Oh, I forgot to mention that I went
through Texas yesterday singing “Home, Home on the Range!” But Texas is behind
us and we will spend the next two days, October 23 & 24, crossing New
Mexico. For quite a while it was just like Texas, flat! However, we passed
scads of oil drillers. Don decided that they must be frakking. This part of New
Mexico is known for a vast underground aquifer which I am sure contributes to
the appeal of this kind of oil drilling.
On Thursday, we wanted to visit White
Sands National Monument. We followed Highway 82 through the oil fields and up
into the Sacramento Mountains. It was another beautiful drive to 8000 feet,
with a steep descent into Alamagordo NM. We could see the white sands off in
the distance as we descended the mountain.
We enjoyed our visit to the park. We went
to the visitor center for my passport stamp and to watch the orientation movie.
The dunes are made of fine grains of gypsum blown down from the mountains we
had just crossed. They act very differently from other sand dunes and are being
thoroughly studied to see just how they are formed. We drove into the
recreational area and enjoyed a brief walk in the cool sand. Mickey, of course,
ran himself silly!
We continued on Highway 70 to I-40 and
spent the night in Deming NM.
The next day we forged on to Phoenix. Both of us are not feeling too well - some kind of stomach flu - so I can't say I was the most observant traveler today. We did make it to Phoenix in the early afternoon (the time changes are also driving me crazy!). Phoenix is now the sixth largest city in the US (according to my OLD tour book), and spreads out for miles. They have enough land to make everything look pretty with landscaping and low rise buildings. We decided to tour the Desert Botanical Gardens in Tempe. They were very interesting - lots of succulents and huge Saguaro Cactus, among lots of others. We even saw a display of Day of the Dead altars, called Ofrendas (offerings). We found out it was 95 degrees today!
We spent the night in Tempe AZ.
We spent the night in Tempe AZ.
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