Tucson, AZ

We have been in warm DRY Tucson for a few days, but the internet service in our huge KOA park has been lousy, so updating the blog has been impossible. So I'll now take a few moments outside the pool house to catch up.

We drove from Alamagordo to Tuscon, which is a lot of desert driving. Luckily, the winds did not bother us too much and we arrived intact and without delays.

It has been in the 70s during the day, and 40s at night, and we have really just relaxed.

We drove over to the old mission, San Xavier del Bac. It was built in the 1780s as a Spanish mission, and it is truly remarkable inside and out. It is located in the middle of an Indian reservation, about 10 miles south of Tucson.

The altar and two alcoves were intricately carved, painted in dark colors. The icons were all carved from wood and - honestly - kind of scary looking.

The landscape around Tucson is, of course, high desert and lots of cactus. This hillside, covered in Saguaro cactus was interesting.

Alamogordo & White Sands, New Mexico

We spent the night in Alamogordo, New Mexico and saw a some very interesting things.

The Three Rivers Petroglyph site contains over 21,000 carvings and etchings made by the Jornada Mogollon people between AD 900 and AD 1400. They are on rocks on a rugged hillside overlooking two valleys. We speculated that the people used this hillside as a vantage point from which to spot animals to hunt, which could explain the density and huge number of glyphs. The weather was spectacular, as were the vistas.

No, this one is NOT an ancient rock formation.

As we came down out of the mountains east of Alamagordo, we saw a vast "snow field" glistening in the distance. Although we had seen snow on the mountaintops, this was on the valley floor and had us really confused. Then we realized what we were seeing: the White Sands National Park and White Sands Missile Base.

There are only a few places like this on Earth, and this is the most extensive.  The "sand" is actually gypsum (the same stuff sheetrock is made of) which washes down from the limestone mountains. It crystalizes when the water evaporates, then breaks apart, blows around and ultimately becomes tiny grains of brilliant, glistening white sand. 

These plants grow quickly, don't mind being buried in sand, and then die

One of the more interesting things is that the wildlife in this one area has adapted to the white environment by becoming lighter colored. The lizards, snakes, crickets and even the foxes are all much lighter in color than members of the same species elsewhere in New Mexico. The only critter that didn't feel the need to adapt was the Stinkbug, who is still black, because, well, he just sticks his rump up into the air and lets go to repel would-be predators. (Sound familiar, Phil?)

Even Bessie and Irv fit right in....

People rent disks and go "sledding" down the dunes...

Sledding at White Sands

This is also a big pistachio nut producing area. They sell them in many different "flavors".

The biggest pistachio nut in the world (It's not real)

My favorite nut.

Roswell, New Mexico

After 8-1/2 months, we have arrived! Now we can finally get to the bottom of this whole UFO controversy! Roswell is home of the UFO Museum... and Research Center, where everything about the 1947 Roswell Incident can be found. Muldar and Scully had it wrong. "The Truth is In HERE"!

Entering Roswell. The entire town is UFO-themed!

Knowing full well that this may be the kitschiest place on planet Earth (and we should know, having hit most of them), Roswell is swarming with hundreds of people today. At the museum, we've learned the history of the famous 1947 Roswell Incident where the Air Force supposedly captured an alien from a flying saucer, that supposedly crashed a few miles from here, and supposedly conducted medical examinations (on the alien for a change), and then covered the whole thing up on orders from the President.

There is an animatronic display of the landing site (see video below), and even a replica of the medical exam. Good thing it was so much fun because, as nice a town as Roswell is, the UFO museum is about the only thing to do here.

Not just a Museum, but a Research Center too!

I finally found my peeps!!

A "real" alien

Not sure, but I think this is just a reenactment of the actual exam

Area 51 is not far from here

Carlsbad, NM

130 miles north of lovely Ft. Stockton, Texas lies Carlsbad, New Mexico. The drive through this part of the Texas panhandle was an endless string of oil fields, most with wells pumping, and with quite a few new wells being drilled.

We made it out of Texas...finally! 

