Month: January 2022

Departed Las Cruces (adios, amigos!). Up and over the Organ Mountains, through White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument. I learned that the name “White Sands” is an early example of government misinformation…the dunes are actually gypsum.

In this part of the country, the government has established a series of checkpoints called White Checks. The whiter you are, the easier it is to pass through.

At the risk of inciting unending envy in all, I will report that I visited Pistashioland, near Alamogordo, NM. One under-appreciated aspect of nuclear weapons testing is the enormous size of agricultural products that are now realized. This particular pistachio is about 3 times the size of my van-house and can supply the average American family with 2.7 years of pistachio nut meats. Imagine what would be possible with additional thermonuclear explosions!

Beautiful mountains lay to the east of Alamogordo. The mountains are the ancestral homelands of the Mescalero Apache. What a fine place to live in harmony with the land! Lincoln National Forest participates in dispersed camping, so I settled into a secluded site nestled in a valley. Patchy snow remained from a recent storm. Outside temp was 17 degrees in the morning, 60 in the van.

 

Xena, the Warrior Princess, got to experience her first snow! She loved it. (I don’t know how to embed a video, so you have to click on the link to see her cavorting)

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Evenings in my tiny van-house are comfy. I’ve been watching The Expanse.

And enjoying clear blue skies in the day.

Many of you have left comments, which I appreciate enormously. However, because of some technical weirdness, most comments come from Anonymous. There is a way for me to fix it by re-subscribing you in a different way. Email me if you want me to do that.

In southern Arizona, the desert gives way to plains filled with scrub-filled grasslands. Seeing it on a dry winter day makes me wonder if they ever get enough rain to bring it back to life. I suppose it must.

In the distance to the west, I saw an enticing mountain range, so I found a dirt road heading that way and away I went. Passing through open grazing land, I discovered Coronado National Forest, replete with dispersed camping.

Found a great camp site at 5,600 ft—nice views of mountain pastures and plenty of places for Xena to explore.

Spent a peaceful night, tucked into my van-house, warm and cozy while the wind blew outside. In the morning, I left headed further east-northeast.

Stopped at a roadside marker, an enormous phallus marking the place where Geronimo was forced to surrender.

Further down the road…New Mexico!

I’ve been traveling through the deserts of the Southwest, testing out my van/house. Stayed at Giant Rock, but saw no extra-terrestrials. I did hear the Marine conducting live fire exercises at the nearby 29 Palms Marine Corps Base. The sound of artillery travels far in the desert. Xena the cat loved climbing all over the huge pile of boulders…on her leash, of course.

Traveled just a few miles further east to Heart of the Mojave preserve. So nice and quiet. Vistas, but no people, for miles. Not so good for cats, though, little to see and nothing to climb on.

Further south, I found the Cabeza Prieta Wildlife Preserve, near the (unfortunately but appropriately named) town of Ajo, Arizona, and spent another peaceful night far from civilization.