New Mexico into Arizona

RV parks are not my preferred place to stay as I like to be further away from lots of people, but this place in Alamogordo was fine for one night - all new & quiet with nice views. It was 35* here this morning, but was 73* by the time I got to Tucson in the afternoon.


Just outside of Alamogordo is White Sands National Park. I was in a hurry to get to Tucson, but will come back to explore here at some point. 


The mountains in southern NM & southeastern AZ rise up sharply from the flat desert plateau with no foothills. 


Some random things seen along the drive today:
- roadside kitsch including a giant pistachio & a big metal road runner
- murals on water tanks
- a border inspection station about 50 miles from the border, which was unmanned 
   last year, but required us all to stop this year (like most, I was waved through.)
- what looked like a blimp over the border near Deming
- the Continental Divide in the middle of a very flat desert plateau

In several wide open flat desert stretches were a sequence of signs:
    "In a dust storm"   "Pull off roadway"   "Turn off vehicle" 
    "Foot off brake"   "Stay buckled"
The last two confused me for a minute until I thought about it. If someone rear-ends you in the dust storm, you want your foot off the brake so that your car moves with the impact to absorb it, & to be buckled up to keep you safer as the car moves.

This little gas station restaurant had Indian food, is run by Indians, & several of the truckers in there giving them business were Indian as well - not what I was expecting on an Interstate in southern AZ. Good food made from scratch. 




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