Monday October 14 Canton, GA to Tuscaloosa, AL:
Back in the spring, after the disappointment of the house on Chisholm Trail fallng through, we planned an astronomy trip to visit Casitas de Gila in New Mexico. At that time there were no other trips on the horizon. Then the Alaska cruise materialized and then Kevin suggested a trip to Moab. Suddenly it seemed we were somewhere different all the time. But we still looked forward to this new moon trip to New Mexico.
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Loading the van. First in - the telescope and mount on special transport fixtures that Barry made.
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The drive to Tuscaloosa was slightly over 4 hours. We left around 9:30 AM and traffic was not too bad. It seemed we had missed most of the morning rush hour out of Canton and into Atlanta. We had lunch in Birmingham at Jason’s Deli near Galleria mall and arrived in Tuscaloosa around 1:30 and checked into the Courtyard by Marriott on Courtney Ave.
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After a nap, we went to dinner at Catfish Heaven. The name is right on - you will not get better fried catfish anywhere. It was our second time here and we knew what to expect. Most of their business appears to be take-out and they only have about 5 tables. But man is the catfish good! After dinner we stopped by Academy Sports and browsed then went back to the room to watch baseball playoffs - Cardinals vs. Nationals.
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Tuesday October 15 Tuscaloosa, AL to Monroe, LA: Breakfast at the hotel and got on the road a little after 9. It started pouring rain almost immediately. Very very heavy rain which dropped visibility and speed. You could know there was a large tractor-trailer truck not too far ahead of you with his lights on and you simply couldn’t see him in the swirl of water and mist. At lunch, we found Sal and Mookies Pizza and Ice Cream in Jackson, MS and stopped. It was terrific New York style pizza. We hoped that by lingering the storm would pass us.
It didn’t. So Lori took another shift and we supposedly had about 2 hours to Monroe. Then traffic came to a dead stop 15 minutes east of Vicksburg...for an hour. Turned out a truck had run off the road and tumbled and they closed the interstate to pull him out of the ravine. We don’t know if the driver survived. The rain stopped about the time we got started again and drove on into Louisiana. Shortly after entering Louisiana, a truck in front of us swerved and slowed down so we slowed down as well. We saw a cute little alligator crossing the road. We got to Monroe around 4:30 PM, ate dinner at Texas Roadhouse and checked into the Fairfield Inn on Mane St. in West Monroe.
Wednesday October 16 Monroe, LA to Weatherford, TX: A beautiful day for driving. The sky was clear, no sign of the rain of yesterday and the roads were not too crowded. We got on the road around 9 AM and decided that our destination would be Spring Creek Barbecue off South Cooper Street in Arlington where we would have a late lunch at 1:30 or so. It was the only way we could guarantee getting to have some great Texas brisket. All went according to plan and lunch was leisurely and outstanding. We both ate way too much brisket and topped it off with heaping bowls of peach cobbler with vanilla ice cream. We drove on to Weatherford and spent the night at the Fairfield Inn on Alford Drive.
Thursday October 17 Weatherford, TX to Hobbs, NM: Another beautiful day of driving across the wide expanse of Texas west of Ft Worth and listening to Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash on the stereo. The land is wide open and gorgeous filled with low rolling hills and mesquite.
In Abilene we stop for lunch at a Texas classic - Whataburger! I haven’t had one in years but they taste the same as I remember from college days in Galveston. I had a number 1 Whataburger with cheese, fries and a drink. Barry told the cashier “I’ll have the same” which we customized to his liking. But somehow she misunderstood and he ended up with a triple and no fries. At least it was customized like he wanted. I shared my fries and we got a good laugh over it.
Normally we go all the way to Deming on interstate highways but we wanted to see some of eastern New Mexico and we were headed to Alamogordo so we took some state highways. After we got to Sweetwater we headed northwest on State 84 to Snyder passing through cotton fields and wind farms, typically in the same field. There was the occasional oil pump mixed in. From Snyder we turned west on Hwy 180 to Lamesa, Seminole and finally Hobbs. Lamesa had a wonderful bright green Sinclair dinosaur at one of their service stations. We always love to look for the dinosaurs!
We passed more massive wind farms as well as a couple of solar farms, including one that was just being built. Hwy 180 was a 2 lane blacktop which was in pretty good condition and had an unbelievable 75 mph speed limit. Both sides were lined with cotton fields and we got to see one field in the middle of being harvested by a huge farm machine. After Seminole there were large oil fields filled with oil pump jacks.
