August 12, 2006

•  Hello from Alamogordo!    Sorry for the extended silence but it turned out the cabin didn't have the promised wi-fi access. 

  
  

  Fortunately the hotel's internet access works fine, so I can check in briefly (haven't uploaded photos yet, you see).  We've had a lovely time, Don, Dmitry, Zhenya and I.  The weather's been good, the cabin was quite nice, barring the disappointing lack of wireless access, and we struck what Don and I considered to be a reasonable compromise between chillin' out and going out. 

  
  

  This evening we went to White Sands only to find an isolated thunderstorm raging over it, with additional thunderstorms ringing the Tularosa Basin.  We went ahead and entered the Sands and found our way to where the Sunset Stroll began and joined in, though casting an uneasy eye on the lightning bolts not far away.  After a little bit I couldn't stand it (having a healthy fear of lightning) and cut the three guys out and herded them back to the van.  Everyone knows you're safer in a car in a lightning storm than you are out in the open (and in any case the "stroll" had turned into a seated lecture, which the ranger said would last about twenty minutes, and was boring the boys senseless).  We went ahead and drove deeper into the Sands, then back to the front, stopping to walk out on the interdune boardwalk, as the lightning had stopped.  It was a beautiful evening in the desert, with a cool, fresh breeze!  Delightful to be in the dunes in such conditions, as we normally are there in the early afternoon with the sun beating down on us.  Zhenya wound up being as taken with the Sands as the rest of us, to my pleasure.  I do love White Sands.

  
  

  Tomorrow we drive back home, so I should have some photos posted sometime in the evening.  ;^)

  • 12:23 am
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