We are in our last week here in Elephant Butte, New Mexico… and we have been enjoying a wonderful time.  This past Sunday (June 16) we went with good friends Bob & Addie Fife, and Nullet & Sandy Schneider…. to Hatch, New Mexico, for ‘chile’ burgers and music.  

Hatch is in the beautiful Rio Grande valley… farming community… with a well-known ‘Burgers & BBQ’ place (Sparkys) complete with Blues Music in its own special atmosphere.   Food was good, prices were good…. and the music was great!

Our group crossing the street to Sparkys.

We have our food… and the music begins!   Guitar Slim (Red shirt) … and his Band and helpers.

After a great lunch and a few hours of Blues Music, it became time to head back home to Elephant Butte.   Alice & I took the ‘Mountains’ way back home… right by the “Silver City Forest Fire” that has been going for over a week.   The firefighters from several states have been working hard, and looked tired.   It is extremely dry & hot… over 100 degrees daily.   They seem to get ahead on the fire, but then high winds come…. and the fire spreads again.   At last notice, the fire has burned over 30,000 acres during the last two weeks, and is still growing.

The fire, taken with a long range lens, just South of Hillsboro, NM.

Smoke from the fire, covering up the Sun, over our Motorhome.

A couple days later, on Tuesday, June 18, Alice & I took a “Road Trip” to Las Cruces, White Sands, Alamogordo, and then circling back to Elephant Butte.   In so doing, we circumnavigated the White Sands Missile Test Range, a huge area.   At the north end of the test range, is “The Trinity Site”, the location of the world’s first Atomic Bomb Test, conducted on July 16, 1945.   The site is safe now, and twice yearly guided tours are conducted to it.  

White Sands National Monument… Home of the ‘White Sands”.

And here are the “White Sands” – just like snow.   Actually, the ‘white’ is a powdery gypsum from the Mountains on the East, and the West .… miles & miles of it.

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