Oh, New Mexico!

You see, back in Mentone I logged caches 798 and 799. Coming up on another milestone, I decided to have 800 be my first cache in another state (well, another American state. I’ve been to two Mexican states already). That said, I almost regretted that choice. To heck with New Mexico.

First of all, I mock Texas for a number of things, but among the things it gets right are the Lord’s own true speed limits. You see, most highways range from 65 to 75 here. On the major highways in the middle of nowhere? Eighty-five, my darlings. To be fair, I-10 would be unbearably stupid at less than 70 (as it was in the 1970’s when Nixon wanted everyone to save gas). New Mexico, on the other hand? Fifty-five. Really? There are residential neighborhoods here in Austin that are fifty-five! So it took me forever to get to my first New Mexican cache, which can be seen in the first photo (Eddy County) if you look closely. Found, signed and logged. 800! W00T! Then back on the slow roll east. I wanted to grab another on the way back to Texas (Lea County) and I got lucky to get on the road where I could go 65! Flying! Well, not really because…

Apparently the road crossed with a convoy or something, bring all traffic to a stop for about 45 minutes, long enough for me to get out, stretch, photograph, walk around, strike up a conversation with the guy in the truck behind me… I finally got going again but it’s hard to go 65 when everybody around you is used to going the standard 55. So I inched along until I got to another cache at a cemetery in Jal.

It took a bit longer than normal, probably because the camo blends in a bit better with these plants than it would in Texas in my experience. But that was par for the course. Everything took longer in New Mexico! I expected this to be a 1.5-2 hour slip over the border. Four hours, folks. Four flippin’ hours. And this extended stay here would actually have ramifications for both today and the rest of the trip. But, all that said, I did get a new souvenir and count as having visited another state of the Union so there’s that. And when I finally crossed that border back into the land of wondrous speed, I flew down the road again and kept flying until I found myself in…