My brother sleeping on the plane:
We flew Southwest:
The airports are so ridiculously full of fast food chains:
And the airport in New Mexico had some cool decorations going on on the ceiling:
What sucked was that I was basically sitting the whole day. What was awesome was what I saw during that drive down.
(I was bored in the car)
First off, the due to awesome atmospheric conditions (which, of course, meant a bumpy landing, but that's okay), cloud formations were awesome:
Then, on the drive down from Albuquerque, the first and foremost most awesome thing I saw soon off the freeway (I wish I got a picture of it) was a sign that said "DUST STORMS MAY EXIST." Okay, yeah, I'm a big dork. The first thing I thought was "My goodness, what an existential sign... dust storms may exist, or they may not... existence is... yeah. Okay. I loved the sign. But that's just me being a big dork. Second, I saw a sign that said "Do Not Pick Up Hitchhikers Prison Facilities." Okay, it's not awesome, but it was kind of eerie and weird, but kind of fascinating to see. I'm not quite sure why... And finally. The best thing ever: Truth or Consequences 62 Miles. Yes, there is a town called "Truth or Consequences" in NM. How awesome is that? "I live in Truth or Consequences." This person has a pretty cool picture of a road sign:
But I still think the one I saw was better, even with "Elephant Butte" on this one. I like being existentialist.
Anyhow, other than that, there are some pretty cool rock/sand formations going on... there are some wicked looking mountains you can see after you enter the Las Cruces area. Speaking of Las Cruces... NM must be a very poor state in general... it seems like it relies on just tourism and military bases. Las Cruces looks like an abandoned ghost town... half of it a modern abandoned ghost town, with wide streets and empty parking lots in front of Quiznos and Wachovias on a Saturday evening, with modern buildings with an abandoned Blockbusters logo in the parking lot with a "For Rent" sign hanging in the window. The population is clearly predominantly Latino, with signs in Spanish all over. I feel very useless with the smattering of random languages that I have learned. The highway sometimes divides bright green fields and forest green trees and newly-built houses from dry, wind-blown desert; it's a small oasis for humans in an otherwise uninhabitable, but beautiful desert. Sometimes, you by dying crops of grapes, and you wonder if grapes really belong in the New Mexico desert.
Anyhow, so far, I've eaten at McDonalds, and gotten food from Albertsons and my dad wanted some grilled chicken from KFC. My family didn't grow up with Mexican food, and we've never really been big fans. I feel like I should be eating out at local restaurants, and exploring more... but it doesn't really seem like there's much here in Las Cruces. Maybe there'll be more in Santa Fe.
Tomorrow, will be an exciting hike through White Sands National Monument... hopefully the Alkali Flats Trail... a 4.5 mile loop taking you through the white dunes, marked only by markers with arrows and orange tape the guide the way. Must convince my brother to hike in the desert in the middle of summer...
This type of a vacation in the middle of a poor state is really odd to me still. There wasn't so much of this type of feeling in Alaska, and it was definitely on my mind a lot in Hawaii, but it just feels so blazingly in-your-face here... maybe because of how barren New Mexico seems to be...
It's nearing midnight. I guess I should sleep eventually.
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