4/24 - To Las Cruzes, NM

Friday, April 24– We hung around with Jake during the morning. My new Id got sent to Biloxi, and arrived after I left so now it was coming here to Las Cruzes. We waited around until the mail came at 1pm. It was there! I got my ID back!!

Back on the highway towards Arizona, we drove for a good hour through some very bleak, dusty and hot land. Taking an exit to nowhere, we headed 20 miles south. We put a packet made of tin foil and filled with chopped potatoes, onions, salt, pepper and butter on the engine and then continued west on a small highway towards the national forest just over the boarder.

A cop appear ahead and turned on his lights as he passed us. I checked my lights and seatbelt and couldn't figure out why. 3 minutes later he was turned around and had us pulled over. Apparently it went from a 70 MPH speed limit as we were headed south to 55 when we turned west. Seeing we were from out of town and were not harboring any illegals, he was very nice and let us go with just a warning.

Giddy from our escape without fines, we headed up a gravel road, past the town of Portal and into the  Coronado national forest. We went around a bend and suddenly we were in a very different world. Towering cliffs, exposed orange rock and thick forests started passing us by. We went by a couple pay campgrounds; very nice but we didn't have the budget to pay for it tonight. Checking on the potatoes cooking under the hood, they were tasty but still crunchy

Higher and higher on the twisty dirt road we went. We checked a couple possible sites but there was always something wrong with the site; no camping signs, taken, too exposed to the road, trail in too bad. Finally we drove by a campsite and knew we had a winner. It was flat and covered in trees. A creek was running nearby as well and we could later hear the water as we fell asleep.

We took a little walk and checked out the views of the surrounding mountains and then collected some firewood. The potatoes were hot and the onions done, but we still ate a pretty crunchy dinner. This was the first bonfire that Tyne and I had had together and we were really enjoying the night. It was clear and cool and with the babbling brook and heavy tree cover, I felt like I was in another, more temperate state.

---

Hotmail® has a new way to see what's up with your friends. Check it out.