After a late-night, tearful goodbye to our family in El Paso (the little girls cried all the way home last night for their 20 minute ride), we left and and headed north. We decided to take a slight detour to drive through White Sands National Monument in New Mexico. It was well worth the drive with incredible scenery and the white, gypsum sand dunes were impressive. It was also impressive that the monument lies within the White Sands Missile Range. We were very grateful to have successfully dodged the many missiles that appeared out of nowhere and landed just behind or beside us. Not really, but they do normally close the monument and main highway across the range whenever there’s an active test. Apparently, there were tests the past two days, but the closures only lasted about an hour.
Not far from the sands was a lovely pistachio farm. We stopped at their little store just because, and we ended up with a small bag of nuts and some more good photos. The pistachio monument is the largest pistachio in the world according to the owners of the farm and store. I guess they would know. I paid $2.50 for an 8 oz bag of pistachios which seems outrageous, since after all, they DO grow on trees, you know.
FWIW: Since leaving our home about 10 days ago, we’ve driven about 1,950 miles. Also, I believe the entire state budget for New Mexico is dependent upon traffic speeding tickets. Thankfully, I revert back to my grandpa style of driving while in the USA and navigated more speed traps than I’ve ever seen in my life with no need for anxiety. Unfortunately, I got the bright idea of using the “snow” setting for all but one of my White Sands photos. This tinted all those photos yellow, so even with some enhancement, they don’t look as good as they should have. Bummer.
Dayton doesn’t appear in the White Sands photos b/c he fell into a deep sleep in the car. We left it running for the A/C to keep him cool. Apparently, he awoke to find himself in a running car, no one in it but him, and surrounded by nothing but whiteness. He didn’t freak out, but I think I would have! “Hello…welcome to heaven”…well…maybe for cats.
Knowing Your ABCDs 
You are not kidding, it was a tearful drive all the way home…and not only by Maria. We are glad you all came out to visit and will hope the next is not too far away. We love you.
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