Today's Route

We left Willcox early in the day.  Today would prove to be a long boring drive for the most part.  The road seemed to be straight and flat.  We did not have too many mountains to cross.  We did however cross the Continental Divide.  We were at 4600 ft above sea level when we crossed.

We stayed on route 10 until Las Cruces where we turned onto State Route 70.  We were stopped by the Border Patrol but we got by with no problems. (Ha)  Everyone's car was stopped.  We passed by White Sands National Monument.  The sand really is white.  The valley from White Sands to almost Alamogordo is mainly military bases with missile launch areas and military plans flying over.

Alamogordo is a wide spot in the road.  Maybe 15,000 people, not sure.  From there to Ruidoso we started to climb into some mountains.  The scenery became very pretty with pine trees and forests.  Ruidoso is near skiing and camping and the area appears to be a wealthy area.

In Ruidoso we visited the Billy the Kid scenic byway museum.  It turned out to be a name only.  There was no real reference to Billy the Kid.  However, they did have many displays about the area and gave suggestions about what to do in the area.  Susan started buying her cook books here.  That will be a major thrust on this trip.  Cook Books.  Soon we were off again and into Roswell.  One of the main destinations of this trip.  

This is the first time we see the west part of town.  Susan thought it looked depressed, but I felt that it really wasn't that bad.  However, Roswell is going through some problems.  The news tonight was about 300 employees of the Furr's Supermarket being laid off.  Furr's had three large supermarkets in town and they all closed.  Not sure what happened yet, but now there is only one Albertson, and several smaller independent markets left.  It will be interesting to see how the town recovers.  I feel that another large company will probably come in.  With 50,000 people in Roswell and more people in the area, there must be a large market for a major supermarket.

Here we are very close to the state line       The rest stops in NM are very interesting.

Continental Divide Gift Shop.  Very much over priced, but interesting things to look at.

The road to Alamogordo.                            Just a picture of me with bronze sculptures.

These were on display in Ruidoso next to the Billy the Kid scenic highway museum.

Susan met Smokey the Bear.  Smokey and Susan are both the same age.  Smokey was first discovered in New Mexico after a large forest fire.

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