White Sands National Monument

Alright reader, imagine you're a rock.

A rock! I in fact am a lawyer, a librarian, your grandparents, an PGA Golf Pro all in one. I am not a rock!

Just pretend you are one, please? This is a demonstration of how White Sands was formed.

Fine, weirdo. Just don't think I'm gonna get chizzled away or something.

Actually, I was going to do just that. But first, imagine yourself as a rock. Not just any rock, gypsum. Gypsum is made of hydrated calcium sulfate. Try saying that three times fast.

What if I don't want to? Hydrated calcium sulfate Hydrated calcium sulfate! This is stupid!

Hahaha! I was just messing around. Okay, so, you are deposited at a low sea, and then this huge dome comes up and you're lifted up with it...

Wow you have a great imagination.

No it really happened! On the National Park website it says...

Yeah but were you there? Or the scientists?

No, but years and years of research and hunches...

Yeah but we don't even know if that's true. We don't know if anything is true! It's just estimation, it's all assumptions!

Seriously reader, please stop crying. You'll get your tears on your books and your newly knitted sweater, and your golf club. You have so many people who don't want tears on their stuff. Compose yourself.

Ahem... Okay then. Go on.

The dome breaks up, and then you fall into the ground. You're a white rock, pretty hard. Now, when you were deposited, it was 250 Million Years old. Then you got lifted up.

Wow this is a crazy height!

That was 70 Million Years ago. Now...

Man, I'm old!

Uh, yes. Now let me continue. So, 10 million years ago, that dome, in the center, collapsed, and you fell back down. So relatively, you're pretty young.

Pretty young! 5 years old is pretty young, not 10 million! I think you need a doctor.

Whatever. So, over years and years of wind, water, and creatures, you become sand!

That tickles, hahahahaha!

Yeah I know!

Oh I hate sand! I was at Laguana Beach once with my children, and..

No time for back stories. We have to begin the blog now. So, thank you for participating in this demonstration of how White Sands was formed. Have a nice day.

You're welcome. We should do this more often.

Back to the blog!

Hope you enjoyed that little dialogue moment. Now, when we went to White Sands, it was Valentine's Day, and so on Feb. 14th. But it was very windy too, so that made all the sands move more, swirling their white and yellow particles all around. They don't stay in the same place long. Very dynamic, they are. We went in the jeep, with my cowboy hat on. I was getting used to being on Mountain Time, where it was like two or three hours before the Eastern people. Some have continued to call us at like 6 or 5 AM, and at least we had a good start that morning. We were also going to go to Cloudcroft, or city in the clouds, because a waiter said it was a really cool place. Being it Valentine's Day, I would try to find a possible present for Mom or Dad, but I don't really think V.D. is about loving girlfriends or drama or getting presents, but it's like spreading love to everyone, and being happy and acceptable to society. In a few years it'll be that whole lovey-dovey thing. Girls have cooties at the moment. But I wanted to be really good and nice that day, and... oh and let me tell you a little history, Saint Valentine (and it's pronounced Vall-en-teen) was a really nice and loving person according to the Catholic Church, so he became the symbol of love...Wait, shouldn't the symbol of love for the Catholic CHURCH be Jesus?

My clever sister Lauren said this in recognition to Cupid, "Why did our symbol of love become a flying baby in a diaper shooting arrows at people?"

