Blogs from Alamogordo, New Mexico, United States, North America - page 2

ALBERT JENNINGS FOUNTAIN Wherever there was an opportunity for graft in the Territory of New Mexico its civil authorities would soon pounce on it. They proudly called themselves the Santa Fe Ring and were the most corrupt group of men ever assembled. Corruption lead to lawlessness throughout the territory and events like the bloody Colfax County War and the Lincoln County War resulted. In opposition to them stood a few good men like Albert Jennings Fountain. He was born in 1838 on Staten Island and as a young man made his way to San Francisco where he became a lawyer and journalist. In 1860 he accompanied the William Walker Filibuster to Nicaragua as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union. Walker did not care for the tone of his writing and had him arrested and ... read more

Just SW of Alamogordo is White Sands National Monument. This is at the SW corner of what was at one time a large lake. This lake today is part of the White Sands bombing range and way up north on this lake is where the first nuclear bomb was detonated (see photo of replica of bomb in Nuclear museum blog). But today people come to enjoy the beautiful pure white sand. Many bring their snow platters and use the dunes to go "scooting" down. This another "must see", if you are traveling this highway.... read more

An old Army buddy contacted me one summer and wanted to know if my wife Ann would be interested in selling Mary Kay skin care products. This old Army buddy was a Warrant Officer female who was selling Mary Kay skin care products in anticipation of her retirement. Apparently she was doing a very good job in skin care sales and already had her own sales team and a red car. My wife Ann, who was also friends with my old buddy, had a full time job that she enjoyed and was not interested in selling skin care products. I on the other hand was already retired from the Army and was between full time jobs. I asked my buddy if men were allowed to sell skin care products for Mary Kay. The answer was yes, ... read more

White Snow, White Sands and Missiles - Amazing Day Our Sacramento Mountain river camp site in Ruidoso stood at an altitude of 6000 feet. Overnight we had rain and sleet but all was sunny by Wednesday morning and off we went. To get over the mountains we had to go through the pass at an altitude of 8000 feet, and there was snow, lots of snow. It was a beautiful drive up through the pass and working our way down towards Alamogordo. Coming down off the mountain you could see the White Sands. From 40 miles away it looked like more snow; a long unbroken white stripe in the desert plateau between the Sacramento and San Andres Mountains. In Alamogordo we made a quick stop at the Museum of Space History. Turning into the road to ... read more

Note: Havent been able to update the blog over the past few days.. Hotels without Internet, more hours of driving as we dropped off people along the way, and weeks of travel through changing weather, different altitudes and shifting time zones caught up with us eventually. Unfortunately, that means that I dont remember all the fun, whacky moments from the trip that made it such an enjoyable holiday :( Its those stories, those anecdotes that defined our trip, but nevertheless, heres an overview of what we did end up doing. ************************** We were initally planning to make 3 stops along the way before hitting Vegas on 30th - Roswell (famous for alien UFO landings in 1947) and Albuquerque in New Mexico, and then Flagstaff near the Grand Canyon in Arizona. But Sapna was interested in doing ... read more