A Picture Speaks a Thousand Words...

Hello again.. so you be wondering why my map says i'm in North Carolina, yet my last post was talking about New Mexico.

Well, that would be because of a few things:

1. I'm busy having fun and am being too lazy to write blog posts.
2. I'm a pictures person.. writing doesn't come all that easy to me
3. Internet access is infrequent and i spend more time editing pictures and uploading them when i do have access.

Now, i don't want to come across all whiny about this.. so i am going to try my darndest to correct this..

So here it goes, hold on to your butts as thing are about to get wild.

Having left Las Cruces we set course for the dessert.. in particular the White Sands Dessert. This place is home to a few different inhabiters. Firstly: The US Army and their missile research facility. 

We visited the museum they had their.. but there was a whole army base there for those who work there and do research. That was fun and all.. but they had a V2 Rocket there on display which got me angry about how very little was mentioned in the museum about the destruction this weapon brought to London.. and instead it was glorified, as the rocket that put man on the moon.

Next up was the White Sands itself.. an area of dessert that was composed of fine gypsum powder, and formed moving sand dunes.

We had fun jumping around on the dunes and somebody also had a lovely chat with the local park rangers about his driving style..

Needless to say we were dripping with sweat after all this frolicking around in the dessert, so as we drove further East it was quite remarkable to see how different the landscape became...

New Mexico - Lincoln National Forrest

We drove the rest of the day right the way across the ever changing landscape of New Mexico until we finally reached our destination for the day: Carlsbad Caverns.

Having got their too late to enter that caverns that day, we instead planned to stay the night in the van and gaze at the starts... for you see the sky was alive that night...

The next Morning was spent 800ft below the ground exploring the largest underground cave system in the western hemisphere.

After finishing up, we pointed the van's nose East again and entered the Lone Star State: TEXAS. 

The bits in-between..

So i kind of skipped ahead slightly when i posted last about the Mega Church we visited.. So heres the story from the Grand Canyon to Carlsbad Caverns.

Right then, so we left the Canyon early in the morning on the sunday to drive to Phoneix (again to get to a 'mega church') the drive was fairly straight forward.. i was asleep for most of it as it was an early start..

we got to Phoenix ahead of time, and then proceeded to rely on the old satnav to find us some breakfast... this resulted in many loops around the same roads, a visit into a Mexican place, only to leave straight away.. a couple more loops around the block, before giving up and relying on the hospitality of the church to provide us something to eat. they didn't.

As per usual we received a warm welcome to the church..  and found some seats. this particular place was no where near the same size as Saddleback (or The Potters House). There was a little 'meet and greet' part near the beginning of the service, where we got talking to this elderly couple in front of us who took great interest in the fact we were from Europe.

Anyway to cut a long story short, they offered to take us for lunch to hear more about our experiences in Germany & The UK as Maryanne had lived in both countries for a short while. We were truly grateful for the wonderful kindness and hospitality they showed us and for paying for lunch!

Another pit stop in a nearby starbucks before we left for Tucson. The Drive to Tucson was certainly a long one.. and one that greeted us at our destination with yet another storm.

We had found an RV park online that was only $19 a night, which included free wifi, pool, laundry, showers, 30/50amp hookup, and a fruit tree. We had a lime tree.

We basically used the time in Tucson for some R&R and for laundry and showers. The town it's self didnt have a great deal to offer.. upon visiting one afternoon almost everything has closed for the day.

Two nights was all we spent here in the end.. one of which we spent in the Jacuzzi drinking beer in the middle of a thunder storm... needless to say it was an interesting experience.. 

After a morning in the court house, watching the Trail of Jared Lee Loughner we finally left Tuscon and headed for New Mexico. 

New Mexico greeted us with storms on the drive in, but then as we got closer to Las Cruces the weather was more settled.

Another night spent in a Walmart Carpark as we arrived too late to check into a RV park. The following day we decided to check out a local Farmers Market. Lots of small stalls there selling all sorts of food, jewelry, plants, coffee, paintings and more!

After several long and indepth conversations with several stall holders we treated our selfs to a great Mexican style street food lunch.. 

The afternoon was spent in the old part of the town in Old Messila. This part of town is where Billy the Kid was tried and hung. A stroll around the town spending time talking to the local shop owners and also some visitors proved interesting. 

we ended up talking to these two old guys from Texas for a good hour or so, about life in america, politics, their time in Germany and everything in between.. Interesting views on their current government and president. 

Right, so i'm going to leave it here on this post.. i'll talk about the next stop in New Mexico in the next post.

thanks for reading!

Adrian