I texted some people that morning, and said that I was afraid of Cupid getting us, and said, "He's loading. Dodge it! (--->" and some other things. We got out of town, and were down a highway, with some dust flying everywhere. It was crazy and amazing, all of the dirt and dust storm, or sandstorm as it's better known. It was crazy, all of the wind in our windshield and brown dust. As we drove through, a safe distance from the real think, Dad mentioned that it always happens in New Mexico, that these people live in the midst of the terror, that it can kill people. Pretty scary. We drove up to what looked like little white sand dunes, with a lot of shrub, green, and high vegetation... for sand dunes. I was a little annoyed that the reason we were coming here was to see some sand dunes, but then again I guessed that if it was a National Park then it had to be worth something. And I had underestimated Carlsbad Caverns, and it had ended up one of the most beautiful things I had seen. But, we went through a few of the dunes, and came up to a National Par... or National Monument actually.We passed by one place on the right which said to keep going; that was just a center for activities and other things. A good way away we saw another one. I will try to describe it as best I can. It had a porch that had a roof over it, and a little parking spot, facing some of the dunes, and a big sign with side entrance on the brown wood. Hopefully it would be a good N.P. Hopefully.

Rebecca, Mom and I went in, later followed by Dad. Inside was a hallway with pictures, and mostly all of it was on the left. Entering the place, we had the counter, which was three sided square against the left wall, and some panels and sand and little coffee table on the right. It was light and looked good, and there were some people. Farther on to the left was a lot of gift shop kind of stuff, including books, and then in the middle a step up to a paneled area, presumably a museum. We asked the people what they had here, and they mentioned the mini-museum and also they had a movie, showing in not a very long amount of time. Thanking them, we looked around in the gift shop before Dad came.(He was on the phone with someone.) There were some puppets, book bags, and that vest. But this wasn't the gift shop. I supposed that as it was really small. This had children's books, and regular books. I looked at a few of these, Southwest legends and Native American things, and then some books on Billy the Kid, ruthless cowboy of cowboys. There was one on his capture, about McGarret who caught him and it was called,(and don't think I'm cussing it was quoted) "To Hell on a Fast Horse." I couldn't find any others, at that moment. (I would later.)

I told some of the people Happy Valentine's Day, as they asked us if we did the Junior Ranger Program, and we told them that we had been to so many National Parks, but regrettably no time. We had however, incidentally, done it at Carlsbad Caverns. By the way I recommend you see that post. It's pretty cool, all the stuff we saw. We didn't think we would have time. I did post a stamp onto a little post-it-note sized white piece of paper, and it had the Junior Ranger thing on it. They gave us the activities, saying that even if we didn't have time, we could send in the books and email the guy in charge. The lady later gave us the certificate anyway, looking tryingtobecasualbutsuspicious, and put a finger to her nose. We thanked her, avoiding a delivery man who raised an eyebrow. This was way later, and I will get to it later in the blog. Dad came in, and we prepared to go to the movie. We walked up there, and went into a room on the left where a projected screen was, with pictures on the wall that were really cool. We were in benches. Waiting a few minutes and looking at watches, talking of no particular thing, ever changing the conversation. Then, more people filed in, and then the show began. I blinked as the lights dimmed more.

The movie was very good, presenting great HD video, and all about the living creatures, animals, fish, and plants. It had a visual of a fox at night hunting it's prey in the midst of white sands coming up all around him, and then some plants, that, to escape the suffocation and death that all the sands coming up gives, made long branches going out or even an umbrella-looking thing, with the plant going up in a straight line, gasping for air. This is where I found out the whole info about the gypsum sand, which was pretty interesting. It was all big and really good, and I liked learning about the National Park and how it became that, FDR's part of it and all. As the movie ended, I smiled at the cool message it presented. I have to say it was better than the one in Roswell, although that one was cool, where we went underwater and saw the insects, as chills went up my spine and I laughed and giggled with Rebecca. Hey, you know close to Las Vegas there's a town called Laughlin? Seriously! I wonder why that's the name. Probably Jerry Seinfield came from there, or Robin Williams, maybe even clowns. Or Spencer Osman. Who's Spencer Osman? I'll tell you on my very last blog post, at the end of the trip. FORESHADOWING!

