Views from the Presidential Suite: Tularosa and White Sands,New Mexico

Tularosa is located in South Central New Mexico. After driving for about 4 hours through the desert from Albuquerque I thought there was little to see. Initially, I was correct. Once we started exploring, I began to see if you look hard enough you can find a lot of interesting things.

Across from the RV park, we discovered a pistachio farm with a giant statue of a pistachio out front. It had a store that sold all types of pistachios: lemon, chocolate, chili-spiced...you name it! After leaving the store we drove up into the mountains and explored a small artist's town called Ruidoso and another tiny town called Cloudcroft. Cloudcroft is at 9,000 ft altitude and 20 degrees cooler than Tularosa which is only 16 miles away. It has a small, several block western town with wooden sidewalks, cute shops, restaurants and bakeries. Although it was probably created for tourists, I had a lot of fun exploring the different shops. We ate lunch at a diner called Big Daddy's which had southern and great Mexican food.

White Sands is a National Monument located in Alamogordo, next to the White Sands Missile Range. It is comprised of 275 miles of gypsum, white dunes. I was there in my mid 20's when I visited my sister and her family who were living in El Paso, TX. You can walk and run down the dunes and even rent sleds to slide down them. Everything is pure white, with the exception of some desert plants that are able to grown in the dunes. It almost looks like a recent snowfall. The roads must be cleared each day with a snow plow since the dunes shift according to the wind. We stayed to watch the sunset over the dunes and the mountains that surround them.