White Sands National Monument - Winter in Summer Part Two
Last we met I was traveling down the road in White Sands National Monument and I was not particularly impressed. I think the issue was that while the color of the sand had changed, the vegetation was pretty much the same. Slowly that changed. Less, and less vegetation; whiter and whiter sands. The sun was not quite setting yet, but it was low in the sky and the clouds were moving at a brisk enough pace to be noticeable. I was traveling on a paved road, but sand was washing across it. Then there was a sign that said the paved road was ending. Here were instructions for driving on sand. Hmmm... OK. I did just get this car that is super duper off road rated, right? Made for driving in not normal conditions, right? Hey, there is even a “sand” setting, right. So as I approach the unsaved part I am figuring I better switch the car into the sand mode. I get on the sand and switch the car. I start to go and the car is t r u d g i n g f o r w a r d. Yeah, no. This was not the right setting for this. I set the car back to normal and started forward. I was so intent on worrying about the car setting that I didn’t realize that there was no vegetation... and the dunes all around me were ALL white. And the cloud cover had moved in... and the clouds were all white. The road was packed with white sand... and the road was all white. The sun was starting to set for real now and out towards the horizon was some low blue sky and a setting sun. Where was I? I felt like I had suddenly be transported to the North Pole. As I kept driving all I could see was white. Visibility got harder as the sands blew but I could see a few other headlights. The park was pretty much empty.
At a huge dune, there were a couple cars parked and I parked at the end away from the rest. I got out and I expected it to be freezing cold. My body was telling me that I was in the middle of a snow storm and it had to be cold. But it was 90 degrees outside! I put my foot down where I was parked and it was packed hard as rock. No wonder I didn’t need a special mode to drive on it. I took off my flip flop and put my foot down in the sand. It was soft and fine like a freshly fallen snow, but it was warm. Interestingly, it wasn’t warm warm. It was decidedly cooler than you would expect. All my senses were knocked for a loop. Where am I?
I climbed the dune, which was not easy. It was steep and it was super fine snow... I mean sand. But I did it. At the top, the feeling was magnified because now I had a wider view. For as far as I could see, it was white and those could hovering magnified the effect; and the sun setting cast a strange color over everything. There was no way this could be any more wonderful than right now. I felt like everything came together to make this perfect. I just stared around me. I even said a little prayer expressing my gratitude for getting to see this incredible sight. I hope the pictures do it justice and let you feel the intensity that I felt. Some are driving out when it was even darker and the effect was magnified. I found myself driving really slowly; I think I was afraid of skidding! Haha!
Skipping around in time a bit... I came back the next day. I was talking to two guys online and it wound up they were going to White Sands too. When I pulled into the parking lot I got a message from them that they were there. I went on down the road and caught up to the cars ahead and there was a camper ahead of the car in front of me and it had bikes on the back... it was them for sure. Not wanting to text, I just followed them. We chatted for a bit and climbed up the dunes. It was amazing and wonderful, though nothing like the day before. This felt like when you had a snow day at school and got to go to the big hill and go sledding. And guess what... the guy at the campground had lent me just that... a sled! That was certainly an experience. I actually loved my line (unrehearsed, I swear)... you have to keep moving forward until gravity outweighs friction. What the handsome TWO men did not realize was that I problably weighed more than both of them, so friction was having a heyday... but I got mine! Having others there meant I could get a good video without trying to set up my tripod... YAY!!! That was just amazing! Well there is not much more to say about White Sand National Monument... the pictures will speak volumes. But go! Go! GO!
This is virtually the same shot as the night before. The sunset really did an amazing job of changing this gorgeous landscape into a mind-blowing one.
Back to the plumbing and such... I bought all the supplies, but then I hightailed it out to the White Sands. So the next morning, I went to the office to see if my friend was still there but was told that he was off on vacation for a few weeks. OK Steven... you are on your own. Well folks, I did it. I sawed off the existing pipe in two places. I welded together the pieces to make up the elbow and I had a sleeve patch to weld that to the existing pipe. I figured out how to cut the existing pipe. I figured out how to smooth the cut edges when I had no proper tool to do so (concrete tables are really good ABS pipe filers). I figured out what order to assemble everything so I needed a minimum of movement from the last welded pieces. And it worked!! I did an amazingly neat job on the part under the room slide. The part under the sink required me to remove three drawers to access the area and I had to kind of reach in sideways and work blind. I was careful and I test fit everything before I applied the chemical weld, and it worked! But I do have to admit that it was a really slopping looking patch... but it worked!
The steps never started working. I went to Harbor Freight (told you there were a ton of Big Box stores). I picked up a stool that at least made the drop not so bad. It was helpful for all but the first and last times since I didn’t want to attach a rope to pull up the stool when I was moving on... haha! That would have been kind of funny... like when you have a tree house and pull up the ladder.
I did have a good adventure at the local food store. I was tired and decided not to go back to White Sands for the Ranger’s sunset walk. I was toured out. I was tired. I needed to feel normal for just a bit. So I did one of my favorite normal activities - I walked the supermarket aisle by aisle. It was a really nice market too. I never heard of Lowe’s Supermarkets but it was beautiful. The wine and liquor section was huge and looked like an old English library.... Noteworthy indeed in the middle of Alamagordo and the Big Box stores. I went outside and it was POURING rain. So I had made a good decision every which way you looked at it. I went back and chilled, ready to move on to Albuquerque the next day.
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