Leaving the dark room with our things, we ran into two people Mom had prior met at Carlsbad Caverns. It was very co-win-se-dental (I can't spell the word; If you haven't found out by now I am a poor speller) and we talked to them a little and their Missouri routes, and spoke about Hannibal, my favorite author's hometown, and St. Louis. They spoke about that terrible incident that happened a few years ago, in Joplin, MO. I recently, well, in Florida, saw a "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" where they made all these new homes and did different themes for different people, so it wasn't all boring and bland. Pretty cool. They were an older couple, the man with a hat and grey hair, and a middle-east... I mean midwest. No he wasn't from Iran or some other country. I got mixed up with people from Egypt who we met last night. Another story for another time. But the lady was older with grey and black hair, rather short and short hair at that. He worked for some kind of electric company that did things of that nature and we talked about that, looked around in the museum for but a short time, and went down to the bookstore counter, saying goodbye to those nice people.

We asked the people at the counter what there was to do, and Rebecca was thrilled to hear of sand riding, going down in a sled for the snow and feeling the great breeze. Maybe I could get Cupid's toe as he tried to shoot an arrow at me, and throw him down into the sand, blur his vision, and brake all his equipment as I knocked him out, and left him for dead. I DO NOT LIKE CUPID! He keeps trying to hook me up with a girl, and it's so annoying! I just want to be an exercising, pocket-knifing, soccer-playing, football-doing boy who isn't a teenager yet! Okay Cupid! I hoped that later in the day I wouldn't find true love. Hmmm.... I bet that's the only time anyone has said that. But anyway, they gave us a map, the whole thing, and said it wasn't THAT big, we could do this and be done with it. Well, they also mentioned to us that the sleds were in the gift shop, which was across a courtyard under a roof, that was long and narrow, like those in a car-pickup for kids scenario. So I was doubtful that the sleds would really go on sand, knowing that sand literally stuck to everything and especially in plastic. But in the video they had presented that people did it at White Sands all the time, and had shown us videos of that and other things people achieve on the sand. I still doubted.

Into the hallway, to the right, on some more, through a door, we went as fast as the elephants go, seeing the scenery, oh oh oh ! On the left of this shady concrete place was some benches which by we did not race!(okay that makes not much sense because I just said the same thing in different words. I'm gonna stop rhyming now.) Sigh of relief!(there is no written word for the exasperation when you are glad you're done with something.) Walking more, on the right we had a pretty garden. We went through the doors to a room filled with all kinds of different gift shop items, trinkets to pottery to shirts to giant staring clowns with Phaser 2's from Star Trek.(Well maybe the last one was a lie.) A counter was at the far end on the left, past all the junk. And then on our right we shuffled through little shelves and rows, and came to a long counter up against another wall, with on the farthest end where a corner was making in the architecture a t shape a freezer where Coca-Cola and other soft drinks dwelled. Dad was in deep conversation with a young lady, with blonde hair and long hair. She was nice, and spoke to Dad about politics and how she tried to have everything in the gift shop to be made in America. Good girl.

Up against her with her computer, we saw a dusty environment with a guy back there, concrete floor, and wooden shelves. He was cutting some wax, which is used to make the sand not stay to the sleds. We took some of the cubed purple things, and she told us we could rent one already used or buy a new one, which was more money. We chose old, which was rational since we would only be using this once and already we had been rough-iters' and so we knew the hard life, beauty didn't matter as long as utility reigned. The young girl told us to go to the other counter across the room, as I talked to a National Park lady. She was very nice, even though it was a short conversation. Then we went across the room to the other one, where a short tan lady told us to turn right into this kids corner, with some books and toys. It was an alcove and corner, pretty small. We got orange and brown sleds, a lot worse than the other ones. Well, it was something, right? We payed for them, and then walked back outside, through the whole complex. Would the sleds really work? I mean, really? Dad went to the car as we walked over, looking at some small beautiful cacti, and Mom and Rebecca went inside the beige building with slotted windows. It was a restroom.

