How You Dune? Part 4
Don't miss Part 3 of this blog series! It's pretty cool!
In the last blog entry, we visited White Sands National Park, which has to be one of the coolest places on earth. After we finished up there, we hopped back out on the 70 and headed east toward Alamogordo. Instead of taking a right on the 54 and immediately heading south to Oliver Lee Memorial State Park, our camping location, however, we took a left and ventured about 15 miles north, to a spot that wasn't originally on our trip itinerary. "WHAT?!?!" I hear you say, "you deviated from the itinerary?!?!!?" Yes, dearest reader, we did, although it wasn't so much a deviation as an essential addition.
Look at all those nuts!
As I mentioned way back in Part 1 of this blog series, as we were winging our way eastward along the 10, we'd started seeing billboards advertising the world's largest pistachio at a roadside market/attraction known as Pistachioland. It sounded like fun, and once I realized it was only 15 minutes out of our way, I asked the rest of the group if they would kindly consider indulging my inner weirdo (pfft, as if my weirdness is kept to my *inner* being) and joining me on a trip - nay, a pilgrimage - to see this giant nut. Thankfully, everyone was on board, and we scheduled Pistachioland for Saturday afternoon, post-White Sands.
Signs leading us to Pistachioland,
as if you could somehow miss the giant nut
from the road.
Although there are technically other things to do at Pistachioland (including a farm tour and whatnot), we were mainly there for photo ops with the big nut and to do some shopping. Both of these things were accomplished in earnest (we picked up some flavored pistachios, pistachio brittle, and a GIANT coffee cup advertising the big dude out front - it holds like three cups of fluid - Campbell's Cup-o-cino, indeed) and we all left feeling very satisfied with our time there.
As I was heading into the store
for some shopping,
I saw this little man posing for his Dad.
I asked if I too could grab a shot,
and they were happy to oblige.
How much do you love this?
Chris and I headed straight back to Arlene and Oliver Lee, while Jen, Bryan, and the boys detoured through downtown Alamogordo, making essential stops for gas, Starbucks, and more firewood. When we got back, it was the Olsen family's turn at the showers (review: eh, fine, not super hot, but nice and clean and free with park admission), and eventually, we all reconvened at site 30 for our evening festivities.
Time for more sunset/moonrise pictures:
As I mentioned in a prior post, Jen and Bryan have a tv for their rig that mounts right on the outside, and we put it to good use this evening to watch college football. We got back just in time for me to watch the last 15 minutes of the FSU-Miami slugfest (which was insane and, surprisingly, ended in our favor), and we caught some of the ASU match before the headliner started - the 6pm OSU game. With our evening entertainment sorted, we set our sights on dinner; Chris and I enjoyed a ribeye grilled over the campfire with a bagged salad and potatoes baked in the coals of the fire, while Jen and Bryan had cheesy dip (their OSU game day good luck tradition), grilled chicken and steak, and all sorts of other goodies.
Since Chris' birthday was the next day, we also celebrated with baked goods for dessert; since I knew I wouldn't be able to hide a cake from Chris for several days in the camper, Jen did me the solid of acquiring said cake, and he was definitely surprised!
Bryan is our resident fire-master,
and his skills extend to birthday candles, as well.
Blowing out the candles!
After a long day in the sun, I pooped out a bit earlier than the rest of the crew, but after the game ended, they weren't too far behind me in starting to pack things up and mosey toward bed, as we'd be heading out the next morning. Between White Sands, Pistachioland, some great football games, and being able to hang out with awesome buddies, it was a wonderful day!
We slept well that night (it wasn't quite as cold/windy as the night before), but of course, we were both up too early, and by 6:30, we were putting together our morning coffee/chai service and starting to move around. Since they were driving all the way back to north Tucson, Bryan, Jen, and the boys were already up, too, and before too long, we hugged them goodbye and watched them pull away. Finishing off the breakfast burrito leftovers from the previous morning, we completed our own packing up, and we were on the road around 9:30am.
Although some spots within Oliver Lee Memorial State Park are no hookups (like ours), others have electric and water. No one has sewer, though, so the park thoughtfully provides a dump station on the way in/out of the main gate for camper use. From the surface, most dump stations look just like a hole in the ground, surrounded by a square of concrete, covered by a metal valve; not at Oliver Lee, though!
That is...different.
Instead of being a small hole, the dump station here is a large concrete trough, where you'd really have to be trying in order to make a mess. I certainly can't fault them for wanting the waste to stay where the waste should go (and not into the desert), but it did make us laugh.
Taking care of the gnarly business.
Please do note that the plug for the hole
is a piece of wood, suspended on a chain.
This place rules.
Since our last night of camping would be truly off-grid (more on that in the next blog), we also topped off our water tank.
One more glamour shot of the rig before we depart
On the next blog, we head back to AZ and have a truly terrifying moment on the freeway!
Later!
Amy
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