Las Cruces, Nm to Truth or Consequences, Nm

In many of the towns we have passed through, there are signs of the global depression - it seems to have hit rural America worse than anywhere else. 'To Let', 'For Lease' or signs that just say 'Closed' - the 80's boom Reaganomics have come home to roost.

As we rounded the corner looking for a place to stay, we saw an old lady carrying her dog - attempting to cross an instant river/flash flood that wasn't there a few hours ago!

On the official preview tour out to the world's only purpose-built Spaceport, we saw Ted Turner's attempt to re-invigorate the wilderness by populating it with Bison (aka Buffalo). Apparently, they are quite tasty - but we haven't found any on the menu of any restaurants. Yet.

Morag signals on taxi runway V to the future Virgin Galactic SpaceShips. The hanger behind her is just immense, and an engineering marvel - 110,152 sq. ft. in area, two giant concertina doors, under-floor heating, and deep earth cooling. It's also a real coup for New Mexico, as they own it and only lease it to clients such as Virgin Galactic (US$1M per year), Armadillo Aerospace, and Boeing (who recently tested a computer-only landing of a helicopter onto a moving platform).

The only tire marks on this 10-mile long runway are from WhiteKnightTwo - carrying SpaceShipTwo. From October, the public will not be allowed on the taxiway, so we were one of the last ones to see this amazing sight!

On the trip back, we stopped to see the Elephant Butte Dam and Reservoir (which was very low). Our tour operator Dick had led an interesting life (teacher, TV presenter, journalist, park ranger) and had at one time given a UFO tour. As part of his research, he talked to the main UFO physicist Stanton Friedman, and the daughter of one of the airmen present at the Roswell Military base where the 'weather balloon' was brought into. He seemed very knowledgeable (by this time Morag and I had a sixth sense for UFO crazies), and went on to say that on his deathbed he gave a deposition where we said that "there were two bodies, and they weren't human". Creepy. The most touching thing about what Dick said, however, was that at that point in the UFO tour he asked all present to give a moment's thought for the UFO explorers who never got home. Very though-provoking, in many ways.