Oliver Lee State Park - Alamogordo, New Mexico

It's Friday, New Year's Eve.
We did have the "big wind" event yesterday and it really turned much colder as the front came through.  Watched the digital thermometer drop from 63 to 40 in a few hours then quit looking.  Just a little "spitting" of rain and no snowfall as forecasted, but what rain we had was saturated with desert dust and really "trashed the RV".  Could hardly see out of the windows.

Road trip into town (about 15 miles) last night for dinner and a movie but only managed dinner.  Found a nice little restaurant and simply did not want to rush through the meal to get to the movie.

The winds were strong all night and this morning as well.  Temperature about 24 this morning.  But, the scenery is still beautiful even if not full sun and warm.  The state park is 4 miles off the highway up an alluvial fan coming out of Dog Canyon and our view of the surrounding mountains and valley at this vantage point is hard to describe with words or pictures.

I washed the RV today while Ellen drove the car back to town to shop for NYE dinner.  Watched ND kick Miami's ass and still had a short time to enjoy the late afternoon sun breaking thorugh the clouds.  Dan, Ray, and Lindsey from Indigo gave us a bottle of Dom Perignon as a "going away" gift and we chose the late afternoon sun to sit for awhile outside and toast to the New Year.  Thank you Dan, Ray, and Lindsey!

Another cold day in store for tomorrow but the sun should stay out making for a great New Year.  May stay here another two day or move on to Las Cruces.  Won't know until we talk about it more tomorrow morning.  The next 10 days in the Southwest just keep looking better according to the weather channel so we are getting excited about the change to warm temps.

My plan was to post pictures yet tonight, but the Champagne is starting to make me lazy.  I'll do it next year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR from Ellen and Jim