Day 10 - White Sands, white hot (only 109 km)

Got to sleep late last night (2 a.m., give or take), but woke early (7-ish). Took us a couple of hours to get mobile, then walked over to an IHOP near the motel in Alamogordo. There the waitress, giving blondes a bad reputation for forgetfulness and clearly bored with her lot in life, forgot 1) the 'creamer' (can't they just say 'cream'?) for Colin's coffee, 2) that we existed, 3) our breakfasts under a poorly performing hot lamp. By the time our food arrived - well after an adjacent table that were seated after we ordered - it was room temperature at best. She got the tip she deserved, considering we couldn't deduct from the bill.

By the time we left the motel it was already a good 25 C. We rode the short distance to White Sands National Monument, where it was already above 30 C. After a quick stop at the Visitors' Centre, we rode the 8 miles along the Dune Drive to a hiking trail called Alkalai Flats.

We dismounted and stowed our riding gear, and hiked into the snow white dunes like French Legionnaires. Without guns, though. Or those funny outfits they wear. Okay, admittedly, almost nothing like French Legionnaires, but I'm trying to entertain an audience here. Cut me some slack.

At a certain point, Dune Drive ceases to be paved. A group of Harley Davidson riders was pulled over just before that point, apparently unwilling to venture further. I saw no reason to stop, so we continued on through the hard-packed sand, tires occasionally sliding in the soft white sand.

To all appearances, we should have been wanting to wear our cold weather gear. The dunes looked like enormous snow drifts, and the packed sand of the roadway looked like the plowed streets of a prairie city in winter. That, however, was most certainly not the case. The temperature was easily into the mid- if not high-30s C. The heat of the sun was being absorbed by my mostly black leather gear and every so efficiently transferred to me. Possibly the same principle was at work as is used in convection ovens. Maybe microwaves. I don't know. All I know is it was ridiculously hot.

Getting out of the gear didn't help as much as I would have hoped. I still felt like a potato, wrapped in tinfoil and thrown onto the coals. Still, we'd come all this way. So I put a metal water bottle in my shorts pocket, and off we went, into the dunes.


I might have thought that I was just being a whimp about things. I'm sure that's occurred to some of you, too. But Colin, during his stint in the Canadian Forces, once served in Saharan Africa, and he was finding it a bit much today, too. And I double dare any of you to call him a whimp.

After a half hour or so of disorientation and dehydration, we headed back to the motorcycles, to put on the even more uncomfortably hot gear, and head back up Dune Drive.

It was only 2 p.m., and still scorchingly hot, when reached Las Cruces. We decided it was too hot to continue on to El Paso today, so we'll do that tomorrow morning, when with any luck it will be cooler.

So there you have it. If brevity is the soul of wit, then Day 10 was a riot. As I right this, a thunderstorm has just cleared, making me even happier about our decision to cut today short.

But, just so you don't feel ripped off, here is another of Colin's videos. As always we hope you, enjoy.