Jim and Jill visit New Mexico!

Jim and Jill at White Sands National Monument

This post is for Jimmy and Jill, who visited recently, all too briefly.  Aside from just talking and laughing a lot, we showed them a little of our surroundings here in Doña Ana County --
where they'd last visited me in the early 1970's!   First day we took 'em out to White Sands. 

"Look, a hill in the sand!"

"It'd be fun to run to it and take a leap!"

"Yaaaayyyy!"

"Oops, I kinda thought it would be a lot softer than this!"

"And that maybe at least I'd slide further down the hill."

"Where's the damned tour director?  I want a refund."

Jim's a professional photographer, . . .

. . . so he started shooting, even though there was nothing there.

Nothing at all.  Nada.  Just sand

so Jim and Jill were reduced to photographing each other

and the movie star who wandered through

and the ominous skies.

Next stop, Mesilla, on the way to Chope's!

Our little band braves the shades of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett

But watch out for this brand-new horseless carriage!

Our hosts -- at least the folks whose home became the restaurant, and the folks who brought into the world kids and grandkids to run the place.   Thanks!.

The view from the back of the pickup truck.

An earlier post describes our drive down to Chope's. The next morning (before what had been fraudulently billed as a game between the Pittsbugh Steelers and the San Francisco 49ers) we figured that as long as our visitors had been reading this "Views from Soledad Canyon" blog, they ought to hike a little in Soledad Canyon this trip.

Soledad Canyon

Right up among the clouds

Not at all daunting to our intrepid band.

Visiting with an alien.

A painting of the aliens.

"No, I'm not hiking up there tomorrow!"