Rose is doing great on the trip so far! We have already traveled 2,469 miles through Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, all the way across Texas and New Mexico and no mechanical problems at all! You go girl!!!
We traveled from Big Bend National park north to the Texas/New Mexico border and hiked at Guadalupe National Park. The mountains are made out of a 280 million year old fossil reef from an ancient sea. It’s the largest fossilized reef in the world. There’s some human history here too. The first cross country mail delivery and stage coach service went through here. The trip took 25 days and traveled 2,700 miles from St. Louis to San Fransisco. What a rough and dusty ride that would have been – we REALLY appreciate Rose!
Our next stop not far up the road in New Mexico was Carlsbad Caverns National Park. It is absolutely amazing – we walked for 4 miles inside the cave and only saw a small portion of the 30+ miles of passage ways!
Next we stopped in Roswell to visit the “International” UFO Museum and learn first hand about the UFO sighting in 1947. It was fascinating to learn the perspectives of both sides – the government (non believers) and the locals ( believers). It makes you wonder - are we really alone in the universe? We searched for UFOs that night but the lights were too bright in the Walmart parking lot where we stayed to even see the stars!
Our last stop in New Mexico was Alamogordo. On the way there we drove through Billy the Kid’s old stompin’ grounds and learned about the life of America’s most famous and colorful outlaw. In Alamogardo we went on a ranger walk at White Sands National Monument - beautiful white sand dunes made of gypsum. We also drove up into the mountains to the National Solar Observatory in Sunspot, New Mexico. What an amazing place- huge multi story telescopes and researchers focused full time on studying the sun’s changes and effects on the earth!
At the campsite…
Well it was Walmart parking lots every night. The price is right and it’s easy to do grocery shopping while you’re there! Plus Molly loves to look out the window at all of the activity in the Walmart parking lot.
Next stops: Tombstone and Tuscon, Arizona! We’re learning lots about the wild, wild west!
