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Published: April 18th 2022
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He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!
We were all packed the night before, and just had to wrap up the last bits and have rice pudding for breakfast before sitting down to watch our home church Easter service at 8 am (11 in Kent). Singing along was better than not attending at all on this most wonderful important day.
After thanking Mike and Rhonda, we set off towards Las Cruces again. We almost took the back road that almost touched Mexico, but instead took the Interstate again. We were told the scenery was more or less the same anyway.
Before I forget, we wanted to mention more about our little late afternoon visit to Paradise a few days ago to visit the birdfeeder. It is called a ghost town on the map, along with some others. It used to boast 12 saloons, barber shop, etc etc when copper mining was big. The host at the feeder is a great grandson of one of the town’s people. We didn’t even see a store. Portal looked big by comparison.
We found what we considered to be the very best rest stop in the USA just short of Las
Cruces. It was on the heights overlooking the valley. We could see lots of pecan trees. We hadn’t realized how big the town was when we stopped on the way to Tucson last week. We had apples and cheese and apples and peanut butter for lunch, AND were visited by a new bird. It was so nondescript we had trouble identifying it, but fortunately David got a good photo and Merlin helped narrow it down – a rock wren!
We drove on to El Paso and once again hadn’t realized how really really big that place is. Rather than passing thru on Interstate 10, we took a bypass over the mountains, and there it was on the other side of the mountains as well.
Wow is Texas flat in this top part – just scrub land and beige colored dust, but you could buy 10 acres for 18,000. And do what??
We had to pass through a Border Patrol stop and were asked if we were citizens. Yes. That did it.
Finally in New Mexico, we came upon the Guadalupe Mountains, which are an “island” of extensive coral reef that formed when it was under the
sea, and then later rose up as mountains, and then eroded down except for the very hard reef. It is evidently the largest in the USA, and stretches 40 miles towards Carlsbad.
We managed to check into the hotel before 5:30 and got to do our usual Sunday evening zoom chat with our families. Then off for some sushi, which was quite delicious. It has seemed quite common, at least since leaving Ohio, to have sushi which is “crunchy,” as it is described. It seems to be a light tempura covering which is then fast fried. Yum. But it does seem weird to have sushi in Texas since that inland sea dried up 20 million years ago, give or take.
Off to the Caverns tomorrow. We had to pre-book. This town of Carlsbad is FILLED with hotels so maybe it will be crowded in the Cavern.
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