white sands – Workplace Navigator

This has been my mantra for the last two months. I struck out alone for the west coast to attend my mother’s 90th birthday in my RV, Abeona (goddess of the outward journey), in May of 2024. I’m not mechanically inclined, I am skittish of heights, not a fan of enclosed places and really like a good night’s sleep. This journey would have been a lot easier by just booking a plane ticket instead of driving some 4,000 miles to celebrate my mother’s landmark birthday. But instead, I have embraced doing it scared.

Abeona arrived on the Pacific Ocean after a cross country trip

Here are the things I faced doing it scared:

Rain in east Texas. As I was headed to Rusk Texas (look it up, it’s in the middle of nowhere) there were all kinds of warnings on my map apps that the roads could be flooded. It was a torrential downpour as I drove on desolate route 84 to my campground and out the next day. I saw whole fields inundated with water, rivers out of their banks but never any water across the road. I figured that the campground would have alerted me that it was underwater (and it wasn’t) but the drive was intimidating because of the unknown.

Big Bend. Big Bend National Park is in the middle of nowhere on the border between Texas and Mexico. I drove over a hundred miles without seeing a gas station from Fort Stockton down route 385 which enters the park from the north entrance. I didn’t see one car as I drove down from the north entrance to the park headquarters. This is rare for a National Park in May but when it’s 112 degrees outside and no cell coverage;it appeared to not be a popular spot in the Spring. When you are driving an RV by yourself and know there isn’t much of a safety net if you break down; you do it scared.

Boquillas Mexico. When I get nervous, my stomach twists in knots. I had a morning planned to cross the border at the edge of Big Bend NP where there is an official entry point into the United States. I knew that it was possible to take a very short row boat ride across the Rio Grande into the little town of Boquillas. I didn’t sleep well in anticipation of crossing the border and back. I was imagining something going wrong. It’s hot, dusty, no cell coverage and my Spanish was rusty. As with most uncertain things, I was looking for things to control. I texted my kids letting them know that I was crossing the border without cell coverage and that I expected to be back to cell coverage in 3 hours. The town itself, my guide and burro ride into town were a step into a whole other reality with this small-town dependent on brave Americans to take a chance on seeing another way of life. I’m glad I did it scared.

White Sands National Park. I’ve been to over 30 national parks. I had been to White Sands as a newlywed with my husband, Orlando, in the mid 80’s. I do not remember the road, about 3 miles into the dunes loop, ending into what was essentially sand dunes for some 10 miles. This mistake, in that I didn’t have all wheel drive on the RV, was something I’m glad I did in retrospect but had I known, I’m sure I would have skipped. Getting my Abeona stuck in the sand and the rattling of the dual tires in the back was unnerving. I turned around as soon as I could but I can tell you to pay more attention to park maps and advisories now.

Tehachapi Pass. This is an infamous road that skirts Los Angeles through a mountain pass. I have been over it several times in a car although I probably wasn’t driving. When driving up from the south there are over 4,500 wind turbines which, immediately alert you to the fact that “there will be wind.” On the day I came up the pass from the south there were signs alerting high profile vehicles. My campground was on top of the pass. I went anyway. Gulp. It felt like hurricane force winds, I was clenching the steering wheel and maintained a 45 mile an hour pace. I was fortunate that there weren’t may trucks and gratified to see other folks with trailers going over the pass (if they can do it, I can do it). After 4 camping days in Tehachapi, I came down the other side of the pass which is longer, steeper and full of curves (it forced me to learn how to use manual gears). I kept thinking to myself, Rick Hanson’s “Are you alright right now?” I was.

Glider Ride. When I was camped in Tehachapi, it was right next to a glider plane airport. After the first two days of watching gliders take off attached to small planes, I decided that, if I don’t do this, I’ll regret it. I had every afternoon free and why not just walk over and get in a glider. I was going to tell my daughter but she was occupied so I just went over and did it. In retrospect, I think that because I was by myself, I couldn’t be talked out of it. Perhaps someone else would have discouraged me. Maybe I thought I had survived the trip thus far, let’s go for broke. I was shocked that all you had to do was pay and that I didn’t sign 5 pages of waivers. Perhaps it was because I didn’t sign waivers, I decided it was safe. My pilot Cam was great. They wheeled the glider into position. There was nothing but manual signals between him and the pilot of the guide plane. The glider itself was airborne before the guide plane which was freaky. Did I mention that I was in the front of the glider with all the controls to fly (but didn’t). When the tow rope releases, we were gliding above the Tehachapi Valley at 6,500 feet. Outside of the wind and the conversation with Cam, it was silence. It’s incredible that this little plane, that is shorter than my RV can glide through the air without any technology and land safely on the ground. I’m glad I did it scared.

I find that, traveling alone as a woman over 50, I get a lot of folks opining on my choice. Mostly it’s from women over 50 saying “I could never do that”, “So you are alone? Driving by yourself?” I’m always flummoxed as to what to respond with. And then? Then there is Lucky Lu (her license plate). I was departing Joshua Tree and at a stop light in Yucca Valley when I hear a car honking at me. I turn to the left and see a woman beaming and giving me the thumbs up. I rolled down my window and she said” You have the toy I want! I love it! Are you by yourself?”, I answered yes, and she responds “YOU GO GIRL!” That moment? That was worth it all. There is also my co-pilot, my inspiration, my dearly departed father had wanderlust in spades and he would drive 4,000 miles just to see a view. Daddy is always riding shotgun.

