get me to the church on time

most of my time in dfw i spent with my family. saturday, however, i spent with my friends. two of my friends at baylor, whom i had known since welcome week right at the beginning of freshmen year, were getting married. so i headed up to coppell on saturday afternoon. their ceremony was beautiful and very traditional, with a few exceptions, like the silent sic 'em bears the groomsmen did right before the recessional. or the dr. pepper floats the newlyweds drank instead of champagne, or the picture up above, which i took at the request of the groom--matt's in the white vest, front left. mostly though, it was a grown-up wedding and reception. it was wonderful to be there for matt and sarah, as well as to see so many of my baylor friends one last time before graduate school. after the reception, since it was dinner time, eight of us baylor folk decided to head to downtown ft. worth for dinner and drinks, so we headed to sundance square and a restaurant called 8.0, which my aunt recommended.

we had a great time hanging out, chatting and laughing, until most of them left around 9 (the couple up above i think asked for this picture, so i feel no qualms in posting it). three of us decided to stick around, however, to see the band that was going to start playing at 10. it turns out that this band was called metal shop, which had us worried--and it was rock, but they are an 80s cover band, and hilarious at that. we spent about 30 minutes enjoying their pink leopard print leggings, curly wigs, and actually pretty good music, and then headed out of 8.0 to walk around sundance square for a few minutes before leaving. this being texas, it was still hot, but it was a blast all in all. i actually prefer downtown ft. worth to that of dallas--it is more people-friendly and fun, at least in my opinion. that's bass hall, the performing arts space, to the left, and a picture of downtown ft. worth, which is all lit up at night, down at the bottom of this post.

i left downtown about 11 to drive the roughly 20 minutes back to my aunt's house. thanks aunt karen for having me, once again, and to all of my friends i saw that day. you all are fantastic, and getting to see you all reminded me of all the good times we had a baylor, as well as how wonderful life can be. best of luck to all of you, and especially matt and sarah as they begin their new life together!

guadalupe mountains

wednesday i left carlsbad bright and early and went south about 45 miles, entering texas about halfway. my destination: guadalupe mountains national park in the lone star state. i was really excited about this park because it is really remote, and therefore little visited (and cheap for those without the park pass i have). carlsbad is the nearest town, with the nearest accommodations being just outside carlsbad caverns np. first off, a little about this park. the park protects the world's best preserved fossilized reef--this part of the country used to be entirely underwater, as in, all of texas. in addition, it has a wide variety of flora and fauna, encompassing everything from desert to mountain conifer forests. it has also been part of some pretty interesting history: the el paso salt war, as well as tensions between the mescalero apaches and nearby cowboys and the butterfield overland mail route (which i had seen in mesilla, nm as well). it became a park when an oil explorer working for what would be exxon fell in love with the area, built two homes how in the park, and brought it some attention. it became a national park in 1972. oh, and its home to guadalupe peak, the highest point in texas with an elevation of 8751 feet.

i had determined ahead of time that i would not climb the peak, which means climbing 3000 feet, but go on a desert hike instead, since i had not yet been on one. of the 80 miles of pretty well-maintained trails, i decided on the el capitan trail, which goes around the extreme southern end of the mountain range and the sheer rock face after which the trail is named. it was a beautiful trail, full of a wide variety of cacti and flies, as well as stunning arroyos (dried up stream beds), and great views of the mountains to the north. of course, hiking in the desert also has its perils. for instance, it was hot. above 90, even with some cloud cover in the desert takes getting used to, since there aren't trees for shade. after about 30 minutes my hair was wet through and i looked like a spanish soccer player. also, all of those stunning cacti, and even most of the non-succulent plants, with stick you. plants in the desert are survivors because they attack. by the end of my hike my legs were bleeding in at least a few places and i had a wicked sunburn on my shoulders, which are now quite disgusting looking. oh well.in the end, though, it was definitely worth it. i think this was the most fun i had hiking--i ran into no one else on my trail, which was fantastic. in all i hiked about 8 miles, taking me about 5 hours, including a few stops for water and food. i could even see the salt flats in the distance--that's the white stuff in the far background of the picture to the left. i really do love the desert, and this was a pretty one--it's part of the chihuahua desert, for anyone interested. i saw quite a few birds, lizards, and even what i think was a mule deer, or a deer of some sort. i made it most of the way around el capitan: that's it right there.

