Hampton Inn' Alamogordo

Today, we went to White Sands National Monumment in Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the Visitor's Center, I met Ranger Mike. I became a Junior Ranger - again! I got a badge and a patch for being a Junior Ranger! We bought a sledding saucer and put wax on it. I tried it out, but didn't do it exactly right. I could have been faster down the dune. I only missed one question for ...

... all night by the traffic on the road and last night Gigs saw one of the neighbours being arrested on the way to breakfast!

PPS You may also notice that Gigs has had a hair cut! He decided it was cheaper to buy the clippers, that pay for the barbers each time, so this is Zoes effort at a haircut, not bad for a first attempt!

Surprise Mogollon Petroglyphs... I stumbled upon these in an area called Three Rivers in Eastern New Mexico. The red petroglyphs were in Gila National Park near the cliff dwellings.

More on my trip website

... to explain the history of our space travel. I don't know if he is considered an astronaut, because he never went into space, but he has been through all the training and was a backup astronaut for several different missions. He also helped on the recovery of some of the Apollo splashdowns. He knows all the astronauts that we have heard about through the years personally, and told a few stories about them. Just listening to him, I could tell he still has the same fire in his ...

And now, from overseas, the stunning conclusion to my short trip through America ending in Cloudcroft. I've done a really terrible job as usual of following through on the last few pieces of the trip. Although there's not too much more to this one.

I took a day trip to the VLA (Very Large Array) on my way to El Paso. This was actually a really cool ...

... s the kind of place that a frustrated writer might seek as a cure for writers block. There's a certain level of insanity that comes along with driving long distances through the middle of nowhere, and I've attained it. After a while the long flat roads through rural New Mexico turn your car into a nail and the road into a chalkboard. The day I got into Cloudcroft, I went to bed. The next day was quite nice. It was a good time to relax as there isn't ...

... her tales, she left us to quietly admire the sunset and watch the dunes grow dark. This morning we headed for another part of White Sands: the White Sands Missile Range. Yes, surrounding the national park is an even greater expanse of land that is used for missile testing. It was also used for testing the world's first atomic bomb at a place now known as "Trinity Site". Sadly - or happily, depending ...

... O well, it was a chance to catch our breath and do a mental tally to make sure we hadn't forgotten anything before traveling too far. We have traveled this highway a number of times but it is never boring. The rock formations are intriguing, the traces of the old highway fascinating and the overview of intensive mining operations close at hand. As we travelled through rock cuts and a tunnel I am reminded that last week a portion of ...

... it is gips (you find it in building supply) going further down HW 70, just before the mountains, you can turn off to white sands missle range headquarter to see some old rockets in the museum. They do have a original V-2 there (rebuild).

... was amazing, thought (sorry, no photos of the lightening). Anyway, this is another must see National Park if you get to the area. If you look back through our write-ups you will find one on Namibia and Botswanna as part of our Southern Africa trip in 1999. I mention it hear because, The Okavango River in Botswana is the only major river in the world that does not flow to the ...