Day 12 - "Sleddin in the Rain"

I forgot to put the "Do Not Disturb" sign on the door so we were awakened early by the housekeeping staff trying to clean our room. Nothing like waking up abruptly to the sound of somebody trying to get in your hotel room!

After packing and preparing everyone for departure, I took a look out the window and to my horror, discovered it was pouring down rain. Obviously, this did not appear compatible with our plans to visit White Sands National Monument. Ever the diehards, we forged ahead anyway. It's about an hours drive from Las Cruces to the park. I stopped at the park's gift shop and purchased (later to be returned for partial credit as is the custom) two flying saucer type sleds complete with wax to make the bottom slicker. I asked the lady in the office if the rain would adversely affect our sledding and she said on the contrary, the rain actually packs the sand down and makes it faster. I got back in the car and instructed the boys to "wax up their sleds, we're going in". I drove to the far end of the park, about eight miles in, and the boys donned their swim trunks as it was still pouring down rain.

As we are Houstonians, we are unaccustomed to sledding and it took a while for the boys to figure it out. But, being the ever-resourceful boys they are, they soon conquered the hill and discovered how best to make the sleds work. Then, again being creative, they figured out ways to make the sleds go faster, jump higher, spin, and in general, anything that would make mom's heart skip a beat as they came screaming down the hill. They got going so fast they didn't stop at the bottom of the hill and went 15 or 20 feet into the flooded packed-sand parking area at the base. After about 30 minutes of sledding, the rain stopped and it cooled off into the 60s, a very nice break from the heat I was expecting.

Once it cleared up, mom, Tate, & even Abby made their way out of the car to climb the dunes and Tate even went down the hill a few times.

After a quick stop by the gift shop to return our sleds and pick up some t-shirts for the kids, we made way for Carlsbad. It was a beautiful drive through Alamogordo and Cloudcroft up over the mountains. I think we achieved our highest elevation of the trip today at around 8,600 feet.

We're saddened by the realization that our trip is coming to an end. Even with all the hotel rooms, moving around, and long drives, we have had a fantastic time and wish it could last longer. We're already talking about where we want to go next. Suggestions are welcome on the comments page.....

Enjoy the pics!

I was so glad to finally pay less than $4/gallon for gas I had to take this picture. We're getting closer to Texas.

Jennifer and the kids at the Visitor's Center. Jennifer's parents have almost this identical picture from their visit to White Sands roughly 25 years ago.

Braden heading down the hill.

Dawson about to embark.

Of course, no event would be complete unless they turned it into a competition.

The boys and I on top of the dunes. White Sands encompasses approximately 285 square miles, or around 185,000 acres. The view was magnificent from the back of the park with the cloud covered mountains in the distance. The sand is so white I almost needed sunglasses, even on an overcast day.

Abby & I made it up the dune as well.

It did not take the boys long to figure out if you pile up sand in the middle of the run you can "catch air" on the way down. You should have seen some of the wipe-outs they had.

The boys!Jennifer, the boys, & I. Abby is taking the picture. Just kidding, she fell asleep in the car. We met a fellow longhorn on a 10-day father/son road trip who took the picture.Tate heading down the hill. Contrary to the tentative look on his face, he had a blast. I thought I made a fatal parenting error when he hit Dawson's hill and flew about 2 feet into the air. But, he was hanging on tight and landed right side up and continued down the hill. He had to go down several more times after this. Apparently, his light weight contributed to his ability to get higher off the jumps.Jenn & Abby after she woke up.

Heading out of Cloudcroft we ran smack dab into a monster thunderstorm. This was the rainbow we saw as we approached the bad weather.

It's hard to read, but this is a picture of the trip odometer on the car. We hit 3,000 miles today. We'll have around 3,700 by the time we get back to Kingwood.