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One of many vast fields filled with pump jacks.
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We finally entered New Mexico!
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We checked into the Hampton Inn on the north end of Hobbs, NM and decided on Tia Juana’s for dinner where we had very good fajitas with house-made flour tortillas. After dinner we watched ALCS Game 4 of the playoffs between the Astros and the Yankees. We didn’t watch the end of the game but the Astros won 8 to 3.
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As we left Tia Juana's, we spotted this sundog.
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Friday October 18 Hobbs to Alamogordo via Artesia, Mayhill, and Cloudcroft: We awakened early, probably because of the time change to Mountain Time and left about 8:45 AM. We drove through the heart of Hobbs to get a feel for the town. It seems to be doing well economically. It has many new hotels, a Hobby Lobby, a Home Depot and lots of restaurants. It is a very clean town without lots of trash around.
Then we got on the road to Artesia. Between Hobbs and Artesia were more large fields of pump jacks, some operating and some not. There are also collection tanks and pump stations and a few refineries outside of Hobbs and Artesia. The land is mostly flat with scrub vegetation and some blooming flowers, mostly yellow.
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These yellow flowers were blooming brightly giving the scrubland a beautiful yellow color.
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Mixed in with the yellow flowers are these low yellow bushes.
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As we approached the outskirts of Artesia, there were lots of industries that support the oil business. In Artesia at Main and First is the Navajo Refinery, one of the few Native-owned oil refineries. Artesia is a nice town, also very clean with a number of large western themed bronze sculptures scattered about.
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A beautiful bronze sculpture depicting a cattle drive in Artesia, NM
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As you drive from Artesia to Mayhill the flat terrain gives way to rolling expanses and finally low mountains. The scrub is gone, replaced by low grasses, Yucca plants and prickly pear cactus. It was really very beautiful. Then we entered the close canyons of the final approach to Mayhill. The road was very curvy and bracketed by low mountains on both sides.
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The plains give way to rolling hills and mountains as you get near Mayhill, NM
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As we drove from Mayhill to Cloudcroft we were careful to observe the view from the valley the road was in. We decided it would not be suitable for astronomy since the mountains on both sides would significantly reduced the horizons, particularly to the south. Additionally, this area is heavily treed. We looked for the two astronomy villages we had previously visited and found them about halfway, barely visible up on the mountain.
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We drove on in to Cloudcroft on the very curvy road. We found the downtown area off Burro street and located Dave’s where we had lunch and ice cream. We had eaten there on our first visit to Cloudcroft in 2016.
Then we started the very steep and curvy drive down to Alamogordo. The views were breathtaking. In the distance when the valley opened we could see the white sands of White Sands National Monument like a mirage of snow. The wind WAS whipping the sand into a large white dust cloud. At High Roll we looked at the views and houses buried in the trees, nestled against the mountain and decided this area would also not be suitable for astronomy due to the stunted southern views and large number of trees.
When we got to Alamogordo we drove by the flying field and rocket launch facility. Both were behind locked gates. Presumably they will be accessible tomorrow when the monthly rocket launch was planned. Then we set out to look at properties south of Alamogordo. We picked one and headed there. Unfortunately the area was a dumping ground for abandoned mobile homes mixed in with abandoned houses. There were a handful of properties that had either nice houses or nice manufactured homes but they were rare and were often right next to an abandoned property. Exceedingly disappointing.
After that we sought out our bed and breakfast (the Tavares Inn) which is very nice. It is a large house of old Spanish style and our hosts, Debbie and Bob, are very friendly. We took a nap and then went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner and watched game 5 of the ALCS.
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Our room at the Taveres Inn. We had a small balcony off the room and could sit outside and overlook the yard.
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After the game was over (New York won) we went outside to assess the sky brightness. We measured 20.91 at 8:50 PM. There were also some local lighting from houses, porch lights etc. but no street lights in this neighborhood. To the south we could see one very bright area of street lighting and to the north we could see the dome from Alamogordo.
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The parrot-in-residence at Tavares Inn. A very friendly talking bird named Pickle.
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Saturday October 19 Alamogordo:
We got a wake up from our hosts this morning with orange juice and coffee and a parfait glass of very sweet watermelon. We enjoyed it out on our balcony. It was lovely. After getting cleaned up we went down to a custom breakfast made by our hostess with crisp bacon, toast, eggs, and potatoes. She topped it off with an apple pastry. We were stuffed!
