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View from the RV park
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What I did not realize, was that Alamogordo (and White Sands) was the
center of the space and rocket development industry in America. They have a Rocket
and Space museum that I went to visit - fascinating stuff.
Starting off with the British contribution to the space race... the fact that they had instructions on the vehicle was somewhat concerning - see the 2nd photo down.
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Zoom in on the instructions...
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Entrance to the elevator -at the museum
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| Little Ham - first Chimp in space |
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His capsule in the rocket. He was actually trained to control it.
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Moon rock sample
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| The fun fact is crazy. See above. |
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In front of those mountains is where the Shuttle would come and land (if it did not land in California)
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Woke
up early on Saturday to get to the White Sands National monument/park.
Spectacular. Largest inland dune system in the world. Not quite sure
what created it. 9am and 35F (1C). You can actually go back-country
camping in the dunes - need to do that one day, but not in the winter.
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Really rugged mountains ring the sand
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Looking at the pics, I have to remind myself that it was 33F
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On
to Truth or Consequence. This was one of the must -visit spots on the
trip - and only due to its name. Got the t-shirts. What a pleasant
surprise. Arty weird town that has open house every Thursday when the
art galleries stay open until 10, and everyone has a good time. After
lunch back to I10 via some minor roads which were very scenic - lots of
pecan nut groves , and I passed through the chili capital of the US -
actually saw chili fields as I was coming up to the town -
Made me think
of a time - about 30 years ago where Gene and I stopped
once (just before you get into Rustenburg, in the North -West of South Africa), ran into the field with a plastic bag and
picked a bundle of chili's which we immediately chopped
up on getting home.We put the chili's into olive oil and left it to soak. Was the greatest
hottest sauce ever - even melted the rubber seals on the bottles we
stored it in.
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Big Original Americans present.
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Different types of cactus in front of the Geronimo museum
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Weird little sculpture garden thing - was part of the Geronimo Apache museum.
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Downside of the minor road was lots of loose gravel,
and 2 chips in my movie screen (windscreen) which is going to cost $$$
to replace (turns out I could get it fixed in Quartzsite for only $60. ).
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One of the chips - top left quadrant. Looks like a bird.
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Pecan grove
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Slept over in Lordsburg, New Mexico after driving
through spectacular countryside. Ice cold again that evening - went
down to 20F.
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Ice patterns on the Whale
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Next day I did a slight detour to avoid I10 and on a
random choice decided to go down to Douglas, NM on the Mexican border,
and then back up to stop in Tombstone.
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Miles long trains - was good to see rather than 1000's of trucks
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Beautiful scenic drive to Douglas
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Stopped for lunch at the Gadsden Hotel, Douglas, AZ
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Stunning hotel foyer
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Stunning x2 - totally out of character with the rest of the town
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After lunch - on to Tombstone - capital of the SDS people, but well preserved and very touristy/busy.
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Lots of cosplay in Tombstone. There is a shoot-out at the OK corral every day.
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Undertaker next to the Power dressers
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On to Tucson for the week stay. Funniest bit in the pic below - the coyote and wolf derivatives are not allowed in the RV park - so Stanley would have been out of luck. Read in the fold below.
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Tight fit RV park
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Read in the fold
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So it was Tuscon for 5 nights and then on to the end point of the trip - Quartzsite. I was a bit excited.
