Monday, May 17, 2021 - We arrived at Hollowman AFB and entered at the commercial gate which made it very easy to get to the base Family Camp. The base is working to improve the way the Family Camp operates and they have hired a new manager named, Lorrie, who is working hard to provide descent service. She had us park in spot 19 and then she stated that we would have to call the medical group to let them know that we are on the base and where we came from. They would then send a form to the Visitor's Center at the Main Gate for us to use to get on base. This "goofy" process took two hours and put us behind schedule for our trip to Tularosa. Last year we tried to get on base, but were turned away due to Covid. This is the only base that has ever turned us away. They are still very "Covid Phobic" with regard to who gets on base. After were got our form, we were able to come and go more easily.

After we got things settled at Hollowman AFB, we hit the road for the Three Rivers Petroglyph Park near Tularosa, New Mexico. This is a site that has a well-maintained park and trails leading up to rocks containing over 21,000 petroglyphs. It is unusual that they allow you to go up and walk among the petroglyphs and get closeup photos. The Sun was behind us in the late afternoon and allowed for some pretty good photos. We had great views in all directions (see the photo gallery) and lots of great shots of the petroglyphs. The site is located in the Tularosa Basin which is over 60 miles long and contains Hollowman AFB, the White Sands Missile Range, White Sands National Park, and the Sacramento mountain range.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021 - We decided to take the bikes and go back up to Cloudcroft, New Mexico for a bicycle ride. We loaded up the bikes and headed out for Cloudcroft at 8:00 in the morning. Cloudcroft is an interesting town. When you depart Alamogordo, which is at about 5,00 feet above, you start a climb to Cloudcroft that is at near 9,000 feet above Mean Sea Level (MSL). You are in the pines and the temperatures drop into the low 50s as we got there. We stopped in the old town part of Cloudcroft and went to a cute little bakery shop. We shared a "large" cinnamon roll and had coffee. What a pretty place to stop for a snack. We then continued along Highway 82 for 17 miles to the little town of Mayhill. In Mayhill, you can make a left turn onto Scenic Highway 130. This road. basically, returns you to Cloudcroft along a series of little valleys. The distance is about 20 miles and the road is perfect for cycling. We went to the Cloudcroft RV Park (in Mayhill) and asked if we could leave our truck there. The owners were super-gracious and allowed us to stay. We had several great conversations with them. We began the ride up to Cloudcroft. The road is a steady uphill trip and goes on for 20 miles. We started climbing at 6,500 feet MSL and ended climbing about 2,300 feet before turning around. We decided to turn around because Lisa's battery indicated that she had only 17 miles left in Eco mode (the lowest power setting) and we had 17 miles to go to get back. As it turned out, we could have kept going because the return trip was virtually downhill all the way. We did not realize how much we had climbed until we turned around and began coasting for longs periods of time. Since Lisa had been coasting most of the way back, when we arrived at the truck, her battery said that she had 43 miles more range. The bike must evaluate the type of riding that we are doing to compute range. The day we had for this ride was perfect. Temps at 60 degrees (very comfortable) and puffy, blue clouds in the sky. The puffy, blue clouds did get together just before we arrived at the truck, so we had a very light shower to ride through. It was fun and did not affect our trip. After the bike ride, we drove the same route to Cloudcroft and then started heading back to Alamogordo. About half way down the mountain, we stopped at the "Apple Barn" for apple pie a la mode. A cute and quaint (tourist trap) little place, but fun to walk through. We then head back to the base at Hollowman.

We began getting ready for our departure on the next morning for the Carlsbad Caverns area of New Mexico.