New Mexico to Arizona

These are flowers from the KOA campground we stayed at in New Mexico

The previous post ended with the Welcome to New Mexico sign.  This is the first picture I took of NM. The sign was a mistake, but look at the background.  Totally different from where we were just a day before in Texas.  No trees here.  Hills.  Red dirt.

Well, this next picture had no hills, but the terrain is quite different.

So many entrances to the ranches had cool signs.  

The long and windy road.

Pistachios!

Wine!

And Wonder Woman

Hello, I’d like to trade in my Corona......

We stayed a night at the White Sands/Alamogordo KOA.  5 stars from me!

We have seen these bushes in most RV parks we stay at.  They must be easy to grow.  However, they don’t bloom in the winter months, so I was happy to see this park had bushes in 3 colors.  I looked up this bush on my identify plant app.  It is an oleander.  It is highly toxic.  Keep small children and pets away.  Who knew?

Here is a pink version.

 I didn’t put in pics of the dog run, but it was very nice, too.  It is all shaded with wood chips to walk on.  Two human benches, doggie bags and trash, and water bowl with faucet.

I’m not sure if this is a finch or yellow tanager.  

This is a bird-of-paradise bush.  Isn’t it amazing?  It deserved 3 pictures.  

In front of the office was a huge prickly pear.  I would say it was the size of two of my Priuses.  

Same plant, I moved to the side where the sun was angled differently.

These plants were labeled.  

I took so many pictures of this blooming ocotillo because I was soooooo excited to see one blooming.

I discovered carpenter bees.  They are huge!  All black and about one inch in size.  They are a honey bee.

And, dream come true, hummingbirds.

Here is a white oleander blooming

Beautiful Mountain View

This is the picnic bench at our site, with a fire pit.  On the fence is an electric light.

Here is a patio at the spot I call the Honey Moon Suite.  Lol.  Swinging bench, gas grill, two electric lights, fire pit

And this is the table top.

The next day we headed for Arizona.  The road went past White Sands.  You can see them in the distance.  You can also see our windshield where many insects met their demise.

BIG missile range area.  Alamogordo also had a space history museum that we’d like to go back to see.

Closed visitor’s center.

The edge of the white sands.  There were also some cactus blooming with big red flowers that I couldn’t get any good pictures of.  

The white sands area is HUGE.  

Wee those mountains?  There is a pass just to the right of the picture we went over.

No people, no buildings.  The pass was just a few miles....

A roadside rest area on the other side of the road.

One mile later.....BOOM!  Metropolis!  Houses everywhere!  Shocking!  After days of little towns.

But cool paintings on these water holders.

Thinking of home.....

Roadrunner statue at a rest stop.

And welcome to Arizona.  I should have cropped this picture to make the sign bigger.

I think I’ll end here.  Hopefully we’ll get out and get pics of blooming cactus tomorrow.  Right now the shrimp fettuccine is ready.  Thanks, Richard!