The drive to Alamorgordo started out through the desert like the rest of the southwest but as we began our climb up the mountain, the hills became colored with lots of trees, flowering cacti, jagged mountains and swooping valleys; it was truly majestic. Although I had made the drive before, this time it was cooler and because we were limping on a weakened tire, we drove slower (don't laugh, it was possible - Dan was driving) anyway, I was able to catch sight of things that I had missed before or that wasn't even there my last time through and Dan entertained me with stories about his time in the area - again, for the first time (my fading memory). We made our way across Cloud Croft and High Rolls Mountain, through the tunnel and down the mountain to our next camp at Mountain Meadow RV Park. This RV park is between Alamogordo and Tularosa off of 54N on Meadow Mountain Road about 2.4 miles on the right. You would not be disappointed with the facilities here; no noise from the highway, beautiful scenery, private bath and shower, super clean laundry and ocassionally desert creatures including quail, jack rabbits, coyote and fox wander by to see who's new in the neighborhood. We were pleasantly greeted by the owner, Crystal and was given a great spot which would be our home for the next few days. She was familiar with our previous delays and travel concerns so she quickly directed us to our site and told us she'd see us later. It was a great spot over-looking the desert field against the Coyote Hills and outlined by a wide open sky. After we got settled in to camp, we made the drive back up to High Rolls to visit long-time friends, Brad and Lisa T and to meet some of their local friends. Their place is an incredible 8,000+sf home nestled in the forest overlooking the valley below, including White Sands National Park (in the far distance). It is an awesome place to live and a perfect place to entertain. As the evening drew late, we began to see dark clouds build off in the distance over the Alamogordo area; while it was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones, we decided we should head back down the hill before the storm got upon us. As we were nearing the bottom of the hill we could see in the distance a light dust storm start to blow across the highway; within a few seconds we were right in the path of one of the hardest dust storms in over 21 years. The rocks and sand pelted the truck, the strong wind was whipping our 3/4 ton GMC like it was a mini-cooper and we could feel the left truck tires slightly lift from the strong wind; we crawled along hoping to escape the beating we were taking and find something to park behind. It was a complete brown-out and no where to hid or nothing to hid behind; we could barely see an ocassional center line confirming that yes, we were still on the highway. We were finally able to turn the truck northward so the storm was blowing us from behind and visiblity became a little clearer. When we arrived back at camp, the storm was still blowiing hard but the sands had eased and we were able to get out and make a run for the RV. Dan parked the truck opposite side of the rig to help protect it again flying debris and rock. In about 30 minutes the storm had passed and everything was coated with a fine layer of sand; you could even taste the sand in our mouths. Yep, we can say we are definitely having an experience of a lifetime on this trip.

Monday morning brought a beautiful day with georgous weather. Dan had appointments to take the rig and have the tires mounted and do a few other errands in Alamogordo; I decided to stay behind and do laundry, catch up on reading and hopefully catch a sight of the many quail and jack rabbits that live in the nearby field. All was a success; Dan got the tires on, groceries from Walmart and a peace of mind knowing that the RV did not need an alignment but only new tires. Later in the evening our friends, Lisa and Brad came to the campsite to sit around, have a few coctails and reminice about time gone by. It was great spending time with them and we look forward to seeing them again when they get back out on the road traveling.

An even longer-time friend, Rose, who is from Alamorgordo still has siblings here so our plan was to give them a call to see if they wanted to meet and have dinner. The timing never seemed to worked out (last minute notices) so we never made our visit with Lily and Gloria.

Tuesday was our day to hit the mountain trails on the motorcycles; we rode the canyons, trails, main roads, dirt roads, and passes until we could ride no more. We had passed a guy on a street bike who followed us for miles; he'd pass us then a little ways down the road, we'd pass him. We stopped to take a break along side a very scenic road, the stranger passed us again; when we go back on the road, about 1/4 mile, we passed him sitting under a shade tree also taking a break. When we left the paved roads he continued to follow us but eventually he must have decided that wasn"t the trail he wanted to be on....rocky and bumpy. On the trails, we saw elk, deer, mule deer, turkeys, prarie dogs, loose cattle and horses. We continued across different canyon passes and trails until we arrived on the east side of Cloud Croft. We took the main road back to High Rolls and just before we pulled over to take a picture of the Taisey estate, the guy who was following us around the first canyon passed us going the opposite direction...he couldn't take our short-cut. We then continued our ride along a canyon road that dumped us out a couple of miles from our camp. The trailrides were great and had cooler temperatures while up in the mountain area (very enjoyable) and you could sure feel the difference in temperature when you got back down in the desert.

This evening calls for a pitcher of margarita's, a lounge chair under a big shade tree and camera in hand for any wildlife that wants their picture taken before we begin to load the cycles in preparation for tomorrow's departure to Tucson, AZ.