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Then off to the local FLARE rocket club launch on a beautifully flat treeless field. It was a gorgeous day with blue skies, no wind and about 70 degrees! It was an event to certify some rocketeers from New Mexico State University and they were launching 5 foot tall rockets on H, I and J engines. It was a terrific show. We also met some of the local club members.
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Barry captured the launch of one of these behemoths.
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After the launch we drove up to Ruidoso which was another gorgeous drive. It passed through some open sweeping vistas with low shrubs and mountains in the distance, then climbed through the mountains and became heavily treed with evergreen, through Mescalero Apache tribal lands and into Ruidoso.
We had a romantic lunch at the Cornerstone Bakery and lingered over our delicious chicken salad sandwiches. I also had a cup of potato green chili soup which was terrific and not too spicy. We wrapped up with a dessert - pecan pie for me and warmed cherry pie with ice cream for Barry.
After lunch there were two properties we wanted to look at near Bent, NM. The first was an adobe style house that looked interesting but the road after leaving the pavement was rough and there were a number of houses very nearby. So it was put in the maybe category.
The second house was even further off of an even-worse road which we stopped following when a creek with running water cut across the road. We never got to see the house other than a part of the roof. We wrote it off as too inaccessible.
We drove back to Alamogordo and cruised down White Sands Blvd. to see what businesses were there and then returned to our neighborhood. Before going to our B&B we looked at 4 houses in the immediate neighborhood which were for sale. Nothing really stood out. So we went back to our room to take a nap. After we got up and hung out for a while we drove into Alamogordo to find the Jim R. Griggs Sports Complex and take a look at the baseball fields. We found it and it was a very nice, large complex with 8 fields of various sizes and the fields looked pretty good. There was a dog park nearby which seemed to be very popular and a large open field which had two people flying an electric RC airplane.
After a relaxed dinner at Taco Bell, we drove south on State 54 to assess the sky darkness and light domes. There was a parking area across from the turn to Oliver Lee Memorial Park and we stopped there. We sat for a few minutes to let our eyes dark adapt. We could see a huge light dome from El Paso / Juarez to the south, a smaller dome from Las Cruces to the southwest, direct lights from Holliman AFB / White Sands Missile Range to the west/northwest, and a big dome from Alamogordo from the north. We measured the sky brightness at 21.09. The Milky Way was plainly visible. After that we went back to our room and watched the end of the ALCS game 6 and some of the Alabama - Tennessee game.
Sunday October 20 Alamogordo: We decided we needed a day to relax so we slept in and planned to go to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. Barry’s brother Jim called around 7 AM to tell us that their half brother Dale had passed away. Dale had broken his ankle in a fall a few days before, gone into the hospital for surgery, had a heart catheterization followed by a heart attack and then did not recover. A very tragic chain of events. The early morning was spent in discussing possible scenarios for attending the funeral. We finally put that on hold pending finding out more details.
We left for the museum around 11 AM and ran by the car wash to give our van a well -deserved cleaning. Then we went to the museum. Breakfast had once again been generous and we decided to eat after the museum visit.
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When we arrived and parked, we found the gravesite of HAM the space chimp.
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Then we looked around John P. Stapp Air and Space Park, an outdoor rocket park, at the various displays including a rusting V2 rocket.
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Barry in front of Little Joe II
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At noon we went inside and bough At noon we went indisde and bought tickets, including admission to the 1:15 showing of "Apollo 11 First Steps" in their New Horizons Dome Theater. We went up to the fourth floor and worked our way down. Each floor had artifacts from various phases of space history and the museum has the International Space Hall of Fame which has inducted notable persons in space exploration. A picture and biography commemorates each honoree. There was also a special exhibit for Cosmonaut Alexei Leonov who recently passed away.
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One of our favorite exhibits was the one that talked all about HAM, the first chimpanzee in space. Here is his space suit. He was trained at nearby Holloman Air Force Base. In fact his name is an acronym for “Holloman Aero Medical.” There was also a short video telling of his training and flight.
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This sign discusses HAM's training and his space flight.
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This is the capsule that carried HAM into space.
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On the space artifact floor was an interesting display with a strip chart of John Glenn's heartbeat monitor and a book that he wrote on letters he received from people all over the world.
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The other fun display was an homage to Gene Roddenberry and Star Trek. Gene was born in El Paso, TX. They had a number of Trek artifacts and Gene was inducted to the International Space Hall of Fame in 2016.
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Barry wanted to try out the transporter....
