The Great Roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico.

The guy above is a sculpture, but we've seen quite a few Roadrunners running around.  This is our third night in this beautiful state. The mountains fascinate me. Each time you look, the same mountain looks different,  depending on how the sun hits it, the time of day, clouds, shadows, smoke and today even some dust storms.

10 days to get from Ottumwa, IA to Tucson. AZ, averaging 200 miles a day.  We're ready to be there tomorrow. We enlisted Roadside America to help us find some unusual things to see on the way.

 

Lordsburg, NM KOA. It's HOT here. 

Between Deming and Lordsburg, NM we crossed the Continental Divide at 4585 feet elevation.

Reminded me of Wall Drug.

Border Patrol check point. Everyone had to stop. 

Looks like clouds but it's mountains.

Last time we were here we went sledding on the sand.

White Sands National Monument became a National Park in 2019. When we were there in 1921 they hadn't changed the main sign yet.  Of course the signs leading up to it still say "Monument."

Scrap metal roadrunner.

Sunday night was spent in Alamagordo, NM. Stopped at Pistacioland (also there in 2021) for samples and stayed at Lawhorn RV Park, a small, quiet park.

Unripe pistachios

The owner of the RV park enjoyed showing Pat the fruit trees and this beautiful aguave plant

Across between a peach and an apricot but it was more like a fig she said. 

Peach tree

Carrizozo lava field

We crossed Historic Route several times but we only drove in it in a couple of towns.

Friday night was a wet one at Santa Rosa Campground in Santa Rosa, NM,  with a considerable amount of pea-sized hail.

One of the most popular scuba diving and scuba diving training spots in the U.S.

In 1976 two people died exploring the underwater caves and they sealed the caves. 40 years later they unsealed it for two professional divers. One died and they revealed the caves.

A lake next to the Blue Hole offered a lot of fun activities.

Where are the Piepers now? Lordsburg, NM