The glorious state of New Mexico has shown us amazing beauty in just one week... In the past 6 days we have climbed various mountain passes including Guadelupe Mountain, the highest peak in Texas. The stalactites and stalagmites of Carlsbad Caverns enchanted us and took us to another world hundreds of feet beneath earth's surface. We stayed with Diane, an Apache woman (who made us the best pancakes ever), and climbed up to 8,800 ft elevation, to Cloudcroft, which greeted us with snow on the ground!! We camped in the bike shop owner's yard in the 30 degree night, careful to drink all of our beer lest it explode in the night. The next morning a maddening and amazing 16 mile descent took us to the dunes of White Sands National Monument, which is like pure white beach dunes with no ocean!
White Sands brought us our first real "misadventure" of the trip: getting lost in the desert- at night. Very scary and very cold... After wandering around for almost an hour where everything looks exactly the same, i panicked for a second, and we gave one last desperate shout of "Hellooooo?!" out into the deadly-still air, which we had no hope of being heard. But just then someone did answer. hot damn! We walk towards the voice only to meet a professional fire-breather and his wife, illegally camping in the parking lot. They helped us re-orient ourselves, and we navigate back to our campsite. The temperature was plummeting, and Emerson was only wearing his cycling clothes, so the man lent him an XL knee-length white faux-fur coat that fit him perfectly! Navigating the desert with this pimpin' style made the experience that much more surreal.
After that harrowing experience, everything in life is that much sweeter, especially the beer we had stashed at camp: the "Happy Camper IPA" made by the Santa Fe Brewing Company, complete with a New Mexico flag on the can. Oh Yeah.
Thanksgiving night we are in Las Cruces, NM, staying with some folks we met at a campground in Texas, Lorenzo and Anna. Actually, we just met Lorenzo. And they have opened their home to us in the most amazing way; they left a key out for us and dinner in the oven, wine on the counter. They are in El Paso celebrating with Lorenzo's family, and Anna made us coconut soup, chicken, and potatoes... So we just ate a Thanksgiving feast that a woman we have yet to meet made for us. Wow.
We are constantly impressed and amazed by the genuine generosity of the people of this country...
We're headed up to the highest pass of our trip, emory pass, then to the Gila hot springs. The next few days promise 20 degree nights with chilly days but ZERO percent chance of rain! :)
Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving, we sure did.
faux fur, foxes, and fire breathing to you,
Hollie and Emerson
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