Next I drove to El Paso.. followed directly by driving to Alamogordo (for some reason I just wanted to stay in New Mexico that night). I slept in my car in a nice suburban neighborhood there. I don't think anyone saw me.. but people got up early to enjoy the couple hours before it gets hot and to walk their dogs.. so I rapidly jumped back in the cockpit and drove away when this started.
Then I went to White Sands National Monument. Pretty cool place! Miles of white sand dunes formed from the slow blowing away of sand-sized particles from gypsum formed on a dry lake bed nearby.
I went on a couple hikes through the area.. and then got to camp there as well. It was really very nice to watch to sunset into the mountains in the distance as I sat on top of a sand dune. And to feel the temperature drop hugely. The white sands reflect up a lot of heat during the day.. but then rapidly become quite cool and nice at night (true of most of the area.. but I think it's more extreme in the sands).
On a couple negative points.. the next day they started playing a radio station with really annoying music before 6 in the morning. The music was for the big gathering of hot air balloons that go up there in the morning. The balloons would be fine on their own.. but the radio station could be heard for at least a couple miles away from it... not very park service conducive atmosphere in my opinion. Also, another thing (not the park's fault but the people's) was that a number of people had taken craps right on top of dunes.. and since the dunes are always shifting they craps naturally become quite revealed to the outside world. Not very smart people.. if you're going to take a crap in the dunes.. bury it on the harder flats between the dunes.. geez *shakes head for their shame*. All that being said though.. it was a really cool place to visit and camp a night at anyways.
Then! I drove up to a Cibolo National Forest area near Corona... though after driving in it for a bit I was rather unsure as to which areas were national forest and which were privately owned... the whole area was a bit confusing and unwelcoming... so I just left. Drove on up to Albuquerque and stayed a night at the Route 66 International Hostel. Pretty cool place.. met some interesting other people staying here... and I'm writing on the computer there right now!
Not sure where to next. Gonna go to the public library here to use their computers since this computer is reallly slow. Laters folks!
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