About two weeks ago we stopped at a nice kite shop with the intention of buying a kite to take with us to White Sands before we left. However, the selection was limited and the prices were too steep for us amateurs. This week we found one elsewhere (in that “W” place I hate to go!) for less than 1/3 the price of the cheapest one at the nice shop and today we had an opportunity to try it out.
We drove over to White Sands after we returned from early worship and brunch. When we arrived the air was the stillest that I can ever recall at White Sands! We tried to get the kite to stay up anyhow but to no avail. So…. we just walked around the dunes a bit and then did some “beach reading” --- i.e. sitting on the sand with a good book or magazine. (Unfortunately we did not have the sound of the waves as background, though.) Eventually we realized that it was getting a bit breezy so we made another attempt with our beautiful butterfly kite. It launched with almost no encouragement and was soon soaring above the white dunes, tails waving. It brought back memories of our days flying kites at Yorktown Battlefield when our children were young. One big difference, however, was that we did not have to worry about trees or telephone poles today!
Reluctantly we pulled the kite back to earth after an extended period of running and frolicking with it. It was time to take in the sunset nature walk which had been cancelled on our last visit to White Sands. Twenty-five or thirty people gathered to join Joan, the park volunteer from Montana, on a guided tour of some of the areas between the dunes where there is vegetation. Joan and her husband, who are retirees, spend their winters volunteering at various national parks in warmer climates. This is her second year at White Sands. Our group included children and adults from Florida, Minnesota, South Dakota, and Texas and a young Chinese couple.
We learned a lot about the formation and continuing movement of these gypsum dunes and the plant an animal adaptations within the park. Roads have to be plowed with snowplows two or three times each week in order to keep them passable --- more frequently during the windy season.
Our tour ended just before sunset and we were left to enjoy the beauty of the gold, andpink reflected on the distant Sacramento Mountains as well as the brilliant red of the setting sun over the San Andres Mountains. It was a lovely ending to a lovely day at White Sands.
On our drive home we were able to listen to the Duke-Wake Forest game.
Since we will be leaving Las Cruces on Saturday we have reached the period of “final times” and “what’s left on our list?” Today was our final time for Sunday worship at St. Paul’s UMC and saying farewell to friends there. It was also our last Sunday brunch at Paisano’s where we had one last order of huevos rancheros, said good-by to Tony, our waiter, and ordered some potato and green chili soup to take home for supper.
Yesterday was our final time at the Mesilla Valley Farmer’s Market. We’ll miss the colorful atmosphere, the man who sells 7-8 different kinds of sprouts, Jan who introduced us to Swiss chard, the little boy who plays the same three chords on the guitar for hours (but is generously appreciated by the patrons!), the Johnny Floris Band playing lively Mexican tunes, running into people who went to school with “Danny” or who had been taught by his mother or aunt, and the many artisans whose wares we admired and thought about buying --- but decided that this year was not the year to do so.
Yesterday we also went to the NMSU Museum where we viewed a very interesting exhibit of Neanderthal skulls and another on the excavation of a Maya temple in the 1920s and 30s. Afterward we took in a movie, "Slumdog Millionaire", which won the Oscar for best picture tonight! Tomorrow we plan to go to the Gila Cliff Dwellings, which has been on our list from the beginning. It will be a long day but the weather is supposed to be nice and we are eager to see this part of the state.
No comments:
Post a Comment