i'm glad that i finished hiking when i did: like so many mountains ranges, the guadalupes make their own weather. when i was on the trail it was by far cloudier right next to the mountains that out in the open, and it looked like it was about to storm as i left. i loaded into my car, all sweaty, and headed back up north briefly, since for some reason i had to go through new mexico to make it to midland, tx, where i was going to be spending the night. the only thing that redeemed this drive even somewhat was that there were a lot of wind farms--and i do mean a lot. at one point i could see them all the way to the horizon in just about every direction. otherwise, it was extremely flat, and mostly grazing lands. thursday i woke up, realized the extent of my sunburn, and cursed my sunscreen. i then drove the rest of the way to colleyville, in the dallas/ft. worth area, to my aunt's house to drown myself in aloe vera, which did help somewhat. in case you don't know what they look like, that's a prickly pear cactus below.

in and around carlsbad

thursday morning i left roswell and went south, aiming for carlsbad. luckily it was a straight shot down a pretty nice highway, though, for the record, new mexico has had way more construction than any other state, particularly on the indian reservations. i passed through the town itself, named after karlsbad in poland, and went straight for carlsbad caverns national park, which is 20 miles south of town. luckily, i made it just in time to buy a ticket to a 12:00 ranger tour, change my clothes to suit the 56 degree cave, and make it down the elevator shaft by noon. i went on a 1.5 hour tour to what is called kings palace, a cave so-named because not only is it a big room, but because it has an interesting formation in the center of it. this formation consists of several stalagmites (the ones sticking up from the ground), looking almost like people, right below something called the guillotine, so of course it reminded an explorer of the french court. i couldn't get a good picture because it was too far away, but the picture to the left is of the ceiling. for the record, stalactites hang from the ceiling, and columns are when a stalactite and a stalagmite form a...column. (ranger joke: we used to call them pillars, but everyone from missouri said that they sure didn't look comfortable for sleeping on.) people also have a tendency to name formations after food: there's spaghetti, soda straws, and popcorn.

now, i'm not really a cave person, and i did already go to jewel cave in the black hills of south dakota, so i thought i was caved out, but carlsbad was pretty awesome. of course, part of this was because i had a great tour guide--he was even cute. i learned a lot from him, and it was all fascinating, particularly the human history of the caves. but first, in case you wanted to know: they were formed when sulfuric acid dissolved some of the limestone in the guadalupe mountains. as the mountains were formed, the spaces were pushed up and the sulfuric acid would dissolve away a new cave. so much for the science. ranger lore goes that a 16 year-old cowboy named jim white happened upon the caverns in the 1890s, built a ladder out of wire, and lowered himself down to explore it with a lantern. over the years, he eventually convinced other cowboys that he wasn't crazy, and started showing people the caves, just because he wanted them to see it. from the 1900s to the 1920s various people mined the caves for bat guano, which was shipped off to california to use as fertilizer, and white was always the foreman. then in 1923 president coolidge declared it a national monument, and carlbad became a national park proper, which requires an act of congress, in 1930, which is pretty quick work. white went on to be the first ranger. he was lucky that he got to see the caves protected.one of the coolest parts of our tour was when the ranger hit the lights when we were in a particular cave called the queen's chambers, right behind the king's palace. we sat there in complete darkness, which unless you've been in a cave blackout, you haven't ever witnessed. he even had us cover up our glow-in-the-dark watch hands. when i waved my hand in front of my face, my brain made it seem like my eyes were seeing the shape of my hand--this was just my brain freaking out and wanting to see my hand, since obviously i couldn't. we even sat in complete silence for a few seconds to get a true cave experience.

