July 7th - July 11th
Saturday,
July 7th
Guadelupe
to Carlsbad Caverns to Roswell, NM to Oscuro
I-35 to 290 to I-10 to 349 to I-10 to 54 to 180
Our camp site was right at the base of the Guadelupe Mountains. It was gorgeous to wake up to the view. After breakfast, we packed up camp and head for the Carlsbad Caverns. Carlsbad Caverns are the largest caverns in the Western Hemisphere. They were awesome. The caverns themselves were as big as 14 football fields and were filled with the most unusual shapes made out of limestone; stalagmites and stalactites.
Then we head up to Roswell. Roswell was quite an experience. It was less cheesy than I expected. Admittedly, there were aliens displayed on every sign and in every business' window but it was actually cute. We started out at a tourist shop that had everything alien you could imagine.
We were starving so we stopped and had a late lunch at Denny's. I indulged in a fudge sundae that was sooo good. Then we went to the Roswell Research Museum. Almost like a science fair, it had a number of boards with documentation about the Roswell incident. They had mapped out the events of July 1947 and had numerous testimonies from all kinds of people involved, everyone from local ranchers to ex-military personnel. They showed both sides of the story and it was really quite interesting. Put it this way, it really got us thinking. But who knows!
From there we drove to Oscuro, NM. It was a town a century or so ago and now only one ranch remains. The ranch is now being run as a hostel located in the middle of the Tuscaloosa Basin. The basin is a large flat area surrounded by the Sacramento and San Andres Mountain ranges. We were the only people there and found the owner to be a very hospitable man. We were allowed to help ourselves to anything in the kitchen and ended up watching a movie with him. Our room was a little cabin in the back of the house and on my way to get something out of the room, I was lucky enough to catch the moon rising over the Sacramento Mountains. Gorgeous!
Sunday, July 8th
Oscuro to Alamogordo to White Sands to Truth or Consequences
Well if the beauty of the previous evening wasn't enough for me, then this day was going to give me my fill. After the owner of the hostel cooked us a lovely breakfast, we head down to the petroglyphs at Three Rivers. There were no rivers to be seen and the sun was cooking. We walked a mile-long trail and saw some really interesting pictures on the rocks. The story is that this area had a lot more water 600 - 1000 years ago and many Indian tribes lived in the area. These tribes had drawn pictures and shapes on the rocks during that time period.
We were nearly dying of sunstroke so we decided that going to White Sands straight away wouldn't be such a good idea. There was a fair size town on the way so we thought we'd try catch a movie there. As we drove into town we saw 2 wonderful things; a thunderstorm right where we were heading and an advertisement for an IMAX movie that we had tried to see at the Space Museum in Washington.
The town was great - it was a boring town, but the rain had totally cooled it off. We saw Solarmax, which was about the sun and showed some amazing images of it. I love that stuff. Next lifetime I'll be a space scientist!
After the movie, it was late afternoon, perfect to head to White Sands. It was spectacular; in the middle of a basin surrounded by mountains was a large area (over 200 miles long) of pure white sand. First, we took a mile long self-guided tour that showed us all about the plant and animal life. Then we went to do the guided sunset walk but the ranger was really nervous of the storm to our south so she cancelled it. This was the same storm that we had experienced in Alamogordo but had significantly grown and was heading in our direction. So we went to the picnic area and had something to eat. By now the sun was starting to set so we drove to the furthest point and walked up a dune to watch the sun go down. It was one the most beautiful things I had ever seen. On one side we were seeing the sun do down over the San Andres mountains. There were plenty clouds in the sky to make the colors spectacular. On the other side was a huge gray cloud that reached right down to the ground. The lightning coming from it was incredible and we even got to see a rainbow. It was a really extraordinary experience.
We drove out of the basin and up into the mountains towards Las Cruces. We drove right into the storm and the lightning literally lit up the entire sky in a purple-pink color. We passed through the storm and into the blackness of the mountains. As we came over the mountains, Las Cruces appeared. The streetlights of highway 70 created a straight line right through the town. We picked up some Dominos pizza and head north to Truth or Consequences. On our way we hit a roadblock. It was border patrol. It got me a little nervous because I had forgotten my passport, resident alien card and all my car information in Austin with Lisa. But luckily they didn't ask us for any identification (in the stress of the moment, I couldn't even find my driver's license either) and let us through. Phew!
The hostel in T or C was supposed to be amazing. A couple of years back my brother and sister had spent a couple of nights there (actually they got sucked in for more time than that) and the hostel review was very good. The hostel has a natural hot spring and a very relaxed attitude. We arrived there quite late but the manager had kindly stayed up for us. He showed us our rooms and said we could check in tomorrow. After I had put my stuff down, I came outside (where he and a couple of people were sitting) and had a cigarette before I went to sleep. I met Mark, the manager, Jeremy, the co-manager and Arjen, an extended resident. They made me feel at home straight away.
