Alamogordo, NM

After a quick lunch in Roswell in the RV (parked in a parallel parking spot I might add) we made our way to Alamagorda, NM which was near White Sands National Monument. This was just over a mountain range in which we gained 4000 feet before descending to our final destination. We loved the sand dunes in Alamosa, CO and were anxious to see how different this park would be. We found an RV park along the route that was very accommodating to our flexible schedule and had a great dog run for Sequoia. I'm learning that what makes a good park to me is not always the same as the guide books. A dog run is high on my list while a pool and playground are not. This place had horse stalls where campers could let out their horses and an area for live music, concessions and a mini store. It was very nicely done. I heard music as we drove up and thought they were having a local concert. Upon further investigation I discovered the music was a gospel concert intermingled with bible study. I contemplated staying to listen but didn't feel like defending my beliefs should it come up. It was a small group after all and who knew if it would turn into an interactive discussion. This was my first introduction to RV Bible study. There are specific parks that promote themselves to traveling Rvers who want to meet others to study the bible. Too bad there is no Chavurah of sorts for us. The population of Jewish RV travelers is probably not so large that we could even find enough people to start that type of a group.

The next day I had a nice chat with the owner of the resort. Part of my journey is turning out to be an introspective on my next career move so I like to talk to people about how they have come to the current careers. She and her husband had a very interesting story. They met as employees at Intel in Albuquerque and then decided to quit and buy a ranch in the NM mountains. They even raised cattle. After seven years of that lifestyle in such a remote area they decided to settle closer to a city and build a new park. That's probably where the horse corral idea came from since they were used to owning them. They are no strangers to hard manual labor and keep this park up themselves with the help of some workcampers (people who sign up to work a few days a week in exchange for free camping). I also talked to her about that program and she said it works best for couples who want to be in one place for three months at a time. That's probably not in our plans at this point. I gather owning an RV park is much different than just visiting one for a few nights. I think changing the sewer line is bad for one RV, I can not imagine what it would be like to have to deal with a septic system for a whole park. Yuk.

Pictures from White Sands National Monument. It borders the White Sands missle range and is closed when they have missle tests. Wouldn't you know that the morning we got up at the crack of dawn to take pictures it was closed. So, here are photos from our second attempt.






Alamogordo has the climate of a middle east desert. Pistachios are mainly grown in Iran and have typically been very expensive because they are an import. This farmer discovered that Pistachios are the perfect crop to grow in New Mexico and now grows 1/3 of all the Pistachios in the US. The rest are grown in California. They offered free tours of their operations and even run a kosher kitchen. We learned all about the process of cultivating Pistachios. Did you know they split open naturally and not by a roasting process? I didn't until we took this tour.