now, i don't remember where most of these pictures were taken specifically, or what they are of, but i just wanted to try to show you how awesome this park is. i do know that all of the pictures are right-side up, and the one to the left is of a formation called the veiled statue. i think ansel adams, who photographed the caves for a promotion, said it best: 'something that should not exist in relation to human beings. Something that is as remote as the galaxy, incomprehensible as a nightmare, and beautiful in spite of everything.” after my ranger tour i wandered around what is called the big room, where the veiled statue and a bunch of other formations are located. i thought that it was cool that you could do this on your own--you couldn't enter jewel cave without a ranger. after a little while i left the cave--the view outside the visitor's center is the picture at the top of this post.

from the caverns i headed into the lincoln forest for a place called the sitting bull falls recreation area: it's pretty much the only other thing to do in carlsbad, but i was excited to swim in another creek. actually, i don't know which creek it is. anyway, the falls were about 36 miles into the forest, which isn't really much of a forest, seeing as how it's in a desert. but i digress. the falls themselves were not really impressive, but it was fun to climb around, enjoy the cool water and the sunshine, and to watch the families. the area is a desert oasis, and has long been used by native americans. i got there about 4:30, and the park closed at 6, so i didn't have a whole lot of time there, but i enjoyed every minute. thanks again, jordan, for inspiring me to swim in rivers. i wish i had time to climb to the top of the falls, but alas, such is life. i splashed around and played with the kids a little, then headed back to carlsbad to spend the night.

all in all it was a pretty good day. if you ever come this way be sure to spend the extra money on a ranger tour, and probably one that is longer than the one i did. also, make sure you explore some of the above-ground areas. rattlesnake springs is a historic district with a picnic site--i visited there today. the whole area is protected not just as a park but as a wilderness in order to try and protect the caves below. also, there are hikes in the part of lincoln forest in the guadalupes as well: again, i didn't just didn't have time, and the falls were too much fun.

i'll bet my badge that we haven't seen the last of those weirdies

on wednesday i drove from alamogordo back through the lincoln national forest (smokey the bear, remember?), and ended up in roswell, which is where i wanted to be. my first stop was the visitor's center, who's motto is 'visitors welcome.' haha? they were very helpful, and even took my picture being abducted by a couple of surprisingly civilian-looking aliens. i then proceeded to walk the few blocks from there to downtown roswell. first of all, for a city filled with sidewalks, it isn't very pedestrian friendly. secondly, the town is essentially a decent mix of a southwest cow town and...spaceships. everything in town is oriented towards one or the other. mcdonald's obviously leans towards aliens, as do the car dealerships and coke machines. most of the downtown caters to tourism, selling junk aliens and tshirts with tacky/kitsch store names.

including, of course, the ufo museum and research center, home to everything alien or government cover-up, including the so-called roswell incident. in case you are not familiar with this story, here it is. on july 4, 1947, a rancher outside of roswell noticed something crash land onto his fields. he went out, collected some samples, and took it into town when he went in the next day. he gave it to the sheriff, who gave it to the air force base, who then claimed that it was a weather balloon. in addition, they took the sheriff into custody as well as the rancher within the next few days, and cordoned off the 'crash site.' witnesses have since claimed that in addition to the strange metal, three small bodies in the now familiar alien shape were carted off to the base. all of this stuff was then sent to another base in dallas, but by the time it got there it 'mysteriously' turned into a weather balloon. since about the 6th, newspapers in roswell, and then around the country were reporting on the aliens crash and the government coverup. it went on for a while, with the military acting suspiciously, the government denying everything, and the media hyping up the alien theory.since 1947, more witnesses have come forward, some of them anonymously, with statements confirming the alien idea. the museum also has information on everything from area 51, which is in nevada, to abductions and ufos. this status was outside the front of the museum. personally, i think these alien ideas are a bit far out, but it was interesting to see to what extent people will go to prove such things. that being said, i certainly do think the government is capable of cover-ups: i've been to the movies.

