May 7, 2010

Per Ray and Hannelore Heizer, "don't know if you have ever watched Lucy and Desi's wonderful movie, "The Long, Long Trailer," from the early 1950's, but this latest tale of yours is a near-perfect reproduction of an early scene in that movie....rent and watch it ASAP! ...be sure to have kleenex handy as you will laugh tears...;-)" GREAT ....can't wait :-P

Actually, we might be able to go one better. Our next stop was Lackland AFB but that's a whole other story for another day...or maybe not.

After Lackland, we headed towards El Paso. As we drove, Chuck started getting sporadic "check engine" lights. The Cummings Diesel folks found that the stainless steel covering on the high pressure oil hose had ruptured, spraying oil onto two separate air coolers - one for the air conditioning and transmission and the other for the engine. How the heck? It's all a long story but the bottom line is that we left 9 days later and $4,800.00 poorer. I filled much of the down time with a great page turner, "The 19th Wife," by David Ebershoff. This modern-day murder mystery was interspersed with historical information about the Mormon Church and Ann Eliza (Mrs. Brigham) Young.who became famous for her eventual campaign against polygamy. Marilyn - this might be a good book for your book club.

I also did a little antiquing and loved the SaddleBlanket (http://www.saddleblanket.com/). The owner is a bit of a character and was onsite. There is a sign outside the store advising visitors that well-behaved dogs are welcome at all times. Outside is a large trailer and sodded dog runs which serve as a showcase for abandoned dogs. Pamphlets announce that each Saturday one can shop and adopt. You gotta love someone who runs their business this way. I told Nicky that we need to have a dog party at the house when I'm home.

We finally headed towards White Sands Missile Range - where Chuck served a couple of years in the late 60's. The surrounding mountains are impressive - and provide a beautiful view from the front of the RV. Absolutely no crises here and we enjoyed an evening stroll/tour on the white dunes of White Sands Monument. This is the world's largest gypsum deposit, easily seen from space. There is a road into the park which then turns to a plowed gypsum road. It looks like snow and the kids bring their saucers to slide on. Interestingly, they purposefully did not pave a large part of the road because of the shifting dunes. The road, picnic tables and portable toilets all have to be moved periodically to stay ahead of the dunes.

I drove over to Holloman Air Force Base to see if I could find any records about balloons which were sent up or retrieved in 1947. After looking in vain for the Freedom of Information office, I drive back to the "Welcome Center" where I ask the slug behind the desk whether there is a map of the base. "Absolutely not," she responds, "we don't want anyone to know where everything is." I do understand the need for security but we've obtained basic maps at many bases (and I really think they ought to change the name of the center.) The FOIA people, on the other hand, were very friendly but inform me that one must request records online or by mail. They don't even have a form I can fill out or a computer they can consult for me. Right.

Chuck's been following a case in the East where the individuals claim to have been picked up in their car by a UFO and subsequently dropped. Interestingly, there is no damage to the exterior of the car - except to the bottom - and a broken windshield caused by the deployment of the air bags. We're hoping that the individuals involved will choose to undergo hypno-regression.

We're finally in Roswell, NM and will tell you about that in the next post.

Vicki and Chuck