MUSEUM OF SPACE HISTORY



Space Station

 

Experimental Aircraft



G Suit



Trinity Site



A memorial for all the fallen astronauts



   

 

 

Surface to Air Missile











We didn't realized that New Mexio was at the center of space exploration!  But with White Sands Proving Grounds nearby we should have figured it out, I guess.  Anyway, they have an amazing space museum in Alamogordo.  There are four floors of different exhibits concerning space exploration along with numerous outdoors displays also.  Thru out the museum they have an International Space Hall of Fame honoring prominent people starting with Galileo up to the present day.

 

Rocket



WHITE SANDS NATIONAL MONUMENT NEW MEXICO

Like waves of the Sea

       275 Miles of nothing but gypsum sand

Not too much can grow in this environment

 Most of the animals that live in and around the dunes have adapted to the  harsh environment and have evolved white colorations to camouflage them in the white sands.  The dunes are constantly moving.  Which makes it extremely  hard for plants to grow fast enough to survive burial by the shifting sand.  Some of the dunes can move 30 miles in a year.  We were surprised, the sand was quite moist.  It is very beautiful and white.

The Dodges in the afternoon sunlight looking out over the great expanse

 You could even buy or rent a plastic dish to slide down some of the dunes in certain areas of the park.  They have some walking trails thru the dunes, but I would be afraid that you could get lost very easily.  They also had a very informative movie explaining how the white sands came about.  Another example of God's miracles.

A NIGHT TO REMEMBER!!

                                         WE SPENT A NIGHT IN ROSWELL NEW MEXICO

SCARY!!!

The scariest thing that has happened on our trip, happened in Roswell.  We had spent a long and wonderful day at Carlsbad Caverns.  We were hot, tired and hungry and trying to find the RV Park in Roswell were we had reservations for the night.  It was getting dark and per our GPS we were just about to our destination.  When what to our wandering eyes would appear...a railroad crossing!!  Now we have passed over many railroad crossing on our trip, but this was a special one unbeknownst to us.  The jolt from crossing the uneven tracks broke the padlock holding one arm of the tow bar connecting the dingy (Jeep) to the motor home.  Thank goodness for the rear view screen, we were able to see something definitely wrong in back.  The one arm of the tow bar was dragging on the pavement.  But we were able to disconnect the other arm and I drove the Jeep to the RV Park.  We had several nice people stop and offer to help us.  No harm done, except for a broken padlock, probably laying back on the tracks.  Thank you Heavenly Father.  Prayers are answered.

Well that little episode put a damper on our Roswell experience.  We decided not to hang around to go to the UFO Museum or drive over to Area 51.  Our orginial plan was to continue to drive around 200 miles North to Albuquerque.  We wanted to attend the Temple there and visit some old friends from the Parkland Ward, Duane and Louise Thompson.  We called them, and they were both suffering from the flu, which we did not want to share, plus they were predicting snow and freezing weather for Roswell North.  So we decided to high tail it out of town as quickly as possible and head South over a range of mountains to Holloman Air Force Base near Alamogordo, New Mexico.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS

THE MITES GO UP AND THE TITES COME DOWN
 All because of some bats... the caverns were discovered by a curious 15 year old boy, named Jim White in the late 1800s.  In the summer hundreds of thousands of Mexican bats call the caverns home.  They come to have their babies.  Each summer evening the adults stream out of the natural opening to feed on insects.  It's like a big black cloud, which caught the attention of the boy.  He thought it was a fire, and came over to investigate. Of course we didn't get to see the bats, they spend the winter down in Mexico.  It's quite a sight, they say.  That will have to wait for another day!!  Scratch one off the bucket list, add a new one to the list!! : )

Draperies

We traveled down 750 feet in an elevator.  Thank goodness.  Then went on an addition guided tour that went nearly 100 additional feet down.  It was amazing, how huge some of the areas were inside.  When the stalactites and stalagmites meet it forms a column.  Draperies were hung where water ran down a slanted ceiling.  Popcorn formed when water evaporated and left behind calcite.