after the museum i bought t-shirts from my dad and brother (get excited!), walked around a little more, and then went to a shop called the pecos valley winery. i sat down at the bar and saw a tap with an alien on top. turns out it was called the alien amber ale, so of course that was what i ordered. i spent the next two house talking to the bartender and the other customers who came in as they got off work. they were all great, and there is nothing like talking to a bunch of people when you're on the road by yourself. on my way back to my car at the visitor's center i noticed this mural on a half-block sized park in the middle of town--it's things like this that make me love small-town america. not that roswell is particuarly small.(ten points to the first person who can guess--guess, not google, the movie the title of this blog is quoted from).

the outlaw, fire bear, lava field roundup

yesterday i headed north out of alamogordo, aiming for a few small towns. first i went to lincoln, nm, a town that was just as wild as deadwood back in the day. like deadwood, the town has been well-restored; unlike deadwood, it was not really touristy, just historic. i started off in the visitor's center, of course, which doubles as a small museum. from there i headed into the wortley hotel in the middle of town to get some lunch. since i had been veggie-deprived, i splurged and got a delicious southwest garden salad, complete with green chile, pecans, and cilantro-lime dressing. yum. oh, and that is the san juan-baptiste mission in lincoln at the top of this post.

the town and county of lincoln are most famous for being the adopted home of billy the kid; like so many outlaws, he was actually an easterner. anyway, the story of lincoln goes something like this. before 1876, there was one store in town, founded by murphy and dolan, and they gouged out their customers good. this building was their storehouse, as well as the courthouse and make-shift jail at this time. then in 1876, an englishman named tunstall decided to establish a rival store. he hired billy the kid, who he also became friends with. as time went on, both factions organized supporters--everyone from business men to criminals. the murphy-dolan faction had the sheriff and the jesse evans gang, while tunstall had his own gang called the lincoln county regulators, as well as a constable. for a few months in 1878, havoc reigned in lincoln, beginning with the killing of tunstall. there were probably about 22 people killed, and several more wounded. you were liable to be shot in the streets just for supporting the wrong side.

one of those killed was sheriff brady, who billy the kid was accused of killing. by this time, billy's factions was losing, and he and his gang were on the run. when the opposing side tracked him down, finally, he had a $500 bounty on his head. whether he actually killed brady or not, he was convicted of murder and scheduled to hang. then, two weeks before he was set to be executed, he broke out of his 'prison,' (remember, this was actually just an upper room in the general store), killing the two deputies in the progress. traditionally, this hole in the wall, opposite from the stairs, was left by a bullet he fired. a few months later he was tracked down again near fort sumner, a few hours to the north, and shot. thus goes the story of billy the kid in lincoln.from lincoln i headed to capitan, about 12 miles away. now, there is only one reason to go to this tiny town, and that is to see the smokey the bear national museum. while many of the displays were about fire prevention, firefighters, etc., the portions about the history of smokey the bear were fascinating. fire prevention programs in earnest date back to wwii, when there was a scary uncle sam telling you that it's 'your forest--your fault' if it burns. from there, a series of smaller forest animals were put on posters, including bambi for a brief time around its release in 1942. then in 1944, the forest service decided that they needed an animal that looked like it could actually take care of a fire, like a bear?, to be its spokesperson, and smokey the bear was born. he was immediately popular, appearing on posters, radio, and eventually television. of course, now is slogans are very well know, and pretty much all americans will recognize him.