One of the hundreds of oil wells along the way

We both expected Carlsbad to be a larger town than it actually is. It appears to be populated almost totally by oil workers, as is the RV park we stayed in last night. We were a little disappointed when we rolled in here yesterday afternoon, so we're going to head on up the road this morning.

The world famous Carlsbad Caverns is as exciting for Stacy as Disneyland. For Jack, not so much. So Stacy took the 2-hour trip underground...and had a blast. Jack did a little reading.

The rangers carefully screen every visitor to make sure they have not been in other caverns recently because of the white-nose fungus that is decimating bat populations all over the Eastern USA. MILLIONS of bats have died so far, and the fungus keeps spreading. Since the only caverns we visited were Jewell Caves in South Dakota, we were cleared to go. Also, since the bats at Carlsbad migrate to Mexico during the winter (not so dumb, huh?) and don't hibernate in the caves, they are much less susceptible to the disease. Still, the rangers are cautious.

Cave entrance, discovered by a farm boy in the early 1900's when he saw what looked like a large plume of smoke in the distance. Upon investigation, it turned out to be a swarm of BATS leaving a large cave.

A hint from Evan's preschool days about how to remember which way stalagmites and stalactites go: 

"When the mites go UP, the tites come DOWN". 

The self-guided tour was remarkable! You can enter through the natural entrance and walk down into the cavern, or take an elevator down 750 feet. Stacy walked in. The paved walkway winds down, down, down through dark, minimally-lit grottoes, around boulders, past "decorations", and finally into the "Big Room" which is the size of 14 football fields, and hundreds of feet high, lined with incredible formations.

On to Roswell...and hopefully alien encounters!

Ft. Stockton, TX

Yesterday we left San Antonio and headed out across the vastness that is west Texas. Fort Stockton is about 320 miles away. (And thanks to a little traffic snafu in San Antonio we added a few extra miles.) At one point along the drive we realized that 1/4 tank of gas wouldn't get us the remaining 120 miles to the next gas station, so we had to backtrack 17 miles.  So, 320 became 380, which is a long drive for a F150 pulling 4 tons.

All the way across, the scenery didn't change much:

100 miles along....

200 miles along...

300 miles along...

Whoa, a WINDMILL! Stop the train! 

Those folks who aren't pulling their house behind them can take enjoy a generous Texas speed limit.

And finally we got to Fort Stockton....

Look familiar....?

They are taking advantage of the wide open spaces and the relentless wind to develop wind farms out here. We saw, quite literally, thousands of windmills along the way.

Windmills along I-10

Even I have to admit the sky here is beautiful.

Today, we leave Texas and head into New Mexico.

San Antonio, TX

Ahhh... It is SUNNY and warm in San Antonio. Jack and I both agree that we are much better people when the sun is shining.

We are staying in a lovely campground, the Alamo KOA, which is actually several miles from the Alamo. But, a city bus stops right outside our gates and takes us right to the Alamo and Riverwalk. We have not been that impressed with KOA's in general, but this one is exceptional.

When we visited the Alamo we were prepared to be unimpressed, since both of us had heard it was just a little old building scrunched in between a bunch of large modern ones. But it actually was quite pretty, very moving, and extremely well preserved. We just happen to be here on March 6, the date in 1836 on which Santa Anna attacked the mission and killed the 189 men who were fighting for Texas' independence from Mexico. There was a pre-dawn memorial this morning (the attack happened at 6 a.m.) but we were sleeping so didn't make that.

The Alamo

That is Davy Crockett on the right and Mr. Travis, who led the Texan fighters, on the left

Stacy at the Alamo

The interior (We learned later that photos were absolutely not permitted)

The San Antonio Riverwalk is breathtaking! We really didn't know what to expect, but it was so serene and picturesque and clean. And there are ducks! It must be even more spectacular when all the trees have leaves and the flowers are blooming.

Water taxi

We walked down to the Old Town Mercado (Market Square) which was lovely, but very quiet.

And the oldest church in Texas, the San Fernando Cathedral, is in the plaza. It is very large and impressive, inside and out. It is also home to a tomb containing the remains of the men who died at the Alamo... Crockett, Bowie, Travis, et al.

The Cathedral

The tomb of men killed at the Alamo