Thoughts on the southwest

As we leave the Arizona desert, there are a few things I'm remembering.

The air in New Mexico and Arizona is insanely dry. At White Sands, MarKay made sandwiches from fresh bread at the visitor center. We drove a few miles out into the dunes to a picnic area and sat down to eat immediately. The bread formed a dry crust as we ate it. Hot as it was in the desert, we never showed signs of sweating, the evaporation was too rapid. Even Sean's young skin is showing the effects of the dry air. It's easy to see how people here get that weather beaten western look to their faces.

Despite the lack of standing water, West Nile Virus seems to be a concern here. We've passed a number of signs about it.

Gas prices are fluctuating wildly. $2.80 has been the highest we've paid, but a mile or so farther on it was $2.49.

We brought books and music for the long drive, but we hardly use them. The scenery keeps our attention as we travel. Except Sean, of course, who just says "Wow" when we point something out to him and then goes back to his book or game. The one thing I wish I had brought was a camera capable of panoramic shots. You can't convey the scenery here in a square format.

Garmin at this point is only useful to double check our map. In addition to the problems with satellite reception and odd U-turns, we've run into some REALLY poor road choices. As we tried to enter Sunset Crater, Garmin wanted to navigate us through the park rutted dirt roads rather than take us to the main entrance off the highway. A hundred yards into the 4 wheel drive only route, having passed roads on the Garmin that don't exist in real life, we realized this was a death trap and turned back. When we finally reached the visitor center there was a newspaper clipping posted about the dangers of using GPS to navigate that part of the country. Apparently a number of people have found themselves in life or death survival situations by following roads into impassible terrain. Some have died. GPS is not a substitute for common sense.