We got in the car, and then traveled farther. They were the whitest sand dunes I had ever seen! I had to blink at the blinding spectacle that lay before us. As we went on, three things happened. Sand on the road got more and more frequent and bigger. The second thing was that the dunes got higher. The very third thing was on either side of us the slanting smooth things had less and less plants. I must say that although we were only looking at sand dunes, it was pretty pretty. Very smooth and so blinding and white; it looked like snow to us, even though we were in really the desert. It was crazy. They looked steeper and steeper as we rounded corners, and went around with this blinding spectacle in front of us. I never knew you could have so much fun while looking at sand dunes. I told all my friends and took pictures with my phone. It's not that it was super large ones, like Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan where the height was higher than ten school buses on top of each other, it was that they were whiter than angels, yes they were, whiter than ice and the Route 66 hat my Dad wears, whiter than those minivans mothers use to pick up their children, whiter than towels and rags and Jesus' robe! Well, not that bright, but pretty close.

All this time we had those round plastic but pretty big sleds in front of Rebecca and I, with the bowl part in, touching our knees. We had the wax in a separate hand. Rebecca was pleading with Mom and Dad to stop at all these steep heights; she wanted to go down the sled. I did too, but wasn't as zealous and excited about the matter as Rebecca was. Both me and Mom waited to test the reliability of these sleds on sand, even with the add of wax. We stopped on our right where a very sanded parking lot was, well just a few spots pointing to the right. Getting out, we took charge of all the sand dunes on both sides of us and then the brown walkway. Later we would find what we saw later a bit of a SHOCK. Well, we got out with jackets on and video cameras shown, sleds on the ready. Dad said that these dunes were a little too small for the sleds and we could leave them it in there. As Mom and Rebecca went on, I went back to the car to get a stick that I had gotten around the office. I opened the back and Dad asked what I was doing. "I left my stick." Dad thought I meant the trimmed, cut, glossed ones we used, the ones we got on the raft ride in Helen that are rectangular prisms, and the twisty cylinder one. But, remembering I had left the other one at the office, I took those.

We walked down, in the hot sun. It was a very good day, I guess. Kind of cloudy however. Dad and I walked along, talking about how the location would be good for a movie, and science. I found out at this moment that glass is made of sand! Never again will I trust the glass window of a skyscraper! What if it turns into sand and then propels me down to my death? Glass is made of sand? Did any body else know this? WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME?

There were a few panels along the way, and those plants that the video had talked about. They were miraculous, having cacti kind of things that came out of the top, or long branches trying to save life, hope against hope, from the evil sand. We looked at a panel telling about a sandpiper kind of snake, and some lizards on the next one. They were all beige and orange looking, very vile looking also. It was a rattlesnake. Another had a small lizard on it. There were many seaweed kind of sticks we saw, and some birds among all the dunes, but no other animals, especially not snakes nor lizards. I was a little glad about that.There was a shaded area, with some benches and more panels, to our right. I looked down, placing my arms palms flat on it. OUCH! It shocked me hard. What is this? I knew it was something different that I didn't knew, and asked Dad what this strange material was .METALLIC LIGHT STEEL and IRON ORE, which gave it the brown kind of feel. Well, we went under this shady part, you know very casually, not being very fast. Dad said, as I lifted up panels that had true or false on them, that we had to go. Cloudcroft was still in the picture. So I went along with him, as Rebecca and Mom came back.

We had a great view as Dad stayed back talking with Mom under the shade and I went, with my stick and Rebecca, up the steeper boardwalk. Not too steep, but upon a slant. When we got to the observation deck, boy did we have a fantastic view. We looked over all of the sand dunes, making ripples in the distance and imposing upon us a great outlook, the bright sun coming in and reflecting, and all of the flatness with the distance and something blue in the background. An ocean, lake, sea, or no, is it a mirage? Is this a dream? Something the mind has composed out of mere boredom? Some kind of combination of electric charges made by different areas of the brain by random intermarrying? Or is this spectacle in front of us real. Rebecca saw it also, and so this was part of reality. Very pretty. White Sands was worth it.

