In the Land of Enchantment

On Route 66! Finally, in the Land of Enchantment! Our search for New Greenland leads us to New Mexico – the land of scenic beauty, rich history and many unsolved mysteries.

Though New Mexico’s most famous residents are rattle-snakes and Tarantula Hawk Wasps, its first residents were courageous Asian hunters and gatherers who have arrived here at the end of the Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, after successful crossing of the Bering Land Bridge from Siberia to Alaska. Little Jaaku is looking forward to meet his distant family here.

Our first stop in New Mexico will be Alamogordo - a place famous for book burning (2001: Harry Porter and Complete works of William Shakespeare were publicly burned by Christ Community Church as masterpieces of Satanic deception), hot air balloons launching and Space Shuttle emergency landing.

As the sun sets, we recall that 66 years ago to this day only steps away from here, in the Jornada del Muerto ("single day's journey of the dead man") desert, Manhattan Project was proven successful. I wonder if anyone was driving on the road like us, at this particular place, at the moment when “Trinity” was detonated, and if yes, what exactly did he see or feel?

Alamogordo is a home to many celebrities due to the presence of Holloman Air Force Base. Ham, the first chimpanzee in space, was trained here. And here at an altitude of 102,800 feet Joseph Kittinger stepped out from the balloon gondola in 1960.  The scientific work at Aeromedical Field Laboratory (AMFL) at Holloman AFB focused on the effects of cosmic radiation, fractional gravity, and mechanical forces on living tissues. That’s exactly what we are planning to do today with Little Jaaku on the White Sands Missile Range which is only 25km away. It is +41C this morning and we are ready for the another difficult and exciting day in the Land of Great Heat.

White Sands Missile Range (WSMR) is a rocket range of almost 3,200 square miles. It started as a playground for testing V-2 rockets captured from Germany (along with the German scientists and engineers associated with the V-2 development program, including Dr. Werner Von Braun). Captured rockets and scientists were kept and tested here.

White Sands Missile Range surrounds the White Sands Dunes from both sides making it look like an oasis in the middle of the battleground. But it is only an illusion: several times a week Dunes are shut down due the missile range tests. We are trying to sneak in and get lost in the sands before V-2 missiles are sent over our heads.

For those who have not been here before, I need to admit that the White Sand Dunes are really white! They are much whiter than on this picture! White Sand Dunes are as white as snow in Uummannaq at the beginning of the season. This is how white they are!

You can walk on white sands bare feet even on the hottest day. White sand feels cool and pleasant. This is because the gypsum unlike quartz does not easily convert the sun's energy into heat. Being here feels really strange: as if your head and feet belong to two different climate zones.

Before our venture into the White Sands begins, we equip ourselves with a GPS, compass and a mirror (in case we are lost or captured like many others before us, we can send a signal by shining in the sun so that people in Uummannaq can spot our location and save us). By the way, thank you, Aalibarti! For those who have not noticed, it’s his famous seal hunting mirror!

Waves of white sand remind us of frozen waves of Uummannaq Bay.

Angaangaq Angakkorsuaq - a wise and caring man - knew exactly what he was talking about when he suggested that in our journey across America must start with White Sand Dunes. He said that we should see it before we see anything else – Statue of Liberty or swamps of Mississippi.

Welcome to the waterless world!

Dunes  - like sea ice -  are always shifting, always changing, always moving. And the fastest of them are moving at a rate of up to 30 feet per year. They always move forward – under the force of gravity. Most of the dunes here move to the northeast.

So, you too have to move fast to survive, otherwise you will be eaten alive by the voracious dunes.

Faster, faster! Damma!

I guess the trick here is to be tall. Or sprout a tall fancy stem our of your short body.

Some plants succeed to over-smart the dunes by adapting – they keep moving together with the dune – literally on its back.

Here, in the White Sands I again think of Hivshu: “Wonder, accept and adapt.”  Our mission today is to blend with the sand and to move on with the sand!

But the reality of life here is that even those super-smart creatures who have adapted to this environment thousands of years ago still have to struggle to survive.

Many lose the battle. This little bug died earlier this morning. Before sunset, the great white sand will absorb him fully.

Death is near, but life is too. Someone before us had a perfect breakfast here at the bush, and here is the proof.

But most of the life during the day, of course, proceeds underground. It’s invisible to us; we can only try to reconstruct it in our imagination by reading the great book of desert.

Dwarfs and Giants.... little orphans... and other creatures...

We are looking specifically for the traces of a bleached earless lizard and distinct X-shaped tracks of a roadrunner. Unlike most birds that have three front toes and one back toe, the roadrunner has two front and two back toes. That’s why it can run faster than anyone.

But sand storms and high winds erase the foot-prints quickly:  of animals and humans alike. Nothing stays... except for this Big Heart that we drew with our feet in the middle of the White Sands. 

We draw Ummat - the Heart - and then plant the Flag of Greenland on the highest Dune we can find...

... and then head to Carlsbad Caverns – a subterranean wonder-world that will hopefully offer us a temporary escape from the Heat.

And just miles away, we find ourselves in a little Switzerland  in the Rocky Mountains: pines , fat green grasses,  birches and a pleasant +26C! America is all about diversity! And that's exactly what we love most about this country!