BUT, did you know that there was an actual smokey the bear? in 1950, after a terrible fire in the lincoln national forest here in new mexico, some people found a little bear cub up a tree with badly burned paws. eventually he made his way to the forest service and from there to washington, dc, where he became the live symbol of the forest service's message. in 1975 at the age of 25 (that's 70 in human years, mandatory retirement age at the time for the forest service), smokey retired, and a year later he died. soon after they found another abandoned black bear cub in the lincoln forest, who became the next smokey. that's the original's grave up above.

from capitan i headed a little further west, a few miles out of carrizozo, to the malpais valley of fires recreation area. this is a valley of hardened lava about 5000 years old, one of the newest in the continental u.s. they have two types of lava here, in a couple of different colors, and a great walk with explains the lava, as well as the plants and animals that live there. while it was quite hot, it was a neat walk, and i learned a lot. i won't bore you with all of that though--i think i've given you enough of a history lesson today. it was really cool to see this lava field in the middle of new mexico, and i though it was ironic that it was so close to the smokey the bear site. today i am finally leaving alamogordo, heading east.

spaceships and sand dunes

yesterday i had a relatively stationary day, staying in and around alamogordo. first off i went to the new mexico museum of space history, which is a little way up a mountain, above town. (most new mexico towns are tucked into mountainsides, it seems). i started with a 40 minute imax video about the hubble telescope, what it sees, and how they maintained it--bonus was that it was narrated by leonardo dicaprio. of course, the coolest parts were seeing the astronauts trying to eat a burrito in space, but pretty amazing to see the images the telescope has produced, billions of light years away. outside the museum was a spaceship park, which while not as impressive as that at wsmr, was cool because they were space-related, after all. that's a picture up top, with the town of alamogordo in the background.

then i proceeded into the museum itself, four stories of space history in new mexico. now, i already covered some of this in the previous post about white sands missile range. basically, it seems that while places like houston and cape canaveral get a lot of the flashy press releases concerning space shuttles, pretty much all the technology which went into the space shuttles, things in space generally, and missile were developed and/or tested in new mexico. this includes project manhigh, which sent people into the atmosphere disney-style: attached to balloons. the project was in operation from 1957-58, and sent up three flights. it helped lay the groundwork for the manned spaceship program.

the museum also doubles as the international space flight hall of fame, and includes such distinguished persons, in addition to various international astronauts, as isaac newton and galileo, who 'expanded mankind's view of the universe.' new mexico is also pushing the idea of commercial space travel very hard--the first ever commercial flights took off not far from white sands, and they are trying to create a space park to cater to such ventures, including an annual competition. the museum had a great collection of models, such as the model satellite above, as well as nick knacks from space, space suits, food, etc. it was interesting and worth the money, though it could use a facelift.






after finishing in the museum i headed back to the hotel for a siesta--it's hard to spend all day doing things when it's 90 degrees at 9 in the morning. about 4 i headed 20 miles to the south, where white sands national monument is located. white sands is an active dune field, with the dunes moving as much as 30 feet west to east each year. the sand is gypsum, created by a nearby lake. considering it is just sand, a surprising amount of plant and animals live in the dunes--many of them native in the desert around it. i went on a nature walk which pointed out a lot of the plants, many of which have great names like hoary rosemarymint, so-named because it can smell distinctly like rosemary and mint at different times of year. this was a really neat place to be, since it's almost like being at the beach in the middle of the desert. you can walk around most of the monument, up and down dunes, even rent little plastic discs to sled down the dunes. someone let me borrow their sled briefly: it's like snow sledding but the sand doesn't crunch like snow does.

i found myself a dune far enough away from the loud teenagers to sit and wait for the sunset. it was only about 5:30, so i had a while to wait. luckily, i had a book with me, as always. so i simply sat and read, enjoying the almost-at-the-beach feel. unfortunately, it was a little cloudy off to the west, so the sunset itself was not as spectacular as it could have been. this was ok, because the long shadows just before sunset, as in the picture above to the left, were fascinating. the mountains in the distance turned a beautiful color of blue. eventually, and just before it really got black (me being all alone in the middle of a dune field), i headed back to get a good night's sleep before the next day's festivities. below is a 360 degree view of where i sat and waited for the sunset.

