Deliverance

Last night we were to spend the night in the town of Truth or Consequences in New Mexico. As you might imagine it's the type of place where you pop into the local supermarket to pick up some Jack Daniels and the checkout bag packer spends five minutes telling you what a lousy place it is. It's a town that chose to change its name from Hot Springs in 1950 as part of a publicity stunt for a radio program and despite numerous plebicites has steadfastly refused to change back and is known by locals as T or C.

We chose to take the bag packer's advise and moved on down the road to Elephant Butte. This of course elicited all kinds of jokes about signs informing us that "You are now entering Elephant Butte" and arguments about the correct way to pronounce the name. It's a fairly nice place where the largest lake in New Mexico is located.



Today has been a long day on the road and we've driven through an amazing variety of landscape on the way to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. We're really into snow country now and the kids have been very excited, with a lunch time snow fight.



I've never seen, or even imagined, desert snow and it's spectacularly beautiful. This afternoon we drove through the "painted desert" out of which a spectacular mountain range ascends from a flat desert plain that extends to the horizon. You can see it from 100 miles away and then you're suddenly in Flagstaff and you are surrounded by snow and connifer forests. That's where we are now.