Position: 35°10’51.4″N 103°43’34.5″W America’s answer to Timbuktu is Tucumcari, a small town in eastern New Mexico. Before Route 66 was the main road west to California, Tucumcari had already gained notoriety. Founded as a construction camp for the Rock Island …
Position: UPWARD DOG Despite what the folks at NASA might tell you, failure is an option. Otherwise, why would experimental aircraft have ejector seats? Or why would prototype rockets have a self-destruct mechanism to initiate a RUD (Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly)? …
Position: 34°35’42.9″N 106°17’45.4″W Nomads come in all shapes and sizes. Take us for instance. A mere foot of height between Carol and me makes the difference between seeing over the dodger or having to stand on Aleta’s cockpit seats. It …
Position: 35°10’37.9″N 106°27’59.9″W Besides a penguin and a current, Alexander von Humboldt gave the world the Naturgemälde, a theory of ecology based on altitudes. Over five years, Humboldt and his buddy Aimé Bonpland explored and measured every square centimetre of …
Position: RUFFHOUSING Having learned during the pandemic that any time spent sitting still leads to acquiring stuff, we spent a good part of last summer offloading Aleta’s excess cargo. Of course, as keen readers know, Marlon was unceremoniously booted off …
Position: 35°12’31.8″N 106°36’54.8″W Not who’s the bosque, dummy! The question is, where’s the bosque? And the answer is wherever the Spanish say there’s a forest. Down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the bosque clings to the Rio Grande River like a …
Position: 35°11’52.0″N 106°35’49.1″W The Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta is one of the premier draws for visitors to the city. This year marked the 51st gathering of balloon enthusiasts from all over the world. Beginning with 13 balloons in 1972, by …
Position: 33°24’35″N 104°31’27″W “Roswell? Why do you want to see Roswell?” Carol asked, giving me the side eye. “Because,” I replied, “I want to see where you went to high school.” NY to NM In 1972 Carol’s dad, Bob, left …
Position: 32°46’53″N 106°10’23″W By midday the heat bouncing off the brilliant gypsum crystals at White Sands National Park will sear your eyeballs and fry your skin. Squint hard enough and you can barely make out the dunes and swales that …
