and headed north for the border.
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| An hour wait, which the Mexicans, laden with jewelry and toys took advantage of. |
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| Boo looking forward to returning to his country. |
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| Dogs looking for drugs. |
We loved our experience at the Esplendor Resort in Rio Rico when we came down to Mexico-especially because it was $65 a night, had beautiful rooms with a deck, were pet friendly and had a decent restaurant and hot tub. So, we stayed there again:
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| Entrance to Esplendor Resort |
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| The Lady of Guadalupe is always a good sign. |
We were headed for Albuquerque, but were really tired, had never been to Las Cruces and decided to stay there.
I wish we had a picture of the characters at the dog friendly pub which we went to. Even Boo was a little put off by all the noise. We finally realized it was St. Patrick's Day-it was so loud and people were so crazy, we left after a beer and a quesadilla and celebrated Jim's Irish roots by going to bed early with a good book.
Since we were so close to the White Sands area and had never been there, we decided to take a detour to see the missile site and the national monument. There was so much history here and the sand dunes were just amazing:
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| ICBMs from the early V2s, developed by Wernher Von Braun and his German team, to the latest ICBMs. Amazingly interesting, shockingly beautiful and a little scary. |
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| Walkin' the line at the White Sands National Monument |
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| Only a few species of plants survive in the moving dunes. |
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| Out the front windshield of the car....doesn't it look like we are driving through snow? |
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| Dunes of gypsum sand create the largest gypsum dune field in the world. Gypsum is rarely found as sand since it is soluble in water. Because no river drains this basin, it is trapped here. And it is such a beautiful white! |
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| Pretty nice place for a picnic |
Onward....
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| We decided to take the blue highway to I-25 and passed the Valley of Fire lava beds that were created from volcanic vents in the earth. They are 165 ft thick and 45 miles long- quite a site amidst all the New Mexican spring colors. |
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| The volcanic action that created these beds happened between 1500 and 5000 years ago-relatively new. |
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| On to Albuquerque and San Felipe de Niri, the oldest building in the city |
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| Since I received my Passport to the National Parks, Jim and I are always curious to see some of the lesser known historical sites along the way. We took a quick detour to Fort Union National Monument, along the Santa Fe Trail, where this military post operated from 1851-91 and kept travelers on the Trail safe from nearby Utes and Jicarilla Apaches. |
We were trying to get a little bit further into Colorado on our last day of the field trip, hoping to visit our friend, Miriam, in Salida, but......because it was late, we decided to crash in Trinidad for the night and drive the Highway of Legends to Walsenburg the next morning.
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One of the first stops on the road was to Cokedale, where
mining began in 1907. These ovens "coked" the coal, removing
moisture, sulphur and phosphorous, which was the preferred fuel
when smelting iron because it burned hot and was free of foreign
substances. Even though the mines closed in 1947, residents
were offered their homes for $10/room and $50/lot. The original
town is still standing. As you enter the area from the east, huge
black mountains (impurities from the coking process) remind visitors
of the history of this area.
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| Southern Colorado and the Sangre de Cristos (Blood of Christ) mountains. |
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| A close-up of southern Colorado beauty-it's good to be reminded of how much we love our home base! |
We arrived in Golden at Todd and Erin's home on the 20th and had a lovely visit with them and a celebration of Jim's 70th birthday before settling into Jason's home in Longmont for a month, before we hit the road again. It's good to be in Colorado again!
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| Jim at 70 |
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