Day 4,5,6,7: Artesia, NM to Rock Hound SP, NM

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Got off about 9:10 AM. Oil wells petered out quickly west of Artesia. We drove up a gradual grade to an 8600' high pass through the Sacramento Mtns then down a STEEP, curvy grade down to Alamagordo and then White Sands NM. The sand is just as white as snow. It was windy and we saw dozens of dust devils in all directions, some really small, but some really large. Got separated in Las Cruces but reunited when we both approached a gas station at the same exit off I-10. We reserved two sites at Rock Hound SP which turned out to be at opposite ends of the camp ground. Next morning Gena & I were able to move to the site right across from Charlie & Kerry. It was a very nice park. Saw spectacular sun sets and moon rises. Stayed all day Sat. On Sunday we headed for City of Rocks SP, NM (saw a long eared Owl there and it was a really nice, though small park) and Gila Cliff Dwelling NM, NM. On the road out to the NM, a Deputy Sheriff made us do a 180 and head back - - after reconsidering our situation for a couple minutes, we headed on to Roper Lake SP, AZ. Since Mary & Skip Saylor had already re-arranged their schedule to accomodate our being there on Wed, we decided to just stay at Roper an extra night - - it was another very nice park and was almost empty. Roper had a natural hot spring hot tub that we took advantage of. From the road it looked to be about the size of a 55 gal drum - - but when we actually used it, we found that the four of us and another two couples that made us all look puny all fit in the hot tub just fine. Had no WiFi access Sat, Sun, and Mon.

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