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Barry also tried the Manned Manuevering Unit. After that, we headed down to the theater and saw the movie which was a condensed version of the Apollo 11 movie shown in theaters for the 50th anniversary, this year. The shortening was well done (we had seen the original and loved it), but it didn’t lend itself very well to the domed ceiling. We enjoyed it anyway.
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We were hungry and Barry suggested pizza, so we went to the Pizza Mill and Sub Factory, apparently an Alamogordo institution as it had foam tombstones above the register area for all of the other local pizza places that had come and gone out of business. It was really good - very thin crust and lots of pepperoni with a perfect pizza sauce and, can it be? Diet Coke! We have heard a lot of “Is Pepsi ok?” out here. And, for the record, no it isn’t!
Then we drove through downtown which was all closed up for Sunday and went back to our room.
Monday October 21 Alamogordo to Las Cruces: We left around 9:30 after a relatively light breakfast (our special request of our hostess) of Cheerios and toast. Before we left we made a few decisions on the upcoming week. Based on the funeral plans, we decided not to try to fly up to New York because of the complexity of starting from New Mexico and having to find a safe place for the van and all the telescope equipment and the cost for buying an airline ticket two days in advance. We also made the decision to go to the Casitas de Gila tomorrow and add two observing days to our time there. We are both burned out and demoralized with our current pace of trying to look for a new place to live in New Mexico.
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It was another gorgeous day for our drive past Holloman Air Force Base, White Sands National Monument and White Sands Missile Range. White Sands is the largest gypsum dunefield in the world at 275 square miles. It is very unique and from any high point around the Alamagordo area you can see this huge white apparition in the distance.
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Then we passed over the mountains and descended into the Mesilla Valley and arrived on the outskirts of Las Cruces. It had taken roughly an hour. Here is a view of the mountains from the Alamagordo side. The craggy peak is a recognizable landmark.
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We had planned to drive up to Hillsboro to look at two rural properties, but decided that we would eat lunch before driving up. We explored North Telshor Ave around our hotel. It is shopping central for Las Cruces along with many of the major restaurant chains. We were very excited that Las Cruces seemed to have all the amenities we were used to in terms of shopping and dining.
After lunch, we started north on I-25 to Hatch. It was a very scenic drive along large open expanses of grassland with mountains in the distance on both sides. Along the left side of the highway, the Rio Grande River followed the road. It was mostly dry but had a wide channel with water meandering around within it. At Hatch we left the interstate for Hwy 26. Hatch is a very quaint town which is the chili capital of the world and the center of the growing region for Hatch chilis. It has many roadside stands and shops dedicated to chili sales. It also had many restaurants, a grocery store and a hardware store. Which was good news because that meant the houses we were interested in weren’t quite so isolated. Hatch also had a small baseball field at the edge of town.
The drive up to our next turn was as beautiful as the previous leg. However this area was covered in chili pepper crops and dairy farms.
At Nutt, we turned north on Hwy 27 to Hillsboro. This drive took us through very desolate cattle country. There were no fences and the cows lounged on the side of the road and sometimes in the road. But they were very placid. We passed by the ghost town of Lake Valley which had been a silver mining town in the late 1800’s. Its heyday was 1881 to 1893.
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After an hour and fifteen minutes of driving, we arrived at the first house we wanted to look at. Unfortunately, the gated entrance to Lake Valley Ranch prevented us from driving any further. So about one and a half hours to civiliztion - not too bad for New Mexico. We talked about whether or not we wanted to open the gate and drive in and decided to go look at the second house which was nearby.
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The second house was located several miles down a dirt road which crossed numerous low areas which would be prone to flooding. It was a pretty house but it was sitting low relative to the surrounding mountains and hills and had no southern views. Not really for us. We were going to head back into town but we really wanted to see the other house. So we ignored the sign and opened the gate to get in to Lake Valley Ranches. We drove along a relatively level rocky dirt road which was severely rutted in places.
We arrived at the driveway which was a narrower version of the road in except it went up a hill. It was very rough, pretty steep and went on for a half mile or so. The house was really pretty, perched on an overlook of the valley below. Unfortunately the overlook was more to the north. The southern view was blocked by hills. The lot immediately around the house was level, but pretty hilly everywhere else.
We turned around and drove back to Las Cruces. By the time we got to the hotel, checked in and found our room we were again demoralized and exhausted. We took a nap and slept until after 5. Dinner at Red Lobster was excellent, after that we did laundry, watched some TV and decompressed from the day. We were really looking forward to arriving at the Casitas tomorrow!