes right behind the rain.

The wheat has been out of the fields for a while now, but we can vouch for the fact that the wind comes sweeping down the plain. And it whistles. And it howls. And it intimidates just a bit as well. I have been in full fledged hurricanes that didn't make as much noise as the wind has the last two days here in Oklahoma.

But undaunted, we headed out on our one full-day foray into Oklahoma, determined to find something that makes the place special. And sure enough we did. In a state that is essentially a "plain", that is to say basically flat, what exactly would we find if we drove a ways to go see the highest waterfall in the state at Turner Falls State Park in the Arbuckle Mountains? At its recorded height of 77 feet, it is far from the most impressive waterfall we have seen, but it had that "oasis in the dessert" kind of beauty that takes you quite by surprise. And it is essentially an all natural water park- falls with slides and diving areas, swimming pools in crystal clear and mighty cold spring water. Rainbow and brown trout abound in the waters above and below the falls and fishing is allowed here as well. There are caves in the sides of the cliff leading to and opposite the falls, and while in summer season, no climbing is allowed, it was a slow day and a super cold day- so I did the up the hill and over the rocks thing to get a few unusual shots.

And lo and behold- we found more mistletoe. If you read the most recent post you saw where we were a bit amazed to find some in Texas. Now, not only have we found it here in Oklahoma, but Marilyn found out today it is the state plant. Which just goes to show you: what is a marvelous discovery for one is just plain common knowledge to a lot of folks, especially those living here in Oklahoma. Traveling, it turns out, teaches a person much about things that they THINK they already know pretty much about!

In the slide show that follows (all Oklahoma shots) keep an eye out for the "QUIG" making its very first official stream crossing to date. While I did drive it across into the park, Marilyn drove it back out so I could get the mid-stream shot. Looking good! And look for some overview shots from the "high points" (literally and figuratively) of our Oklahoma adventure. The Quig took us up some super steep paths intended for hikers. Everybody got a good workout!

You're doin' fine, Oklahoma!
Oklahoma O.K.!

Holiday Spirit In Texas

No one has to tell you the US economy has a seasonal flu and hasn't been feeling too well. Add to that a cold and windy and dreary ride through the Lakes and Plains region of Texas en route to Oklahoma. That region of Texas looks (and probably is, but I'm no expert on Texas - God Bless the Republic!) depressed. Admittedly we were feeling a little depressed humming along the I-20 corridor ourselves. In some places whole villages looked like they would better be termed "ghost towns." I had "Trailers for sale or rent; rooms to let 50 cents" on my King of the Road mind as we drew closer to the Oklahoma line.

But I was noticing round patches of green in the otherwise brown or leafless deciduous tress that grew along the ranch field lines more or less as wind breaks. Only a few at first and I didn't think them worth mentioning. Maybe a squirrel nest of some kind or a section of the tree that steadfastly refused to submit to the onset of winter. But as we drove along I saw more and more of them and noticed a pattern that did bear mentioning.

"Hey, Mar, what are those round clumps of green in those trees along the road and on the windbreaks?"

"I've been looking at them too. Looks like some kind of air plant or something- but I wouldn't expect that here...."

But as we saw more and more of them and drove closer to a few of them, Marilyn, the former florist extraordinaire, suggested that they must be mistletoe.

"Mistletoe? In Texas? "

And upon further investigation and a stop or two for a closer look, that is indeed what it turned out to be. Mistletoe. And with that discovery, the region became a much happier place. A festive prognosticator of the holiday season had come upon us in an otherwise desolate part of the state....Or so I thought. The cattle in the field took on "Away In A Manger" status....and the holiday season had begun anew.

Starting at the top: see what we saw in the trees while driving. The closer we (or the telephoto lens) got, the more the results of the mistletoe suspicions were confirmed.