So Fast and yet So Slow

Stan and I just had a wonderful week in Las Cruces,NM. Really, I think this was one of my best fits so far. We stayed in a great mom and pop rv park, right on the edge of Old Town Mesilla. We could walk or bike to everything. A good coffee house, a good Mexican restaurant, good company, what more could you ask for??? They grow pecans and pistachios here and we just happened to hit harvest season for the pecans. While riding bikes through the orchards we came across the harvest. Quite a sight, seeing the machine shaking the tree and having it rain pecans all over the place, then seeing the next machine come along and make them all into wind rows, then the next one come along and seperate the nuts from the leaves and branches. Needless to say, I found a ranch that sold all kinds of pecan products and had a major tasting session.

The beginning and end of our week had to do with very different types of air travel. At the beginning of the week, Stan and I went to White Sands National Monument. It's a fantastic sight. Acres of white sand dunes that you can walk through and easily get lost if not for the orange tipped markers that have to be moved frequently, due to the shifting sands. Pure white sand and deep blue skies...... so beautiful. Anyway, to get there you go through White Sands Missile Range. So we're toolinng down the highway when we came to a blockade and find that the road is closed for the next half hour. Why? They're testing some rockets about a quarter mile to the side of the road. We lined up with all the other cars and semis and got out our binoculars and watched while they fired off these rockets, three in a row!! I've never seen some thing move so quickly. It felt really strange to be able to witness that from such a close vantage point. Then we all got in our cars and left.

The last day we were there was the balloon festival. We got up and went out to this field on the north end of town. It was a very cold early morning, but there was a major balloom setup going on. We were able to walk around and watch all the balloons get laid out and set up. I couldn't believe how we could just walk up and put our hands on the baskets and be right on top of things. There must have been a hundred balloons there. It's incredible to watch them fill up with air and start to stand up and take shape, all crowded together. The colors were absolutely brilliant! They started taking off within about 10 seconds of each other, just drifting up into the sky and out over Las Cruces. As we were driving back to the park, Stan and I saw a balloon set down in a restaurant parking lot, change passengers and take off again.

So fast and yet so slow.....