I tried to have a moment to just pause and reflect, to think about the display of God’s handiwork in front of me, but Dad called us down; time was of the essence. Sighing, I took one last look of this extraordinaire into perspective, and tried to stall as Rebecca raced down. Then, I turned, and never looked back after the first six or seven times of doing so. J We went back into the car, continually searching for a place of sled riding. “Mom, there!” Rebecca repeated a lot, in areas where it was so steep you could think of it as a white wall, some that other people were on. Mom didn’t think the N.P. wanted us to do it, and it was so close to the road that a car could come by, and, if we went into the road, the foxes that night would have some carcasses or pancakes, for a lesser word, to eat that night. I recalled in episode only last year when Woodstock Road in Roswell, Ga was frozen, and I sledded down on Kivengton’s side, which is a neighborhood, on a very sheer hill. It was so cool to walk on that busy road at will, casually and without beating heart. I don’t think I will get that chance again, being that Roswell doesn’t snow THAT much annually. Well, the memories carry on, I suppose. But back to White Sands.

We found some people on some, surrounded by big sloped Sand Dunes. There was a parking lot sanded very yellow, gold, but mostly white, made darker by the asphalt and tires I guess. These weren’t as steep as others, but had no shrub or veggies growing. Taking our already sandy sleds and taking off all good electronics, we went out. Dad and Mom followed slowly behind, but Rebecca raced up with her sled and wax. She went through the fence that separated us from it, and went up quickly. I had old grey sneakers that had touches of blue in them, and had used them for the whole trip prior, but the laces were short and torn up and the shoes were getting smaller. I hated the shoes now, but they had lasted me through many things, arches and museums and monuments and battlegrounds and all. Good shoes, but they were ready to go into a nursing home. Still, this was kind of their last dune, their last hike maybe, or hopefully anyway.(OR WOULD IT BE?) FORESHADOWING!

I went up, kind of slow. I had had sores from Carlsbad Caverns, but I would get better. Racing up at the top, we looked over Mom coming up and Dad talking to some people, probably telling them in his way he does, “You gotta see this,” or “Now, those democrats, God bless them, don’t know” or something else, waving his hand to empathize points. Good ole Dad. I waxed the bottom of the sled, as Rebecca did also, and we got ready for the monumental first sand sled ride. Would it work? This was the true test of faith for us. The sleds wouldn’t disappoint us, or not with the wax we rubbed on against the surfaces. Mom told us to sit on our knees, and lean back and then forward, and not to paddle yourself along. She got the camera as we all situated. We were about to go. Come on, sled. I said to myself. Mine was orange. And, then, we did what Mom said, and we went!

Like two or three feet. Fail! The sleds stopped in mid-track. Seriously? We paid money for that? Mom made us try again and again, waxing and going on previously made tracks. Again, going down, pretty much the same results. Wax, position, go! Fail. Mom pushed us, and we went a little more down, not much. It was a rip-off, or a stick-on, since we’re talking about sand. I did get down a little one time, and it was kind of fun. My shoes got really sandy, and I fell straight off on account of the wind. Then, it happened.

I was gone head over, and then got up from my back. Sand rushed into my face like the ripping of magazine power from bullets, damaging my eyesight. I put the thing in front of me, as huge gusts of wind came in, hitting me with the impact of metal poles. I had earlier pretended to guard Cupid’s arrows with my sled as a shield, but this was much worse than imaginary babies with wings and diapers. It hit all me, and I went back on my butt. Rebecca ran to the car, and I tried to, but then it came from that way and knocked me in the head, and frisbied itself away, up. I crawled on my hands and knees, not unlike Velma in Scooby-Doo where she loses her glasses in like every episode. I hope you have seen the show; it’s like my favorite cartoon. I crawled up, feeling plastic and warm swirling beach sand around me, as I dug my claws…I mean hands; if you looked at my finger nails you would suppose them claws.(Maybe I should star as Cat Woman in Bat Man.) I got the frisbie, and through my squinting eyes thought I saw Yogi Bear in the distance. Okay, a lot of mentioning of cartoons in this paragraph.