from mesilla to missiles

after leaving my college cafe near new mexico state, i headed to nearby mesilla, which with the exception of parking is almost exactly as it was 150 years ago. it's a small new mexican town, with an emphasis on mexican. it used to be a stop on the butterfield overland trail around 1860, which was a forerunner of the pony express, running mail from st. louis to san francisco. why it came this far south, i don't know. another historic tidbit: the mexican government, which owned the land in 1848, sent people to settle the town and the area--by 1850 it had 800 people. the u.s., while it got most of the southwest in 1848, did not get mesilla and areas to the south and west until the gadsden purchase in 1853. it was a great little town with a fantastic square, including many shops selling depictions of saints, and the bookstore to the left. there were a few people selling their wares (again, mostly saints and wood or tin) as well as a couple of people playing spanish guitar. i wandered around, going into the shops and looking at things and people, and eventually decided to head to the church of san albino, a beautiful brick church on the northern side of the town square. while a church has been there as long as the town has, the present structure was built in 1908--not surprising that it is that recent, considering that it is made of brick. the inside of the church was downright stunning. beautiful, bright wood and a wonderful alter piece. they even had a recording playing of some monks chanting. i popped back outside for one more quick look around and then headed back to my car, since it was time for me to get a move-on.

my next stop was about 20 miles to the east of las cruces on the white sands missile range--that's it from the road. now, this was not my first time entering a secure military facility, and i think there are few things which freak me out as much. i had to park my car outside the base and then walk to the missile range museum, where i was headed. and i was instructed to only take pictures that face west or north--in other words, no pictures down range. in case i wanted to sell any of the secrets of the military. eventually i made it to the museum, which i walked through kind of quickly. i'm not really a military history person, but i wasn't going to pass up the chance to see the missile park. i did learn some interesting things, though. like that the missile in the awesome texan picture at right, the wac-corporal, was the first missile shot from white sands and the first man-made object to leave earth's atmosphere. and that on march 30, 1982 the space shuttle columbia landed at white sands--it's still an alternate landing site today. the northern part of the range is also where the trinity site is, where the first atomic bomb was tested. who knew all of this was done in new mexico? i suppose it had to happen somewhere.

after looking around the museum, i headed back outside to the missile park. now, if i had had some knowledge of missile before hand this might have been a very informative part of my trip. as it was, i mainly looked around, though i was struck by a few things. first of all, the most recent thing in the area was the patriot missile from the early 1990s, and after that the most recent missile was from the 70s--most were from the 50s. so they weren't giving away any secrets. secondly, there was this: a literaly flying saucer. the caption states, word for word, 'this spacecraft was a section of the voyager balloon system which was launched near roswell, nm, and landed on white sands missile range. these bright, shiny aeroshells projected an illusion of flying saucers. aeroshell was designed for slowing down a missile for a landing on mars. this display is believed to be the only one 'in captivity.' no wonder the people in roswell got freaked out. the other thing is that you really don't realize until you see all of these missile together how much money we have spent on this over the years. a lot. from white sands i headed north to alomogordo, where i will be spending the next couple nights as well, and will be learning more about space.

radios and hot springs. but not together.

