Posted by on Aug 11, 2010 in Blog | 0 comments

Lest you think this immense desert “missile range,” located a short car-chase outside Las Cruces, NM is a convenient fictional concoction of mine, let me assure you that not only is it real, it is the largest military installation in the country (3,200 square miles!), as well as the site of planet Earth’s first ever nuclear explosion. I’ve driven through it myself!

(The sign reads “You Are Now Leaving White Sands Missile Range; Drive Carefully.” I think it’s a very odd statement.)

By an amazing coincidence, the previous occupant of the room in which I am now living is a native of Las Cruces, Mark Smith. He and two of my other housemates went to college in Santa Fe. Mark tells me that, because Las Cruces is a dull town with very little to do (unfortunately, “Molotov Latte” is not a real place), the primary recreation for young troublemakers is to drive out into the desert to listen to music and drink beer. The home-grown Las Crucians apparently know the unlabeled back-country roads well enough to navigate them in the dark.

I hasten to add:

OUR PROTAGONISTS DO NOT!