CalExpeditions

Category: 2022 Southern Loop: Deserts to the Keys

  • Johnson Space Flight Center Gets a Visit

    Johnson Space Flight Center Gets a Visit

    To the south of Houston, Texas, lies the storied Johnson Space Flight Center (its new name omits the “Flight,” but I prefer the archaic name). From here, NASA directed the training of astronauts and the conduct of mission from Mercury through the International Space Station and now to new missions like Orion and who knows what else.

    The visitor center is aimed at school-age people, mildly interesting, but well-done for that audience. I liked the displays of the costumes astronauts wore.

    Of greater interest to me was the tour of the Apollo Mission Control Center, painstakingly restored its appearance in 1969 for the first moon landing…even down to the color of the carpets and the upholstery on the galley reserved for astronauts’ family members.

    All in all, a good day invested. Especially when I ended the day on my own private beach.

  • A Brief History of The Alamo

     

    10,000 to 13,000 years ago, people migrated across the Aluetian Land bridge and settled throughout the Americas. They lived there in harmony with the land and in relative peace for 10,000 to 13,000 years in the region now known as Texas.

    Starting around 1500 and continuing for about 300 years, a group of state-sponsored terrorists and pirates arrived from Spain; they were appropriately called conquistadors, meaning conquerors. They implemented a pogrom of genocide against Native Americans using biological warfare and outright violence, capitalizing on their technological prowess. Those Native Americans not killed outright were compelled to construct a series of concentration camps known as Missions. At these camps, Native Americans were imprisoned and forced to worship a god alien to their ways.

    In 1810, a competing gang of thieves arose in the New World, who called themselves Mexicanos, or Mexicans. They engaged the Spanish gang for control of the Native American lands and ultimately drove them out in 1821. Rather than returning the stolen land to the Native Americans, they continued the pogroms of the first band of pirates.

    In 1835, a third terrorist band of thieves arose, sanctioned, if not sponsored, by the American government. They engaged the Mexicano gang and suffered a humiliating defeat at The Alamo. Surprisingly, to this day, Texans and their American sponsors wallow in their humiliation, treating the site and the incompetent leadership of the American gang with awe and reverence.

    Aftermath: the American thieves used their defeat as a rallying cry and mounted a counter-offensive against the Mexican thieves and consummated the theft of Native American territory from the second band of thieves in 1835. The Americans continued the genocidal pogroms of the Mexicans and expanded the construction of concentration camps, now called reservations. Notably, they institutionalized  the enslavement the few Native Americans remaining and engaged in a deliberate policy of cultural obliteration. None of the land has been returned to its rightful owners to this day in 2022.

  • Roswell, New Mexico

    While passing through Eastern New Mexico, I discovered a town quite infatuated with aliens: Roswell, New Mexico! I even met one, who was quite shiny and friendly.

    There are numerous businesses in town focused on extra-terrestrials (as aliens are sometimes known). My favorite was this Scottish restaurant shaped like a flying saucer!

    They even have food shaped like flying saucers!

    Although I was unable to participate myself, one could purchase priceless alien artifacts and eat alien donuts while in Roswell.

  • Eastern New Mexico

    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.

  • Coronado National Forest

    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!

  • California and Arizona Deserts

    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.