Where In The World Is Sum1?

Driving to Alamogordo

         Another trip I wanted to drive on, this time back to the state I love, New Mexico.  It's a three day drive, but can be done in two if you ask me.  I just enjoy playing tourist too much to drive nine hours for two days to get here sooner.

         I drove through Oklahoma City again, and decided that I would stop at the memorial of the April 1995 bombing.  To say it's a sobering experience would be a gross understatement.  One Hundred Sixty Eight people were killed in the senseless bombing, including nineteen children.  I saw a photo of a young boy, not quite four years old, on the chain link fence that surrounds to original site.  Yes, he was a victim that day.  Inside the memorial park is a shallow reflecting pool.  To the south side of it sits 168 chairs, one for each victim.  Smaller chairs honor the children who were there.

         It's one thing to read about something like this happening.  It's another to visit the site where it occurred, and see how it affected so many people.  I know 168 is a small number compared to those who perished on 9/11, or died in the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.  What makes this one more horrendous, is that it was perpetrated by an American Citizen.  If I've ever thought of someone that the word traitor and coward applies to, it would be Timothy McVeigh


         Alamogordo is not a very large city, to me it's a small town.  Simple, quiet, and interesting.  White Sand National Monument is nearby, and there's plenty of outdoor activities for those who enjoy that.  For me, this whole area of the country is home.  I must have lived here long ago, because I really cherish the entire Southwest.  It's been very windy these last two days, today I could only see maybe 5 miles across the desert.  I visited White Sands, and all I could see all around me, was gray.  The sky was overcast, the horizon was gray, with that blinding white sand all around.

         Till next time, y'all take care of yourselves.  Life is too good, too short to do otherwise.