Thursday July 30, 2009

We left Las Cruces this morning about 9 a.m. after having breakfast at the motel. Traveled north east on Hwy 70 and came onto The White Sands Missile Range, so we stopped and went into the site. They checked us as closely as if we were Iraqis hauling explosives...wanted photo IDs, proof of car insurance, and inspected the under carriage of the car with mirrors before they let us in. I posted some of the missiles displayed at the site, but we took over 70 pictures, so I can't put them all on here. After we left there we continued to White Sands National Monument and Museum where we saw a 17 minute film on the site and the native plants and animals. When we started through, I thought "Well, this is not as nice as the Oregon Dunes." However, after about 7 miles in, we came upon the most magnificent sight of pure white sands and dunes, whiter than the driven snow. Absolutely awe inspiring. Over 275 acres of pure white sand and dunes. There was an area for groups at the end of the drive, where large numbers of people can come in, and play and BBQ...BBQ pits, shelters, tables, benches and all. We stopped for a while and played Farkel and watched the natives slide down the dunes. What a fabulous place! The kids were having a ball and the parents were cooking BBQ outside and flying kites with the little ones. It was about 80 degrees and lovely. After spending about 2 hours there we left and headed north east towards Roswell. Everyone knows what Roswell is famous for, right? That's where UFO's have landed. ;^) Tomorrow we are going to the UFO museum here in Roswell. It rained heavily here just before we arrived and some of the streets were flooded. In fact, getting into the motel room we had to jump over/wade through a puddle. On the way in it sprinkled a couple of times, but the motel manager told us it really poured here. It has been in the 70's and 80's all day. We are in Billy the Kids territory, but we may have passed up his town of Lincoln. I'll have to get the map out and take a look again. Nighty night. WLY all. M and D, G and G.