We were going to go to Roswell, but we decided that it would probably be too touristy and too far of a detour. So we decided to go to the White Sands National Monument which wasn't that far out of the way. As we were driving out and saw an absolutely gorgeous rigid mountain range right in front of us! It was so pretty and especially with the sun still casting it's sunrise glow over them.
Las Cruces is known for it's painted water "towers" (I say "towers" because they are low to the ground and not really towers, but I don't know what else to call them). We saw about 4 or so all painted with different scenes like Cowboys and Indians or horses or NASA space theme.
On the way out to White Sands, we saw the NASA missile test range which was cool. They have an active missile test range there because it's in the middle of nowhere....there was nothing around and it so flat. It was really neat though to see, kinda like we were on the edge of the world it was flat for miles between the mountians (you'd just have to see the pictures to see what I'm talking about) and all hazy looking. It was also the sight where they tested the first atomic bomb (Trinity) which was cool.
We went up and down mountain roads, we didn't even have to really use any gas because of the gravity of going up and down the mountain, haha. While driving around we came up on a hazard sign that posted the area as contaminated from test materials! Oops...we turned around real quick, haha.
The White Sands was real neat what little bit we saw. It's an area of white gypsum dunes and goes for miles. We could've taken a driving tour of them, but it took about an hour and we didn't want to take the big rig down in it all. The visitor's center was real cool, it was an adobe building built in the 1920s. We saw some gorgeous pictures of the dunes, so we'll definitely have to go back! At the gift shop, we saw some pretty jewelry and Indian pottery. We got a small (I mean small because they're real expensive) Navajo pottery pot that they decorate with horse hair; it's real pretty with all the colors they use!
The mountains were gorgeous all around us with tall grass plains in front. They looked like something you'd see in a movie with Indians riding their horses through the country or Settlers traveling with their wagons. Ok, so I guess I could get carried away with that, haha...I did have to break out the big camera it was so pretty; so as soon as I get the film developed for that, I'll put those pictures on here. And I only took 3 rolls!
It was funny because we'd go for miles and miles without seeing anything, then all of a sudden we'd see like 50 billboards advertising a truck stop ahead in the middle of nowhere. Oh, and then there would be nothing for miles again, and all of a sudden there were "gentlemen's clubs". It was so funny, no houses we could see, no gas stations or anything, but they sure would have their clubs all over the little "town" or whatever you call the place. Very weird... There were also dust storm warnings everywhere and telling travelers to keep driving through them because if you stop, you'd run into each other! Yikes! But we didn't experience any of those thank goodness!
We also couldn't get over the nut farms there...haha, no really pecan and walnut groves planted out there! No trees and hardly any grass, but there would be nut tree groves in front of the mountains and signs advertising "Pecans, Walnuts, and Wine!", haha...
The sunset was pretty too! We arrived in Tucson at pitch black dark so we couldn't see anything. They have a city-wide ordinance that the lights are dimmed because of the huge space observatories here. And boy is it hard to see at night! Thank goodness they do light up the street signs so you can see what street you're on! I was disappointed that we couldn't see anything in the new city we were living, but it was a surprise for me the next day to see how pretty it all looks!
I'm still hoping that the connection at the new apartment will be better, and I will be able to post the videos...so in the meantime, here's the link to the pictures from this travel day: http://picasaweb.google.com/greeneblog/Day3ToTucsonAZ?authkey=JRlEIAyNUaY
11/17/08 Videos:
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