East through New Mexico 20-21 Nov

Friday 20th
From Alamagordo we drove South West about 13 miles to visit White Sands National Monument, it is a part of the Chihuahuan desert which is the largest desert in North America (incl Mexico) and also the highest. That means that we have visited the lowest (Death Valley) and the highest deserts (White Sands) in the US!
The place well deserves its name, it looks just like there has been a heavy snowfall. The sand was so white and felt really cold! At the entrance we hired a couple of circular sledges and went in search of a large steep sand dune.
We found a perfect place with the sun on our backs (or our fronts when we fell off at the bottom of the slope usually gong backwards!) and no huge bumps to force us to 'take air'; we had been warned at the hire place that this can be very painful.
We could hear jet planes in the distance (we had passed an AFB on the way) and also just to the south of us is the White Sands Missile Range where they tested captured Nazi rockets after the war and still test new inventions now. Apparently the road south through the missile range is closed a couple of times a week for a few hours as new machines are tested. (Bits of both Transformers films were filmed here in the white sands (if you're interested, I'm not!))
After a couple of hours in which we established that Tristan was the champion sledger; that sand can get everywhere; that Celso was getting a mark where his Tshirt was (horror of horrors, he likes to have 'the perfect tan) and that we were all extremely hungry; we returned to the van and ate sandwiches and drank cold ginger ale. Then we set of North Eastwards to the centre of Lincoln County where Billy the Kid had made his name.
On our journey Tristan and I spotted a road runner on the side of the road, it was tiny, not at all what I had expected from the Loony Tunes road runner! We also passed through Apache land which was completely different from both the Navajo and Ashiwi lands we have passed through. There was no rubbish, no stray dogs, there was beautiful graffiti along the roads saying things like 'Honour your people', 'Respect' and beautifully intricate native designs. I wonder why there is such a difference?
At the small town of Lincoln, that used to be the county seat and was once described as the most dangerous place in America by one of the presidents (whose name escapes me as I have never heard of him before!), we stopped to see what the Billy the Kid story was all about. The town is said to be the best preserved town in America, of course the road has been tarmacked and some modernisation was done to the buildings in the early 1900s when electricity and water arrived in the town, but the shops, some houses and the courthouse at the centre of the story are still standing and you are able to go in and have a look around. If you're not interested in the story then skip the next paragraph.
'The company', (Murphy, Dolan and Co) had a monopoly on the government contracts in Lincoln county to supply Beef to Fort Sumner, they were squeezing all the other ranchers out of business, buying up their lands and had the local lawmen and politicians in their pocket. Tunstall, a young, rich Englishman, came to Lincoln and set up a new business in direct competition to 'The Company'. Dolan trumped up charges of an unpaid debt by Tunstall and then sent a group of men with the sheriff to collect... Tunstall was murdered. The teenager Billy the kid worked for Tunstall (Tunstall was kind of the father he had never known) and he vowed revenge. The whole area took sides either with the company or with Tunstall and The Lincoln County War started, the year was 1876. Billy and co set up a group of vigilantes (spelling) called The Regulators and killed several of The Company's men including the Sheriff. It all got out of hand until the Governor of New Mexico sent in the cavalry to sort things out. They burnt a house that the Regulators were hiding in and shot them as they came out surrendering but Billy escaped. Pat Garret was made the new sheriff and all went quiet for a while, but Garret was determined to get Billy and he hunted him down. He was tried by a jury selected by The Company, found guilty of the murder of the sheriff and sentenced to hang. Whilst awaiting sentence in the courthouse in Lincoln, he managed to shoot a guard whilst on a trip to the privy, shot another that came to find out what the noise was all about and then escaped. His leg irons were removed by one of the many friends who supported The Regulators. But Billy didn't leave the area and after a couple of months Garret hunted him down again and this time he shot him dead.
We drove East to Roswell with another of those colourful sunsets behind us and our eyes open for any UFOs. (For those of you that don't know, Roswell is the place where a UFO is supposed to have crashed in 1947 and has been followed by a series of cover ups by the military and government.)
Sat 21st
We were not abducted in the night, or I think we weren't, but after visiting the UFO museum and research centre this morning I am a believer. There are so many convincing testimonies from so many different people giving such similar stories and descriptions of events. We spent a couple of hours in the museum looking at documents and photos of the 'Roswell incident' and other sightings and encounters.
We drove south towards Carlsbad and went to the Living Desert State Park in the afternoon where there were hundreds of desert plants and a small zoo with desert animals; Prairie dogs; Javelina (collared Peccary, like a wild boar); rattlesnakes; deer; mountain lions; a bobcat; a grey fox; horned owls; golden and bald eagles; tortoises; scorpions and tarantulas; centipedes and lots of birds. It was a fabulous place.
We are camped just south of Carlsbad ready to go to the caverns tomorrow. We have had a swim and a shower and are feeling warm and cosy.