I’ve just returned from another week in the desert. It seems like longer than 13 months since I was there last.
There were all the same problems as last time (bad food and water, too much corporate chaos to truly take a full vacation, reminders of childhood that are sometimes challenging). But there were also some really powerful things that struck me this visit: the silence of the desert, the number of stars, the sheer space and emptiness.
We drove over to Roswell for a day trip. It’s a beautiful drive and, at the kid’s request, we stopped at every mission, chapel, and graveyard we passed. Nothing like a NM RC graveyard. Those people know their ancestor worship.
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| Our Lady of Guadalupe, Bent NM
And here’s a great photo before they added the ramp and railing |
If you have the chance, visit the International UFO Museum… especially if you like to read old news clippings (lots of old news clippings). Of course, I have it on good authority that it was not a weather balloon and “those bodies I saw weren’t manikins.” So for me there isn’t a lot of mystery. This is what comes from having a family history in the area.
We also went out at night to view the Perseid meteors, which… well you couldn’t pick a better place.
Sure, it was still hot and dry and my parents house feels like a nice hotel in a 3rd world country, but it was also a very different experience. Funny how two visits to the same place can be so different. The only thing that’s changed is myself.
