Sunday 11/22/2020 Las Cruses, NM - Silver City, NM
Shortly after waking up, the two amigos started on coffee and breakfast. Unlike some mornings, there was no questions as to the breakfast menu, for there was leftover pizza in the fridge which meant there will be pizza omelettes for breakfast. Dave started heating the cast iron pan while the water boiled and moved to the counter over the fridge to dice the pizza in preparation to sauté. After the pan warmed up some, Dave put a thin slice of butter in the pan, picked up the pan moving it ever so well to coat the base and bottom half of sides with butter. Returning the pan to the stove, he turned his attention to the excited water, lifting the lid to a rock show level of steam presenting the boiling water better than William Martin Aucoin could ever dream of presenting his beloved Kiss boys, pouring the slightest about of water over the coffee filter to prime for the beans which got a drizzle of hot water music once the filter water was sent down the sink. With the coffee grounds steeping, Dave moved the diced Pizza slices onto the popping and clacking iron and gave the whole thing quite the shake. Averting his eyes from the beautiful love scene in the pan, he started in on the coffee with a steady stream of hot water producing a beautiful creme. Watching the water level fall he counted and around ten he poured again, his heart out or the water, we will leave ambiguous. Around eight, this time, he started to pour again, this time certainly water, and let that drain completely as he turned back, at long last, to the pizza pan where he did his best to flip and move the pizza around. He realized the pizza could sit on its own for some time so he cracked a couple eggs in a bowl, added salt, pepper, garlic powder, and something else (red pepper flakes), and whisked the hell out of it with a fork. It was right about then when he poured the egg over the pizza and let out a perfectly round drool pellet which was falling to the floor but thankfully caught the right airway guiding it into the pizza pan. Dave will not be telling Hannah about this. As the egg cooked, he started on a second cup of coffee, for Hannah, trying his best to make it as tasty as possible knowing that he just drooled in what will be Hannah’s breakfast. Breakfast was delicious and Hannah did not have a single bad comment on the flavor, so alls well that ends well. We packed up the Pooter and headed back east to White sands. This time, we had to go through the border check, which when passing it the day before we said “Thank god that isn’t on the west bound side.” After passing through with flying colors, you know we didn’t stop for that, we entered the park and we pulled off at the same spot. Dave unloaded the bikes while Hanna prepped some snacks and water in fanny packs and the water stayed in the water bottles. We locked up the poop and biked four miles into the dunes to the end of the road where the five mile hike starts. We found a lovely wooden fence to lock our bikes to, which we did, knowing full well that if someone wanted to steal the bikes, this fence was going to be the weakest link. We then started walking through the salt desert with one Nalgene of water each and four granola bars. As we looked all around we continuously commented on how it looks like a sand desert, as I imagine the Sahara, but is actually a salt desert. We also talked about how it used to be a lake, the lake dried up, the salt left behind blew around to form these dunes. It was hot out, but the “Sand” remained cool and kind of cold if we dug our feet into it. I have a note here that we made a joke about being biathletes but I am not sure if that is referring to us biking to hike, or possibly something funnier. After returning to our bikes, we saddled up and biked back to Lil Poot who was standing predominately on one leg, lightly dragging the toe of the other leg through the salt, each hand seemingly trying to rub the skin off the other, head slightly down and staring at a pretty camper van on the other side of the parking lot who wasn’t paying him no mind, put the bikes on the back, got in, and ate a sandwich washed down with a cold, crisp le Croix. After feeling proud of ourselves for hiking and that we experienced White Sands, we headed west for Silver City NM. We pulled into a cattle road on the continental divide where we found a somewhat level place to camp amongst some bushes and cow pies. This night, we ate chicken. After eating, we went to bed to the sounds of coyotes doing something that sounded like witches cackling and something else dying