Columns

Popcorn

Soda straws

 

The park ranger with light and without light

The caverns are pretty well dead.  Meaning the formations have stopped growing.  There was only one active formation.  But for the most part the cave is very dry, although there are some small pools of water.  We only encountered a few drips!!  The main tour around the big room is about 1 mile, but then we took an additional tour with a park guide to the kings palace and queens chamber which was another mile.  The temperature stays an even 56 degrees year around.  At one point the guide turned off all the lights.  You could not see the hand in front of your face.  I can't imagine Jim White as a young boy exploring the cave by himself with a coffee pot with oil and a rope for the wick to provide light.  He was very disappointed when the cave was wired with electricity.  He thought it was much more beautiful without the lighting.  He spent most of his life exploring the cave and working to preserve it.  The guide told us about the few living organisms in the cave.  Most are very tiny and a person just walking thru would never see any.

This is the one active formation.  I'm not sure, but I think this is the one they call the Christmas tree.  It looked like one to me.  It kinda glowed in the light because it was wet.  Very beautiful.

One little story that the ranger told us about some living creatures in the caverns just reaffirms to me that this world had to be created by a Supreme Being!  Some of the pools have little almost microscopic worms.  They lay their eggs on the sides of the pools.  Now when the cricket comes to drink, it ingests some of those larva.  The cricket is a fine host for the worm, it lives and grows dining on the organs of the cricket.  When it is ready to "hatch" it produces a chemical that goes to the brain of the cricket and makes him thirsty.  So of course the cricket goes back to the pool and deposits the worm in the water where he can flourish to start the cycle over again.  There is a God and He is in charge!!  Thank goodness!! 

SOUTH TEXAS BOTANICAL GARDENS & NATURE CENTER

 A talking cockatoo, a LARGE iguana that they had to bring in doors because of the cold.  He wasn't too happy in such a small cage.  Several large snakes, parrots, and other birds.

 Lots of pretty orchids.  No butterflies, wrong time of the year.  They are all down in Key West, I guess.  Don't blame them.  I wish we were back there too.

 

Lots of wild life!   And itiy bitty oranges!

                                          Lots of paths out in the natural landscape.

 

 Well all good things must end.  We needed to say good-bye to Corpus Christi.  More cold weather coming!

            

ARANSAS PASS

                                              CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS

One day when the weather wasn't too great, we decided to take a drive thru Corpus Christi, thru Aransas Pass onto Padre Island and then back to the main land.  I think it was about a 40 mile drive.  Little did we know to get from the mainland to the North end of Padre Island you have to take a ferry thru Aransas Pass.  We had no idea! 

 

It was too cold to get out of the car and take pictures.  But they had four ferries, two going each way.  They said it would not be over a 15 minute wait.  We drove right on.  But I bet around Spring Break, they will be alot busier!  It only took about 7 minutes  to cross.  Not sure why they don't build a bridge.  They have a nice big bridge down at the main road to the Island.   The crossing is much longer there also.  The ferry is free, it's just part of the State Highway.


We went to a different beach to see if we could find any shells.  No luck!  As you can see, the beach was pretty much deserted.  Don't understand why!

CORPUS CHRISTI TEXAS

 

 

We came down here to Corpus Christi to find some sunshine and warmer weather!  Guess what?  It's not too much warmer down here.  It got down to freezing or near freezing two different nights.  We didn't realize Padre Island was so long.  It is actually 70 miles long.  We always thought "our" Long Beach was the longest drivable beach in the US.  We drove down to the end of the paved road, but you could continue on the beach for another 60 miles.  You need a four wheel drive vehicle in places, plus you have to be aware of the tides and weather!  According to one of the park rangers there are some good fishing and shelling spots.  We found very few shells at the several spots we checked.  Actually we found many more nice shells on the other side of the Gulf near Tampa.