New Mexico - Days 14 - 15 - in the campground

White Sands/Alamogordo KOA, Alamogordo
Sunday, 14 and Monday, 15 November 2021

This was a fairly comfortable campground for us - large enough for us to be able to find places to walk while avoiding other dogs, yet not so big that we'd be swamped with other campers.  And once the weekend was over, much of the campground cleared out, so it was easier for us to find room.

Several times during this trip I've noticed people towing their 5th wheel with a tractor - you know, the front end of a tractor-trailer, a semi.  It sure seems like overkill to me, when an ordinary heavy-duty pickup will do the job.  But people use them.  While I was here, I saw a tractor with a small car perched behind the cab and somehow had a 5th wheel attached to all that.  Those folks must stay a while after they've moved somewhere.

A clerk at a local grocery store told me this town is all about military and tourism.  She said there are actually 3 military bases in the area, counting Fort Bliss down in El Paso, which is less than an hour and a half away. 

She also told me that until last year, the German Luftwaffe had been training pilots in this area, dating back several decades.  It was locally considered a boon to merchants and to the town in general, so they're sorry to see the Germans go.

Gracie's still having trouble that must be related to that stroke from last May.  One morning she was standing at the water bowl, and I watched her just collapse in slow motion.  It didn't look like it does when she lies down suddenly, which she does fairly often.  This was a collapse.  But she otherwise seems healthy so I'm hopeful she'll still be able to live happily for several more years.  Her annual vet check-up is next month and I'll see if a vet whose never seen her before can give me an assessment of her condition.

I managed to start on the backlog of posts for New Mexico - about time since I've been here half a month already.

My weird symptoms are still gradually abating, but they're not going away entirely, which makes me think the problem isn't altitude and it isn't different drug manufacturers.  But I'll see what I feel like when we go back north to the Albuquerque area, at a higher altitude.