A Day in the Desert
Well we have finally finished with our primary work on the main post so we headed out to the desert today.
First, we ate at the mess hall, which was a real treat. I felt like I was in college again with the lines and all you can eat buffet. I had an omelet and biscuits and hash browns! I think I was the only civilian girl in there!
After getting a solid breakfast in us we prepared for the 30 mile drive into New Mexico to a base camp in the desert. We got to see some troops head out to participate in mock simulations and even heard some test bombs go off.
We traveled to another more remote base camp in New Mexico after, and had the most exciting afternoon ever! We traveled with a Staff Sargent to capture some remote buildings. We were off roading like woah! He took us all over the shooting range and we even went over some sweet jumps in his Super Duty F350! Talk about whip lash, but it was totally worth the experience.
The neat thing about that base camp is that the only known wild mustang resides there. She was roaming the area and found the air condition unit next to a building and for the last 15 years she has been standing in the same spot next to the air unit to keep cool. The soldiers feed her hay and alfalfa, however no one has ever touched her. She will not allow anyone to get close enough.
Before heading out many people warned us of the Oryx, which is this big gazelle like animal with huge horns. They are native of Africa but are here because the general of white sands in the 60's wanted a big animal to shoot. Now they are a nuisance and have to be hunted in order to control the population. They are very dumb and will charge the car if you honk the horn. There have been many accounts of of them totaling vehicles and even destroyed an F150. I would have liked to have seen one, but we did not have the opportunity. We didn't even see snakes or scorpions, which I guess is for the best...
Tonight, we are taking it easy for we are going out to the desert again tomorrow!
First, we ate at the mess hall, which was a real treat. I felt like I was in college again with the lines and all you can eat buffet. I had an omelet and biscuits and hash browns! I think I was the only civilian girl in there!
After getting a solid breakfast in us we prepared for the 30 mile drive into New Mexico to a base camp in the desert. We got to see some troops head out to participate in mock simulations and even heard some test bombs go off.
We traveled to another more remote base camp in New Mexico after, and had the most exciting afternoon ever! We traveled with a Staff Sargent to capture some remote buildings. We were off roading like woah! He took us all over the shooting range and we even went over some sweet jumps in his Super Duty F350! Talk about whip lash, but it was totally worth the experience.
The neat thing about that base camp is that the only known wild mustang resides there. She was roaming the area and found the air condition unit next to a building and for the last 15 years she has been standing in the same spot next to the air unit to keep cool. The soldiers feed her hay and alfalfa, however no one has ever touched her. She will not allow anyone to get close enough.
Before heading out many people warned us of the Oryx, which is this big gazelle like animal with huge horns. They are native of Africa but are here because the general of white sands in the 60's wanted a big animal to shoot. Now they are a nuisance and have to be hunted in order to control the population. They are very dumb and will charge the car if you honk the horn. There have been many accounts of of them totaling vehicles and even destroyed an F150. I would have liked to have seen one, but we did not have the opportunity. We didn't even see snakes or scorpions, which I guess is for the best...Tonight, we are taking it easy for we are going out to the desert again tomorrow!
Comments