Clovis, New Mexico, 61 degrees F

The land appears flat and featureless as far as the eye can see. The road stretches as straight and empty ahead of us as it does in our rear view mirror, a line connecting two points from horizon to horizon. It makes the sky look huge, ocular, and crystal blue, with only a few filmy clouds lying to the north and south parallel to the ground to make the sky look even more wide. Although the land appears to be flat, it actually rolls gently, and jumps up to meet the huge domed sky, forming a bowl of sandy yellow land that looks smaller than more places despite its desperate isolation.

Roswell

For no reason in particular, I was very excited to have one of our stops in Roswell, New Mexico. I an not a believer in aliens or anything, but I am amused by the hype. There is also an artist residency program there, so I wanted to see the town.
One thing I was struck by: it is the only town I have seen with a prosperous downtown center of small businesses, AND a number of big box stores, including a super Walmart. That was a site to behold. We did not get a chance to go into the UFO Museum or the UFO-shaped McDonalds, but it was fun to drive past.

Billy the Kid Trail

We bribed him to pose with banana peels.

Mescalero, New Mexico, 24 degrees F

The desert suddenly jumped back and yielded a pine forest on rolling hills, tiny hodge-podge buildings awakening with morning activities. The ground was drizzled here and there with dollops of white frosting that did not register as snow for many miles. As each town passed the car windows, the desert returned until we reached the land of the Mescalero Indian. Here, the forest snapped around the car like a rubber band and the road complicity transformed into a winding mountain journey. Small cement restraining walls lined the road covered in authentic Indian grafitti. The town was made of similar mix-matched buildings, with the notable detail of having not one single example of a chain store-- grocery, gas, clothing, or otherwise.

We pulled over here for a break and the ground crunched like snow-- this is what it means when earth is frozen solid.

New Mexico, 26 degrees F

I woke up around 6 AM. J drove all night to try to make up for our late start. I had been at the wheel all day before conceding control around 2 in the morning (1AM California time-- we crossed our first time zone). I dosed on and off between 2 AM and dawn. The cat medicine wasn't working anymore-- Dharma meowed the whole night.

We got into New Mexico and missed most of Arizona in darkness. Actually, we passed the Thing right when I was falling asleep. It was closed so we couldn't stop. I took over driving and he went to sleep. I only let him sleep a little while, because to was too beautiful a drive to enjoy alone.

Update
I saw the Thing once when I was eighteen and on a road trip with my Grandma. I won't give it away, although I am sure the above link does. Let's just say I was surprised to find something so cathartic and silently unexpected. My first site-specific art piece, made in 1998, was in direct response to this piece, and named for it. I regret we are in such a hurry to get where we are going we cannot stop at more roadside phenomenons such as this.