I am within a few thousand words of finishing "Cold Vichysoisse Cream." The murder has been solved, the murderer has been arrested, and Prudence is reflecting on the experience. I always find the ending the hardest to write, as it has to tie up the themes and events without feeling overly repetitive AND, given that this is a series, it needs to foreshadow the next book at least a little bit. Which means that I have to start thinking about the next book (!). So, I sit and stare at the screen and struggle to find the motivation and inspiration.
So, I left it all behind (including the laptop) for a three-day trip to Alamogordo and White Sands National Park.
Nothing clears the mind better than getting away from the familiar, the usual, the mundane.
We left on December 25 after lunch, because "there won't be any traffic." Oh, how charmingly naive! It felt like half of Albuquerque was heading down to Belen for Christmas dinner. Traffic did thin out considerably between Belen and Tularosa, where we ran into the GIs hustling back to Holloman Air Force Base.
The Classic Desert Aire hotel was our base for the next two nights.
Clean, comfortable, with appallingly bad wifi. Complimentary breakfast from the menu in their restaurant, though. And just 15 minutes from the park. The parking lot was full when I took Treme out for her last walk of the evening. That should have been a clue. We innocently thought that we'd have the Park to ourselves, as everyone would be at home with the family, etc. HAH! It is their busiest time of the year.
Serendipitously, we arrived at the Park shortly after it opened on December 26, but should have made a point of getting there precisely at 9. The parking lot was full, except for one Handicap space, and the visitor’s center crammed, but the line at the entry kiosk was short and, with our senior lifetime pass, we were allowed to go around the cars waiting to purchase passes.
We drove to the farthest point on the loop, where there were very few others, wandered the dunes (which our doglette anointed most assiduously), took in the vistas, wondered at the cold, moist “sands," and SAW A CAMEL (no, it wasn't wild, it was being led by a handler, but a girl can pretend, can't she?). It really is a magical, mystical, wonderous place, and would be even more so at night with the moonlight reflected off of the dunes (don't forget your sunglasses during the day!). We headed back earlier than planned, as it was starting to get crowded and noisy (and not so magical and mystical) only to drive past a line of cars from the entry kiosk back to the main road — about half a mile — and lines of cars at least another half a mile in both directions. The hotel parking lot was practically empty when we arrived and stayed that way until late that night.
All other plans were put on hold, as it was obvious that every touristy thing would be packed. Even Google Maps showed them as "Busier than Usual." We just hung out and relaxed and read and walked the dog and made plans for our next trip down there. It will NOT be near a holiday of any kind. We might just manage to attend an evening stroll. We'll leave much earlier and stop at Valley of Fires Visitor Center and Pistachioland on the way in, make time for the New Mexico Museum of Space History and the Tularosa Basin Museum of History while in Alamogordo, and stop at the Three Rivers Trading Post and Petroglyph Site on the way back.
Regardless, the trip had the desired effect. I know how to end this book AND have decided on the setting of the next one!
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