12/7/12:

This week we drove a lot and did some cool stuff too.  On Saturday we went to the White Sands Missile Range.  On the Army base they have a museum with a missile park displaying most of the missiles that were developed by our military in the 50s, 60s and 70s.  One, (AIM-9) I even remembered from my days working in the Hughes Aircraft Radar Systems Group.  Then we went to the White Sands National Monument.  It is almost 300 square miles of very fine gypsum sand.  It looks like a scene from Star Wars.  Okie enjoyed running on it.  Sunday we enjoyed church meetings at a Las Cruces ward.  Then on Monday we headed out for Carlsbad, New Mexico.  We made a stop in El Paso, Texas, to have lunch with Theresa’s sister-in-law, Ginger, and son Grant.  Theresa’s brother was at work; he’s stationed at Ft. Bliss, and their daughter was at school.  But it was fun to visit part of the family.

We spent most of Tuesday underground.  Carlsbad Caverns National Park is an enormous cavern, and we only saw parts of it.  We did the self-guided tour, then a ranger led tour to a deeper part of the caverns.  It’s not quite as colorful as Kartchner Caverns, but the size of it is colossal. 

Also enormous are the miles and miles of boring sagebrush that comprise west Texas.  We spent Wednesday and Thursday driving east with an overnight at an RV park by I-10 in the middle of nowhere (Ozona, TX).  By Thursday afternoon we arrived in the Texas hill country town of Fredericksburg.  It is a very charming town that was settled by German immigrants in the mid-1800s.  The old buildings now house many shops and restaurants. (More below.)

White Sands Missile Park

Chuck and Okie on the sand

White Sands National Monument

Carlsbad Caverns

Carlsbad

National Museum of the Pacific War

Fredericksburg, TX

Christmas Parade

The reason we had chosen to stop in Fredericksburg is because we’d read about the Museum of the Pacific War that is there.  I think it is the finest museum I’ve ever visited, including the Smithsonian.  The whole background, battles, and related topics about that part of WWII were superbly displayed.  And by our own dumb luck, we were there for the commemoration of Pearl Harbor Day, 71 years ago.  They had a program that included a warbird fly-over and honored four Pearl Harbor survivors that were present. It was stirring to see them; there are very few of them left now.  The evening was finished off with some Texas barbeque and a town Christmas parade that had everything from decorated tractors, horses, and pickups towing floats from every organization and business in town.  Great Fun!  Tomorrow we’re off to San Antonio.