SW Adventure

[Lapchik]

Thursday, May 21, 2026 (415 miles)
On my way out of Alamogordo, I saw a business called Kory's used cars. It is the first time I've ever seen my name spelled correctly on a public sign. It's a pretty short drive from town to the White sands national Park, and I didn't have any wait time to get in. I drove all the way to the back of the park, and climbed a dune. It is eerily quiet there. All I can hear were people talking, and they had to be at least half a mile away speaking in normal conversation tones. When I went to the bottom of the dune by my motorcycle, it was the most quiet place I have ever been in nature. Not a bird, bug, passing vehicle, or even a breath of wind to Russell what very little vegetation there was in the area. I could hear my own heartbeat, which is really something when usually the best I can hope for is my baseline tinnitus. When I came out of the gift shop, a Blackhawk was landing just past the forestry service building. It took off again shortly after, and arced over the parking lot. There were also a couple jets that took off from holloman Air Force base, and took hard turns towards the White sands missile range. If you want to go, get there right as it opens. The sun bouncing off that white gypsum sand can be pretty forceful, and it heats up pretty fast out there. Also, all the tourists seem to show up at about 10:30. When I left, the line was about two dozen cars deep. After leaving, I went to Las Cruces to get a grand tour picture and see the Rio grande. When I was at the city park, I talked to a local and asked where the river water was. That was a mistake. I believe I found the local wandering mental health case, because he went on an epic tirade about how all the pecan farmers north of town suck up every drop of water (which is true to a certain extent) and nothing ever makes it to town, and suggested he had something for them that they could also suck on. I went up the two-lane road to Hatch instead of using the interstate. I don't really enjoy super spicy food, but I know a few guys at work that do so I grab some hot sauce. Also on that road, I found part of the Rio grande that actually had water. I took a break underneath the radium springs bridge, when the sun was being oppressive. After that I went North up to Truth or consequences, and had lunch at the State Park below the dam. The next stop was the very large array, a radio telescope that has been used for seti (search for extraterrestrial intelligence) and as a backdrop in the movie Contact. It's a long ways out of the way to get to that, but it's a sort of Mecca for nerds. While I was there they changed the orientation of the array, but I don't know what they were looking at or if they were just doing maintenance. I continued Westward to arizona, but found that Alpine had no available rooms. That turned out to be just fine, as I found a nice enough bed and breakfast in Reserve, New Mexico. The road from Alpine to reserve is a minimally challenging mountain road that was a really nice drive. Probably not quite as nice as Arizona 191, which is what I will be doing first thing tomorrow morning after breakfast.