White Sands NP!
We are at Holloman Air Force base in Alamogordo NM for a 3-day stay. My dad and mom actually lived here for 6 months right before she had me. My mom’s favorite place there while pregnant with me was an ice cream place called Caliche’s. It isn’t actually ice cream but frozen custard and it was delicious! I got a flavor called Cookie Monster with blue vanilla ice cream and cookie dough and Oreo pieces inside. It was probably the best custard I’ve ever had, and I’ll give it an 8.1 out of 10, not bad!
Very close to the Air Force base is a national park by the name of White Sands. The endless sand stretches on for miles, ending right on a mountain range. One of the cool things to do here is sand sledding down the dunes. We went and rented our gear at the gift shop, including boards and wax to make us slide faster! Then we drove out to the “slopes,” waxed up our boards and found a track in the sand from someone else. That allowed us to immediately slide down. It wasn’t as good as snow, not even close but still unique experience to be able to sled in the hot desert rather than the cold mountains. What was also interesting is that even in really hot days the sand doesn’t get super hot like at the beach. The sand is actually cool to the touch.
We also stopped at a tourist trap called Pistachioland. It has the world’s largest statue of a Pistachio outside. We got pictures and got to sample some of the pistachios they had for sale.
Im starting to get excited about settling back in Pennsylvania but also excited about the rest of the trip. I have a feeling some of our upcoming National parks are going to be really awesome.
Next stop is some 1 night stay at some Harvest Hosts as we make of way to Arizona and farther west!
Current leg: 128 Miles
Total miles: 6924 Miles