I passed the halfway point of the trip a couple days ago, and today's landmark was crossing the continental divide. It doesn't feel much different so far, but it's certainly something. I'm having a hard time figuring out what time I'm in: Utah follows Daylight Saving Time (MDT), Arizona does not (so it was on West Coast time/MST), and New Mexico is back in MDT. Soon I'll be back to Central Time. It seems like I'm getting more time per zone on the way back, and the trip north will give me several days of EDT to get back to normal.

Today's main visit was White Sands National Park, which is the second newest National Park, and it was created entirely due to the gypsum sands. I had a misconception that it had to do more with the missile range, and even more specifically the Trinity nuclear bomb test site. It was a nice site and had pretty views (especially as I looked around the horizon and could see what looked like at least three separate rain showers because of dark cottony connections between the ground and clouds). Lots of folks seemed to have fun sledding on the dunes with plastic discs. Tangent: at Death Valley, a couple guys showed up with beach gear and an inflatable raft. They got some definitely confused (concerned?) reactions from other visitors, and I hope that their Instagram joke was well received.

HOWEVER, my side visit was The Thing! Back in my early teens, Cleveland's alternative radio station (WENZ: 107.9, "The End") played a road trip song, "Church of Logic, Sin, and Love," in fairly heavy rotation, so it was fun to reminisce about that. The Thing was a pure tourist trap and made no bones about it. If anything, they doubled down and created an amusing alternative history where competing alien races get the credit for the good and bad things that have happened in world history (which doesn't seem too far off from other mythologies), with lots of "WHAT IF" language, and some really fun exhibits with dinosaurs, aliens, and both dinosaurs and aliens. 

The hotel is a bit up in the hills and I was able to see the town fireworks. I learned way too late that the town was doing a pre-fireworks concert with the Gin Blossoms, who also got a lot of play on The End. The fireworks have been pretty decent... I'm far enough away that I don't hear many, but the view certainly could have affirmed my misconception about a national park having to do with blowing stuff up!