yesterday i headed south on i-25 from santa fe. my first stop was about 50 miles to the west of the highway at the very large array, or vla. now, you probably haven't heard of the vla. i just decided to stop here because i studied it in astronomy. the very large array is, in fact, an array of radio dishes 25 meters in diameter. what are radio dishes doing out in the middle of nowhere? they are listening to space. scientists arrange the dishes to listen to things like the milky way, and between the various dishes, can discern what things look like based on the radio waves they send out. super-cool--the images turn out looking something like this. they put it here, in the middle of nowhere, literally because it is high, dry, and the mountains which ring the basin block out radio signals from cities. its distance above sea level also makes the images less blurry, but how a few thousand feet could make a difference when you are measuring distant space, i don't know. the picture to the right is one that i took below a dish, but it doesn't really give you a good idea of how big they are. incidentally, they tell you to turn off your phones when you get there, which makes sense, but they also warn you not to go outside if there are clouds on the horizon, since they are understandably frequented by lightning strikes. luckily for me the skies were pretty clear. also interesting: i passed some border patrol officers just chilling on the roadside near the vla--this is still at least 150 miles from the border.
pretty soon after getting back on i-25 i exited for san antonio--new mexico, not texas. that would have been a long drive. i stopped here for the original green chile cheese burger at the owl bar and cafe. this place is literally world-famous, and word on the street is that the scientists who exploded the atomic bomb at the trinity site, a little to the south, used to eat here. as you can tell by the picture, it is nothing more than a dark, somewhat seedy bar in a small town in the middle of nowhere, but man was that burger delicious, and very spicy. since it was already 2:30 in the afternoon, i wolfed down my burger and hit the road again.i decided to take highway 1 south, which runs roughly parallel to i-25 and is a scenic alternative. i'm sure glad that i did. i got to drive through a wildlife preserve and enjoy the drive a little more. including watching the rain fall in the distance. this was a phenomenon i had experienced the past couple days as well, and i still think it's cool. it looks like God just took a painbrush, pulling the colors of the clouds down to earth. this isn't a very good picture, but it was the best i could do. for the record, it never actually rained on me yesterday, for which i was grateful.

i did make one pit-stop, at fort craig, which i had to drive down 5 miles of (nice) unpaved roads to reach. the fort, in commission from 1854-1844, was important back in the day. (that's what remains of the guardhouse next to the main gate of the fort up above). at first it served as an important protection against the indians, as dictated in the treaty of guadalupe hidalgo. by the beginning of the civil war, it was the biggest fort in the southwest, with 2000 soldiers. the confederates were never able to take the fort, in part being scared away by 'quaker guns,' guns made of wood to look like canons. today it is considered a 'national historic site,' and is probably not in the park system because it doesn't get enough visitors to be self-sufficient, which is sad. but it was neat to see, even in the 105 degree weather.






from fort craig i got back on i-25, heading for my destination: truth or consequences. the town, which sits on the rio grande, began its life in 1916 as hot springs, so-called because there are...hot springs. then in 1950, ralph edwards, the host of the nbc quiz show truth or consequences, said that he would air his show from the first town which changed its name to that of the show. hot springs won. now there is a park named after edwards, and the town still centers aroudn the hot springs it is famous for. i stayed at a motel called the riverbend hot springs, which i thought was great--that's it above. everything in t or c is cheerful and colorful. this motel, like many of those in town, also doubles as a spa. so i checked in, got settled in my room, and put on my bathing suit. the springs run a little over 100 degrees, and the one i sat in was 106. it was beautiful though. since my motel was right on the river, when i sat in the hot spring, the water flowed over the edge directly into the river below (picture at left). luckily, since there were storms on the horizon, the breeze was a little cooler than normal, but it was still pretty much like sitting in a hot tub. i soaked for a while, and then went to bed.

this morning i woke up, excited about exploring the town a little bit before hitting the road. truth or consequences is a colorful town, filled with spas and motels, as well as people who qualify as 'characters.' i headed to the happy belly deli for one of their famous breakfast burritos, which was as good as advertised. my waitress noticed that my bookmark was a frank lloyd wright design (which i picked up at taliesin), so we had a great discussion about him. she's seen a lot of his houses, particularly for someone who lives in southern new mexico. i walked around for a little, and after picking up some supplies at wal-mart, hit the road again.

i once again headed south on i-25, headed for las cruces, only 71 miles away. las cruces, in addition to being the second-largest new mexican city, is the home of new mexico state univiersity. since my motel last night did not have good enough wifi to blog, i found myself a cafe/gift shop near the university, called spirit winds, where i am currently sitting and typing away. it should be noted that i am drinking an iced coffee, since it was already 90 degrees when i left the motel at 9 this morning.