I must have had too much water at Casa de Suenos because I was up at 12:30 am to go to the bathroom. When I exited the bathroom, there was the youngest walking back from the kitchen. I followed him to our room where he was sleeping in the twin bed. “He attacked our bed”, she told me because she’d woken her up, “I think he’s sleepwalking.” This was a first for him. We’ve never known him to sleep walk, but apparently he did. He had no memory of all this when he woke up the next morning.
The next morning it was also raining as we packed up the van. I really wish we could have spent some time relaxing but I had to preach the next morning so we needed to be home late afternoon/early evening. I was not looking forward to another day of “How much longer?” and “Are we even close yet?”. Yeah, these were long rides only made longer by the numerous questions being asked.
But first we had a breakfast prepared by the Baileys. It was good to not have restaurant food. Blueberry pancakes, sausage, and some Florida’s Natural OJ. The latter has a special place in our hearts since we used to live near the processing plant. I wish we could have stayed longer talking. It has been a difficult year of ministry. Little did I know what awaited me when we got home (maybe some other time). But we did take time for a tour of the very interesting building. It has been built in stages with no coherent plan. So it has plenty of character.
As we were getting ready to go Jim let me know about the waterfall down the road. So … this necessitated a detour. Then it was time to head back down the mountain.
When we were more ignorant of New Mexican geography, I thought we could hit Carlsbad Canyon on the way home. That, however, would have been a 4 hour round trip and time at the canyon which would make for a very late night. Maybe some other trip.
On the way down we saw another deer along the side of the road. As we pulled up, he stayed put which allowed the eldest to take some pictures of him/her. The occasional rain made us wonder if we’d be able to enjoy White Sands National Monument. Friends from FL has enjoyed it before visiting us and we had the saucers they used to sled down the dunes. This just sounded quite cool. As we went down the mountain we could see the whiteness of the dunes in the distance. Quite beautiful.
The price to get in was $5/adult, but since we had a fourth grader, we got in free. That was two national parks in two days for free thanks to the fourth grader. We stopped at the broad walk to get a grasp of all this. I wasn’t sure what to expect. They are like sand dunes at many beaches with brush, flowers and critters. Some were barren, like an albino version of the Sahara. When we drove further down we got out where some others were sledding. On top of a dune you could see just how disorienting it all can be with all that white. It would be easy to lose track of where you were and where the vehicle was. We warned the kids about this and to stick together.
Our first attempt was pretty much a disaster. I thought it was steep enough, and was wrong. It was like trying to sled in deep, fluffy snow. Was this going to be a major disaster? We moved to another dune that looked better and it was better. A little. A bit further up the dune it was better. One of the kids tried snowboarding and that went well. We were just about ready to give up, a bit disappointed when I saw it. a blue cube of wax. I waxed the bottom of the saucers and things went much better. All in all it was two thumbs up from the little people. Some pretty good memories, me thinks.
Back at the entrance we made a pit stop and polished off the last of the pizza. And we were off!
Our time in Las Cruces was interesting. We passed the intersection for I-25 and I wondered why. It may have brought us out a bit farther east on I-10, but it was all highway. We are about to enter a 35 mph zone with lots of lights. So we asked Siri who proceeded to take us around the block and put us back in the same direction. Exasperated, I just went with the flow cursing Siri under my breath. Eventually we were on I-10, westbound and down. On this trip it was The Force Awakens and another round of The Lego Batman Movie. There was a dialog between A. and the eldest about Siri’s time estimates. We made good time. Somehow we made it from White Sands all the way home in NW Tucson without making a stop for food or “rest”. Doing that with 4 kids is astounding although we thought one of them needed a potty break based on the stench wafting thru the van periodically. But home we were and all the pent up emotion emerged in a series of irrational tantrums. But we had a mostly good trek through New Mexico. The Hodyssey served us well. Now it was in serious need of a bath. And detailing. Yes, detailing (lots of gypsum from White Sands).
Cavs Adopt Blog 