Monday, July 9th
Truth or Consequences
At about 5:40am my alarm went off (still set for 7:40am NY time). It was in my bag and the alarm switch must have been bumped on at some point. Of course I was in the top bunk and had to get down to switch it off. By the time I got down I was awake and decided to go watch the sunrise. The hostel is right on the Rio Grande so I walked a little way down, sat by the river and watched it come up. Glorious! I came back to the hostel and the manager had already started running the taps for the hot tubs. They have 4 of them. The water comes into the first one at 107F and runs through the others to the last which is 103F. I got my bikini out and tested the last one. Amazing! So relaxing yet a great way to wake up.
Eventually people started to wake up. Jeremy asked us if we were interested in joining dinner. Apparently, it was the norm to have communal dinners. Today was also Mark's birthday so we wanted to make it quite special. I was totally in the mood for a BBQ and they were agreeable to the idea. So my day was quite happily filled with preparing dinner. I went to the store with Jeremy and Arjen to get the food. I made potato and regular salad. Mark picked up the ribs. Later 3 ladies arrived. They had come from a yoga retreat in the area. They were also vegetarian so they head to the store to get some more stuff for them - James was happy with that! Another duo arrived too; also a brother and sister traveling. There was also a mother/daughter, a father/daughter, a duo from Texas and an English couple.
Dinner was great. As corny as it may sound, before we ate we all had to hold hands, say our names, where we were from and for what we were thankful. Most of the people were thankful for our surroundings and how we had all come together. It was truly amazing how we had all come together at the same time. Everyone got along fantastically and so many connections very made.
After dinner we just sat around and got to know each other. At one point, the dogs started fighting over a bone. It was quite serious and instinctively James went to separate them. He managed to do that. But with his arms outstretched holding them apart, he asked someone to take over because he was in a lot of pain. Sure enough, they had bitten him right in the nuts! May sound funny but it wasn't. Mark was really good about it and went to the neighbor to find out where the closest clinic was. Once we knew where it was Mark and I drove him down there. The wound had to be cleaned (no fun), he had to get a Tetanus shot and some serious antibiotics. Jeremy took over from Mark (shame, it was his b-day) and came into the room at the perfect time. James was surrounded by 3 nurses and myself and I don't think we were sympathetic enough to his pain ;-)
His manhood was in good order. It was just really painful. We were supposed to sleep in the Teepees that night but Mark was kind enough to put us up in one of the private rooms. James got into bed and watched a movie. Everyone was really concerned and he had visitors the rest of the night.
I ended my night in the Teepee with John and Jeremy playing guitar to Erin (John's sister), Deanna (one of the ladies from yoga camp), Arjen, Moni (another long-term dweller) and myself.
Tuesday,
July 10th
Truth or Consequences
Didn't make it for sunrise this morning (we went to bed some time after 3am). But did wake up to a hostel full of new friends. There was artwork on many of the buildings and at some point a couple of people started on a new wall. I sat down with Alberto - great man; Mexican from Texas - and we started to talk about art. I told him about an art project that I had done as a child that incorporated hands. Somehow that sparked the idea of painting the deck with our handprints. So we got out the paints and starting covering our hands with it. It didn't end there. Eventually it turned into a huge paint fight and everyone had paint all over himself or herself. It was hysterical.
We enjoyed the hot springs all day and also swam in the river. The river was freezing but very refreshing. They had a little dock that went out into the river. You could jump off of it and the current (which was fairly strong) would take you about 20 feet down river to a point where you could get out. So much fun!
That evening,
I was in a domestic mood again - yes, I know, it's strange. There was just
something therapeutic about it. Alberto and I went to the store and got the
ingredients for dinner. Alberto was going to cook us all a genuine New Mexico/Mexican
meal and I was to be his helper. It was great. We had a green and a red chili
potato dish, the same with chicken, tortillas, fried rice and beans.
Wednesday, July 11th
T or C
After a wonderful sleep in our private room (Mark let us stay there again), I managed to wake up for the sunrise. It was even colder that morning so the hot springs were very welcomed. Again, I was in a very domestic mood so I started to clean up a bit. I figured because Mark had let us stay in the private rooms, the least I could do was help clean.
James woke up fairly early too - maybe because I was running around so much - so we went to the grocery store to get breakfast for everyone. James and some of the girls cooked a wonderful breakfast and again, we all dined together.
Early afternoon, we were packed up and ready to leave, but as we started to say our good-byes, we decided not to leave until later. It's a scary thing, the place is so nice and relaxing, you feel like you could be there forever. But it was the middle of the day and really hot and made no sense to do 3-hour drive when we could put it off till later. So we did. We went to the library (free internet), took a nap and left a little later. It was still hard to leave though and I still wish I were there. I guess all good things must come to an end and many good things still await us.
The drive was pleasant. It took 3½ hours, which is nothing for us at this point! We arrived in Santa Fe at dusk and decided to check-in to a hotel. Thunderbird was it's name and it wasn't luxurious at all.
Once we were
settled, we head into town for dinner. Santa Fe is so quaint. I love it. We
had a lovely dinner at Atomic Café and head home exhausted.