Jan 2nd - Hot springs was a bust. Although we did make it to the "City of Rocks" state park north of Deming, we passed by the anticipated hot springs just before we got there and discovered it closed. Apparently it has been for a couple years (some of my travel info is a bit dated, I guess) - according to the park ranger the husband died and the wife wasn't much of a "people person". Interpret that however you want. Anyway, good opportunity if anyone wants to buy her out and open it up again...
With the hot springs closed, there wasn't much to keep us in that area (rocks are neat, but we'd already seen a lot), so we carried on to Las Cruces. Spent the night at the rest area just west of town and up on the hill - a million dollar view if you were to build a house there. Sorry no pics though: my night ones didn't turn out well and the daytime ones weren't impressive. Here are a few from enroute, though (the giant roadrunner was actually at the rest area):
Jan 3 - El Paso - From Las Cruces it was only about an hour drive down through El Paso... and back into New Mexico to the Sunland Racetrack and Casino. When we got there we were fortunate enough to jump the queue and get one of the $10/day electric-and-water serviced spots (dry camping is free, but since it's been cool at nights the power is nice).
As you can see we had a pretty good view of the track from our spot (#5 of the 8 serviced spots). The dry camping would have been even better, if you like horses, as you can park right alongside the fence. We didn't see any races, but there was definitely a lot of practice and track grooming.
Since we were in and set up early we did a little driving tour around El Paso and even back up to Las Cruces... with no real requirement to find anything we decided to check out the Harley shops - one in El Paso:
and one in Las Cruces:
Can't tell you why, though - it's a secret from Mo.
Jan 4 - OMG! Snow in New Mexico!
OK you probably saw through that one, right? Monday we headed back up into New Mexico to check out the White Sands National Monument. Yup, the sand was white all right, and part of the tour road into the middle of the dunes is built out of the sand itself. They run a grader over it fairly constantly since the moisture seeps out of the ground and moving the sand around helps dry it out and pack it. You can imagine driving the non-freshly graded sections by thinking about driving a winter road in the spring when the frost is coming out. Some more pics:
The one above looks like a bunch of brush, right? Wrong - it's a Cottonwood tree about 35' tall, with just a few branches above the sand. According to the sign as long as it has a few branches uncovered it'll survive until the dunes shift again and it's in the clear. On the other side of the tree is an almost sheer drop down to the desert floor.
You can rent sleds (plastic saucers, actually) at the visitor centre... we didn't though. The sand was actually pretty cold, and was covered with frost in the shady spots. We can get plenty of that kind of sledding at home.
Gab had a great time running around in the dunes... and paid for it the next day.
Picnic site at the end of the road. No campground, unfortunately - too bad, because that would be kind of cool.
Jan 5th - A day off. Nothing interesting, as we just relaxed, did laundry, got a service on the car, etc.
Which brings us to today - Temps have been pretty consistent since we left Phoenix: highs in the 55 - 60F range and overnight lows in the 28 - 35F range (why we've opted for powered sites when we could, as one of the electric heaters we brought set to low keeps us at a nice temp overnight and saves us from burning propane through the furnace.). The radio stations are scaring us right now, though, as they're calling for an "Arctic front" to come through by the weekend. Apparently here an "Arctic front" translates to highs of about 40F and lows of about 20F. While I'm pretty sure we could survive this "Arctic front", why would we want to? Checking our backtrain, the Phoenix/Tucson area is forecasting temps of about 70/45F for the weekend, so after (not very much) discussion we've decided to halt the eastward exploration and make a strategic retreat. There will definitely be other opportunities in future.