I spent two years living in New Mexico and even gave birth to my fabulous daughter, Natalie, there in 1993. My original visit in 1992 was to turn around a failing restaurant for the company I was working for and I spent every free day off traveling the back roads of New Mexico. I investigated parks and archeological sites around the state like Bandelier National Monument, Chaco Canyon, Acoma Pueblo, Taos and, my favorite, the artsy, unique Santa Fe. I focused mostly on the northern half of the state because I was based in Albuquerque. Outside of the wonderful, Bosque de Apache, which is probably the best wildlife refuge I’ve ever been to; think thousands if not tens of thousands of sandhill cranes and snow geese, I had never ventured much further south on my own.

Climbing in Bandelier National Monument in 1992

Southern New Mexico is home to three noteworthy stops: Carlsbad Caverns National Park, the town of Roswell, and White Sands National Park. There is also a bonus National Park called Guadalupe National Park. It’s actually in Texas even though it’s only 20 miles of Carlsbad Caverns and none of the clocks (including my apple watch) acknowledged that it’s Mountain Time, Guadalupe is on Mountain Time and not Central Time.

I initially visited Carlsbad Caverns NP on my trip to the west coast in the mid 80’s with my then husband, Orlando. I was really looking forward to getting back to the caverns to revisit and to also get out of the extreme 100 degree plus heat that is southern New Mexico in late May. Regardless of the time of the year, I visited on a Friday in May. The parking lot was about 3/4 full. I was surprised except that everyone else was probably trying to escape the heat as well. I had no problem getting a ticket for the self-guided tour of the caverns but that was probably because the elevator wasn’t working. Gulp. They made it very clear that I could walk down the 79 stories to the bottom of the cavern (and more importantly the walk back up). I hesitated but decided that it was worth the try to get down to the bottom which is billed as an extremely steep and difficult 1 1/4 mile hike down.

So, the walk down is dark and steep and although they advertise “hand rails”, I would bet that’s only about 20% of the walk. There are no steps so it’s a long winding paved trail down with upwards of 30 switchbacks and most of it is either dimly lit or dark. The opening at the top of the caverns is enormous and there were hundreds people including school groups at various stages of either traveling down or traveling up (remember the elevator was not working). There were upwards of fifty wrens flying around the entrance during the walk down but apparently the wrens are replaced by bats at nightfall. I made it down about a mile and saw one more very steep descent and, being that I was traveling alone and still had a two-hour drive to Roswell to camp in my RV, Abeona, I decided to turn around. It was still worth the trip down but since I have only myself to depend on this trip, I felt it was prudent to turn around. There were several formations that I got to see and walking down some 60-ish flights is pretty amazing. I also met several people on my hike down and up as we were all suffering from the lack of elevators. I remember the elevator in my first trip there with Orlando. It was quite the journey down into the belly of the cavern. I would definitely go back but make enough time to be able to complete the trip or be whisked down in an elevator.

Roswell is worth the stop even if you’re not into all things alien. This town has totally embraced its UFO identity. The street light posts are painted like aliens, there are alien themed window paintings and signs throughout the town including a picture of an alien taking money from an ATM at a local bank. There is even a credit union with a space ship in its logo. If it’s from outer space, it’s in Roswell. This all stems from the Roswell Incident when an alleged UFO crashed nearby in 1947. There are several museums including The International UFO Museum and Research Center, Roswell Space Center, Roswell UFO Spacewalk and Alien Zone. For a town of close to 50,000 people, that’s a lot of museums dedicated to space and aliens. I went to the UFO museum and for $7.00, it was worth it just for all the interesting displays. If you are really into all things alien, the UFO festival in early July is not to be missed by everything I read.

My last stop on my trip west in New Mexico was White Sands National Park. Orlando and I had visited here as well back in the 80’s. I remember the park being basically vacant on our early November visit. Fast forward to this year and considering it was over 100 degrees there were about 100 or so folks in the visitor center. After going through the visitor’s center, I headed out to the 10 mile loop road through the white sand dunes. I should have read the map or asked about the road conditions before I headed blindly out on the Dunes Road. About 3 miles in there was a sign on the side of the road that said “pavement ends.” Did I mention I was driving my new RV? I was not expecting to be on sand for 8 miles. Whether I liked it or not, there I was driving on sand for about 2 miles until there was a large turn off to park. It was exciting to get on top of the dunes and see nothing but white dunes for as far as the eye could see. It also was a terrific surface to reflect the hot sun back. As much as I wanted to go the entire loop as I remember Orlando and I doing almost 40 years earlier, I wasn’t willing to risk getting stuck in my RV without 4-wheel drive. I turned around and headed back but even the one stop was worth it. Similar to my visit to Death Valley a few years ago, it’s so amazing to experience the vast array of topography and elements of the western United States.

Between the art and architecture of Santa Fe, the wildlife of Bosque de Apache, the depths and vastness of the Carlsbad Caverns, the expanse and beauty of White Sands and the quirky, out of the world Roswell, it’s all so enchanting. I think I could return again and again and continue to find more enchantment.