Roswell, NM to Deming, NM – Sunday

The weather was calling for bad weather and cold temperatures in Northeast New Mexico.  So, guess what!! We have wheels on our home – time to head for Southwest New Mexico.

The 250 mile drive from Roswell to Deming probably takes you through more differences in landscape than any other drive I can remember.   First of all, I noticed that none of the 3 GPS systems we tried to us on US 70 which is the shortest route.  The reason is that you go through the White Sands Missile Range which is considered a restricted route.

The drive from Roswell starts with desert basins with views of various mountain peaks including the El Capitans.

You are heading up in elevation.  When you get to the Ruidoso area you area you are surrounded by beautiful pine forests with snow on the ground along some of the mountainsides.

 

 

Coming down out of those mountains we Midwesterners saw an Elk Crossing sign for the first time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Going through Alamogordo, we saw pistachio orchards, another first for us.

Then it was on to White Sands.   At first, looking toward the mountains with the white sands in front of them, it almost gives the illusion of a lake.  It’s a very different landscape from any we’ve ever seen.

In Las Cruces, we cross the Rio Grande River for the first time.  It was nothing but a trickle in a very large basin.

 

 

Leaving Las Cruces we were again in the open and very windy desert.

No, we didn’t see any dust storms but its easy to imagine with the kind of wind we encountered.

 

 

 

 

 

We arrived at the Dreamcatcher SKP RV Park in Deming at about 3pm, giving us time to get set up and walk the dogs before it was time for the Sunday evening ice cream social. 

A darling little 90-year-old lady who lives at the park, put on a bit of entertainment for us as we got to know some of the other RVers who’d also pulled in for an overnight.

We knew that we needed a propane fill up. One of the park regulars told us of a place in town with the best prices and we drove by in the jeep to be sure of the accessibility with the motorhome.

Since we planned to spend the next two days 50 miles from the nearest grocery we figured a Walmart run was in order as well.  This Deming Walmart turned out to be unlike any we had ever shopped.  First of all there were at least a dozen RV’s parking overnight in the lot, more than we’d ever seen anywhere.  Next, the store layout was unlike any we’d visited before and we either found empty spaces where basics should be (like the large dozen egg cartons) or couldn’t find anywhere that marked the price of the item.  Finally when we got to checkout there were longer lines than we’d seen ever at a Walmart.  They had about 30 possible check lines with may 8 open.  Everyone seemed to act as if this was normal mode of operation, waiting for about 45t minutes to check out.  Our pre-retirement selves would have been going ballistic over this but we had no place to be so we just did our Walmart people-watching routine and endured.

The dogs were thrilled with the SKP park since they have a nice fenced dog run where they could race and wrestle, unencumbered by leashes.  

After fixing dinner, we watched the special about the Tragedy in Tucson, making it a rather somber evening.  Ken and I agreed with the Tucson sheriff , that  its very disturbing how much vitriolic hate media is accepted and even supported today.  In this case, however, it sounds like in the perpetrator was over-the-top mentally unstable.    Nonetheless, having just left Oklahoma City I think this American-on-American hate  hit me extra hard right now.

It was lights out pretty early in anticipation of a back-to-back travel day tomorrow, Monday.

Hugs, C