I got down, bit by bit, and knocked off all my sand after, although not going too far on the sled, having a good time. I was sanded thoroughly. Maps came out of the R.V. as I put the sled in the very back. Taking off my shoes and kicking them and then putting them in a zip-lock bag, I chased after one as it danced in the wind, finally catching hold of it and going back. We traveled back to the National Monument center to take the sleds back, and told them in a lying way that it was really fun. It was okay though, don’t get me wrong, and I’m glad we did it so we wouldn’t have regrets about it later, but I must mention that sand and sled don’t make very fast. Okay enough if you’re writing a Latin political outlook book like “The Prince” or another boring book, but if you intend on having super fun than go to a waterpark or a ride in this R.V. (you should see us going up and down these roads I mean… WOAH AHHH DANG WHY ME?)

They took them as I asked Mom for some money; I was very interested in this Billy the Kid deal, didn’t know anything about his life, and wanted a book. The last book I had gotten was at Carlsbad Caverns, so I was on thin water of how many books I was able to get. Thanking her, I took the money and entered in there. Now I saw two more in there, and a blonde haired middle aged lady with hair coming down on both sides, a touch of grey and very buff, was at the counter. I asked her if she had read any of the books. She answered a call, and then went over, saying that she liked one, with a grey title and a weird picture, but the other one was not boring, very novel-like, and all around good. I thanked her, and made my decision. To Hell on a Fast Horse was a double bio, and I didn’t like that, and the other one’s title was weird. It kind of scared me. Using a kind of, “I-just-know-this-one-is-right” decision, I picked that one as Mom and Rebecca entered. She said if I was interested in Native Americans that they had a good selection of them also, mentioning a certain female writer’s name that I can’t pronounce the name.

I must admit I’m not really interested in Native Americans. Not to be mean or anything, but I studied literally a whole year on them in third grade, and most of the stuff I read about them takes a bias stand, speaking all about the different religions. Nobody get offended if you are a Native American, but I just don’t like to learn about them that much. I told her this, but not all, just that I wasn’t interested. After buying the sandy colored book that I can’t quite describe, I thanked her for all the info and asked her her name. Judy, I was told as I shook her hard and sandpapery hand. Nice lady though. Thank you Judy!

I guess they have to have rough hands, sandpapery. They ARE workers at White Sands.

The White Sands National Monument was very fun, even though it was all science and nature and that wasn’t really my genre. I loved the movie and getting the Junior Ranger books from the Park Ranger was good, and that was very nice of her. The gift shop was impressive and I’m glad we did sled, even though it wasn’t the best. The White Sands were both shocking and amazing, and walking down the boardwalk with the great view at the end was very much worth it. Even a sand dune can be beautiful in the eyes of man. That’s what White Sands taught me.

Okay so this blog post is already very long, and I have another two things we did in that full day, so I am going to have a separate blog post about them. Do not feel you have to read them; there is no relation between White Sands plants, nature and science, and the other’s blog post. It is about a town in the clouds with coldness and forest all around, and a bookstore where we met an interesting character who was really…uh interesting, if I don’t want to give anything away. If you happened to be interested, please read it and give it a try. If you’re curious like me, you will read them. Or if you’re interested in history and forest wildlife, and another kind of white thing that followed the White Sands, that we saw up higher. Don’t feel obligated, but if I were you, I would take a look. Goodbye for now.

CUPID, GO AWAY YOU WRETCHED LITTLE BRAT! Stop annoying people who don’t want love right now with your match-making. Nobody wants you here. No, don’t cry! Cupid!,

Andrew.