Well, it was up at 7am at the Trailer Village RV Park here in Roswell, NM. Ollie and I snuggled up in the bunk and Meems curled up with Jonathan on the back bed. Jonathan put on some Tom and Jerry cartoons and Ollie climbed down and crawled in with them to watch the show. I got up and made some coffee (we use a Melita pour-over for anyone interested in how we make coffee every day! no fancy machines in here). I tucked in at the dinette to try and get some blogging done.
Once breakfast was over, Jonathan filled the water tank and Ollie took the slide in and rolled us off the leveling blocks. We left the RV park around 9:45am and drove back into town to park within walking distance of the "SPACEPORT"... the Virtual Reality place. We got there by 10am when we had been assured that they would be open (after speaking with the girl last night). It was closed when we arrived. We left a phone message and waited for awhile then decided it was best to hit up a coffee shop.
Found a cute little coffee shop close by and had a treat. The best thing about the place was a tiny dog named Hopper that we met. So cute!! we got to pet him...he'd just come back from his obedience lessons and was quite shy and his owner was happy for him to be socialized with nice gentle and friendly pets from our kiddos. He was adorable. Wish I had thought to get a photo!
Walked back to the spaceport past the Ancients of Days rock shop where we perused last night. We saw the barricades that were up for the Veterans Day parade that we had missed earlier. Back at the Spaceport, it was STILL closed... booo. By 10:45am we decided to head over to the Wal-Mart to renew our phone plans. We passed the New Mexico Military Institute and stopped at AllSups in Roswell for diesel (122,276km) and the AutoZone to recycle our oil. When we got to walmart we got more news from Leslie about our AirBnB guests that we had asked to leave. Some crazy stuff she'd found in the recycling - goodness knows what kind of dodgy setup those guests were planning.
At 12:30pm we finally got back to the SPACEPORT and the girl there was super embarrassed and apologetic about not opening on time. She gave us a discount for our entry to make up for our having to wait so long. We went through the "spaceport" lounge set up like a mini boarding zone at an airport but for airplanes. Kinda fun. Then she (dressed in her silver space uniform) led us into our space pod and got us set up with our VR headsets, and we sat on our swivel stools, and lower "poufs" for the kids so they could touch the ground in case they got a bit dizzy. The VR experience was neat. Kids really liked it... it was as if we were in the Alien spacecraft that allegedly crashed here in the '40's.
Shortly after 1pm we were back in the rig and departing for Hwy 380 West to connect onto the 70West to check out White Sands National Park. By 2pm we were driving through Lincoln National Forest... it's been awhile since we've driven through a forest!! On Hwy 70 we were on the Billy the Kid Scenic Byway. We stopped at the Visitor's Centre but didn't actually go inside. Out front they had an amazing larger-than-life display of galloping horse statues. I wow'd my kids with my horse breed knowledge, nailing all of the breeds they had on display. It's all from when I was 12 and keenly obsessed with horses, haha! Some stuff just sticks. What I ate for breakfast that day? I've no idea! hahaha.
We drove to Alamagordo and saw Pistachio Land (and the world's largest pistachio - but didn't stop for a photo op). We were more interested in getting to White Sands NP before sundown.
It was around 4pm or so when we reached the White Sands National Park (and the US Missile testing range). We drove right up to the visitor centre and got two Junior Ranger booklets for the kiddos. The lovely woman at the desk deputized Jonathan as an honorary ranger and gave him two wooden JR Ranger badges in case we didn't get back when the centre closed. We kept the badges hidden from the kiddos, thinking that we'd come back tomorrow anyhow and have them properly sworn in.
We then hopped back in the rig and drove up to the entrance gate as the sun was low in the sky. Thankful for our America the Beautiful Annual Pass - yet another entrance fee covered and so easy to be able to come back tomorrow. The drive in was so neat... the white sand looked just like snow drifts on the side of the road.
We drove right to the far end of the dunes and parked where we could climb a hill and "sled" down the steeper sand dunes. Absolutely magical. Pink sunset light on cool white hills... miles of fine sand. We got the boogie board out and attempted to sled down the hills...once they got a decent path smoothed down, it worked not too badly! Tried the laundry hamper, too, but that was a fail - only fun for sitting in. Kids made Jonathan and I some very comfortable lounge beds on the sandy slope. Very fun! It was like being at the top of Seymour Mountain back home! Only sand instead of snow!!
This looks so much like snow to me. It was cold to the touch, even! Kids were in their socks because the sand would get in their shoes, but their feet were cold!
The little Navion parked down the bottom of the dunes. Not many others in the park at this point in the evening.
We played on the dunes for almost an hour (we had to be out of the park by 6pm). We drove out of the dunes park and over to the Alamogordo Walmart to spend the night. Bought some groceries. Oliver was determined he should be allowed to buy himself an ipad with his own money (he'd spent his walmart time playing some Sneaky Sasquatch game on an ipad in their electronics department). We bought buns for hamburgers (the buns turned out to be very dismal and lots of complaints were voiced, much to my irritation - choose your own buns next time people!)
Kids worked on their Junior Ranger programs and I took a walk around the parking lot and called my bestie for a vent. I noted that there were several other big RV's parked there for the night, and also noted there were a couple of men kinda camped out on the corner asking for money that made me a bit wary of our spot for the night. It was cold this evening!!
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