Good Morning, Hobbs, New Mexico! It is 14 degrees, with light snow …
One more time we unpack the Tahoe, and dig out the winter
coats, which, by design, are behind and below everything else. The wind is blowing and it sure feels cold.
We head out on Highway 18, still in oil country. We talked with a nice young man at breakfast;
he worked for the one of the big oil companies. They own all the land around here. He
told us that a properly operating oil well produces about a 100 barrels a
day. Considering we drove for 2 hours
and saw nothing but oil wells, one every few acres, it is hard to image how
much oil is produced in this part of the country. The oil companies do not appear to spend
their profits locally, though. Not much around
for anyone living here. Finally we leave
the oil fields.
The land becomes very flat.
Farms and Ranches replace the oil wells and it feels wide open
again. There looks to be for the first
time, some crops being grown, with one I never would have expected;
cotton. Cotton, although less of cash
crop than it used to be, is still grown here; big cattle and dairy operations too.
Valley of Fire
Driving along, the signs announce that we are approaching
the Valley of Fire. Not sure what that
might be about, I checked with Google.
In the brief moment when I had cell data coverage I learned that the
blacken dirt was not the remnants of a famous wild fire, but actually a 20 mile
lava flow from volcanic activity as recently as 1000 years ago. Who knew?
Across the immense valley, for as far as you could see, were mounds of
black ground. That was quite an amazing
site.
Lincoln County
In the distance, you can see that the landscape is going to
change. We are driving between the
Captain Mountains on our right and mountains of Ruidoso on our left. We drive through a beautiful valley and the town
of Lincoln. Warning history approaching. Lincoln, New Mexico was the childhood home of
none other than Billy the Kid. All I
know is that this valley would be a nice location for sweet little ranch next
to the Rio Hondo river and the mountains in the horizon.
We wind around heading back up the mountains. Each curve displays a new vista.
This
is one beautiful country. We are so glad to be here to see it.
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