Another stop on our "Out West" vacation was the...

I had never heard of the place before. Out in the middle of nowhere, and I do mean nowhere, are huge dunes.

We had been riding so long I do believe I was the first out of the vehicle when it stopped. I'm not even sure if he was at a total stop or not before I bailed out. Which ever it was we all were glad to take any break we could.

Carly, Tre' and Madge ran straight up the dune, where it was a little harder for Brandi and JoBea. They wanted me to climb and of course I couldn't let them down, so up I go. Beings Barbie wouldn't climb with me she got another backside picture taken :) As you can see, Brandi is on her knees (blue shirt), JoBea couldn't get her footing (green shorts) and as for me, I'm holding my own(big red shirt)...


which was good enough for me to beat the teenagers up! After playing around, Carly, Tre' and Madge climbed on higher to yet another dune...they were all having a great time. Barbie, Grady and Harold just knew the vehicles would be filled with sand on our return, but guess what? It wasn't! This is actually gypsum. The sign explained it like this:
From Water to Wind...the creation of the dunes.

Once water has deposited gypsum in the playas, strong SW winds, especially in the Spring, blow across the dry surfaces of playas and move sand sized particles towards the NE. Over the past several thousand years, the wind driven gypsum dunes have engulfed 275 square miles of the Tularosa Basin.

Gypsum is actually a mineral, a source of plaster of paris so it was not sticking to us, how cool is that?!

This one large area is in the desert lands...

as the above picture shows from on top of one dune. Desert and mountains all around.

Can you tell how excited I was to be here?

Just to run and play with the kids was a very unexpected welcome. Notice how hard the top of the dune is. It's really packed well.

Our break was cut short due to the road calling us on. The teenagers and I walked down, but the younger ones had their own STYLE of exiting the dunes. First it was Madge (yellow shirt) with her surfing free style...Next up was Carly with her "see how much you can get in your shorts" style...
You can see Tre' at top (in above picture), anxiously awaiting his turn.
Off he goes with his free style belly flop...

that had him rolling down the dune before he got to the bottom.

As we drove off, the road looked as if it was covered by snow. It was gorgeous.
There were lots more places we visited on this fun adventure out West, but I'll end it with this beautiful adventure.

So long from the Fleming/Spring Family...

Hope you enjoyed the trip with us. I did enjoy sharing it with you.

Remember to let go and play. The moments will pass you by without warning.

Have a PLAYFUL day with Christ!

God bless you and yours....