From Tucson to Taos via Truth or Consequences

I am traveling through lands where there are cities named "Why" or "Gunsight". I spent a peaceful night in "Truth or Consequences" and soaked for half an hour in a hot springs bath lined in stone and old mesquite wood that scented the heat humid air and soaked out the aches and pains of the old year in order to tackle the new.

Heading further north the snows are back, as is the high altitude dryness and piercing sunshine of the high desert. The jutting prows of mountains sail by in all directions in blood red, sandy gold, and watermelon pink. We're heading north now, through Albuquerque to Taos, after being so close to the Mexican border we could see another country over the next hill rise.

And ended up where hundreds of luminaria still light the snows, corrals hold tiny burros watching creches, old half fallen-down churches are named after all the saints, and a wood fire is at home in a hotel room.

( For pictures and a more rambling account of what we did after we left San Diego. )