Low on Gas, Low on Time

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We started the day at IHOP. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day - right? And Donald loves IHOP. It had only 2 other customers in there so service was quick. With our bellies full, we headed back towards I10 which took us by the aircraft boneyard again. This time we saw the other side of the boneyard which we somehow totally missed yesterday. I guess we were too busy looking at all the planes, that we never looked the other direction.

We travelled along I10 for a bit and saw a sign that stated El Paso 300 miles. I tried to block it from Donald’s view for that was our end destination for the day and reading 300 miles just makes it seem so far away. But my efforts were ignored and reality was that we had a lot of riding to do today. But I did have a few stops planned to break it up a bit.

As we traveled eastward we could see the landscape changing a bit. The Saguaro trees were no more, the ground was not quite as dry and a few new species of cactus started popping up along the way. We passed the sign for Tombstone which prompted Donald to wonder where some of the westerns he likes were filmed. After a few google searches it became clear that they were all filmed in Tucson! The place we just left. We even saw signs for Old Tucson Studios. So a missed opportunity - maybe next time.

The area between Tucson and El Paso is long and quite honestly a bit boring. There are mountains in the distance, but not much else and very few exits. Just a remote dry area. The area is prone to dust storms and there were warning signs all over along with instructions on what to do in one. Stay in your car - pull over - stay in your car - keep seatbelts on. We were fortunate enough to not experience any today.

The first stop of this trek was a detour to Chiricahua National Monument. It was about 40 miles off of the interstate. The road was very remote, with nothing around. We may have met 5 cars on our way there so we were surprised to find about 20 cars at the monument. But at least we knew we were not completely alone. We stopped by the visitor center to get a map of the area and took the route through the whole monument area. It is comprised of enormous pinnacles and rock formations. The climate was more pleasurable and the views were awesome. Definitely worth the side trip.

We left the monument headed back towards I 10. I saw on the map that there was a road that intersects the one we came in on that takes you back to I10 without having to backtrack the entire way. When we came to that road we saw that it was a dirt road going along side cattle farms. We debated for about three seconds if we should take it or not for we had no idea of the condition nor how long it was (there was no cell reception to check GPS). And then we went for it. Donald decided to give the rental car a real good test ended up drifting around most of the turns for he was traveling so fast. And there was absolutely no one on this route with us. We did come upon one car at a historical marker, but that was it. This dirt route took us through Fort Bowie National Historic Monument. An unplanned bonus of the unauthorized dirt speedway.

We made our way back to the interstate passing a small town. Most of the once businesses were closed. A modern ghost town. It just saddens me to see buildings and businesses neglected and knowing that they just could not sustain their livelihood in the area. Soon after joining the interstate again we passed the AZ/NM state line and our phone GPS gave us an official “welcome to New Mexico”. I had read about a ghost town past the border and decided a stop for a look. We took the designated exit and found the remnants of the town. The Steins ghost town was the only thing at the exit. As if the exit was built just for it. But the ghost town was closed and has been severely neglected for many years. It is privately owned so we did not trespass - just viewed it from afar. It looked like someone was living next to it so maybe they will be able to restore it.

We ventured further towards El Paso, but decided to make another detour to White Sands National Monument. The route took through Las Cruces and Donald wanted to get gas after we got out of that city. The problem is that there were no gas stations after the city. Back to remote open land. I googled the nearest gas station as we were getting low and found one 5 miles down the road to Aafes White Sands. I saw signs for a missile range in the area but did not think much about it for 1. That was not part of the agenda and 2. I am pretty sure civilians are not allowed on missile ranges. As we go about 4 of the 5 miles we see signs and missiles and fences and military vehicles and then the checkpoint. It was then that we realized that Aafes IS the missile range. So we did a u turn, hoping to not put anyone on alert and made our way back out to the highway.

Fortunately we did not have anyone come chasing after us but after wasting 8 miles of needed gasoline, we were taking fate into our own hands. We continued on to White Sands, made a quick stop at the visitor as they were closing in five minutes. Then decided to drive further to Alamogordo to get gas. Then headed back to White Sands to see the dunes. Upon entering the park, I was a bit disappointed for it was like the dunes at the beach (at least the beaches in the southeast). Small white dunes with grasses and plants spread throughout. Pretty but not national monument quality - in my opinion. But we ventured on and found ourselves in the middle of a white rolling universe. For miles and miles beautiful rolling dunes captivated our attention. Unlike the dunes at the beach, you are encouraged to climb and enjoy these dunes. We had no intention of climbing the dunes, but after getting into the heart of the park, we just had to. That earlier disappointment was far removed from our minds. We were both glad we went back to see this place.

With our shoes now sand logged from the dunes, we headed back to Alamogordo. We stopped at Y’alls Steakhouse for dinner. The steakhouse had excellent ratings on Yelp helping us choose the location, and the food was indeed excellent. It was a small locally owned restaurant and was the place that the locals did enjoy for it was crowded.

The problem with planning stops on an already long ride is that time gets away from you and you never accomplish the distance you anticipate. That certainly held true today. After finishing dinner, we still had an hour and a half of driving to get to our hotel in El Paso. That meant driving in the dark but we were rewarded with an awesome sunset behind the mountains. I had to settle for a picture from the car window for we had used up all of our stops for the day. I will be sure to get those restocked for tomorrow.

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