March 4, 2013 Alamogordo, New Mexico

We are heading west. It was a windy day, 30-40 mph winds, lots of dust. The bus was rocking. It was in the 80’s.

A statue of cows and cowboys in Artesia, New Mexico. Behind the station is an oil refinery. They have artesian wells so there is lots of agriculture and lots of oil, s oil wells. Main street Artesia- they have fruit trees blooming. 

Hope, NM. We passed a rest stop right before Hope, 2 picnic tables, no grass, no trees, no bathroom. This brown building to the right has a sign- Craft Shop-free restrooms. Good marketing. We started up into the mountains and saw ponderosa for  the first time in along time.

Then, GASP, snow and firs and spruce. Then a ski area, Cloudcroft. They have had a bad year, not much snow and too warm to make snow. They are closed now.

It is straight downhill from Cloudcroft to Alamogordo. The wind was whipping the dust , wiped out the view of the valley.

The white sands were blowing past us. We passed this pistachio tree place with a giant pistachio out front. Lots of pecan and pistachio orchards in this area.

We are staying tonight at a harvest host winery. Tularosa vineyards. The vines are still dormant, and dusty today.  In the tasting room, Jack, Chris, John and David. David owns the winery. Jack is the bartender for tastings.

In the evening the wind died down,everyone but us left, the sand dropped out of the air and the colors  wonderful.

We are parked in the pistachio orchard, and there are pecan trees in front of the winery, I picked up two bags of pecans.