Finally in New Mexico we agreed that it was time to officially slow down the pace and to travel less each day. We were only a little ways into New Mexico in a small town called Clayton when we decided to settle in for the night. Being a small town (a really small town) there were none of our usual haunts to stay at. No Wally World. No Cracker Barrel. Not even a fast food joint to be found. So, we picked the local hospital as our ‘safe’ place to park for the evening. We figured if the cops decided to rouse us we had a great excuse. Nicole had been suffering all day from terrible nosebleeds due to the dry weather and was having quite a time getting them to stop. We wouldn’t want her to bleed out now would we officer?
Clayton wasn’t much to speak of so when we woke in the morning we were excited to get on down the road. Apparently, Annie wasn’t. We couldn’t get her to start. Thankfully, one of the nurses who worked at the hospital was married to the local mechanic. Brad came out to see what was what even though he didn’t normally work on Saturdays. He was nice enough to tow us to his shop (around the corner) and then drive us to the local ‘parts’ store (across the street). It was his suggestion on first glance to change the spark plugs because we might have flooded them out too much for them to dry up anytime soon. Simple enough. Still, no start. We called Brad back and he suggested that we hold the choke open on the carburetor and that did the trick to get her all fired back up. We then shot out of that town as quickly as we could.
And this is what followed that exciting start for New Mexico.
Mountains!
Lava Fields (The Valley of Fire)
Lichen Happy Faces
Wildlife!
We actually spent quite some time sneaking up on this guy, whispering, getting our camera ready only to discover that he was… um, rusty.
Got a good laugh from that one.
400 year old trees.
600-1000 year old petroglyphs (Three Rivers Petroglyphs Park)
Mountains tall enough for snow to be on top!
White Sands
White Sands National Monument…. miles and miles of gypsum sand dunes to play in, slide down and explore.
We kept wondering where the water was. It felt like we were at the beach.
Look, Mom! No socks! Finally, weather warm enough to take off the socks and wear short sleeves.
We really enjoyed New Mexico and look forward to exploring it quite a bit more in the future.