As I headed southwest from Salt Lake City, Utah unfolded more open, more arid, more spare. The mountains in northern Utah are bluish, topped with lots of white snow.
And then you arrive in the Nevada border town of Mesquite, and the rich colors of the desert mingle with the neon of casinos. Clearly, you’re not in Utah any more.
I love the openness and the defiance of life in the desert. I drove past cacti with broad green arms reaching up toward red rocky mountaintops that look like castles.
In the trip’s spirit of doing things I normally don’t, I decided to visit the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo, which celebrates America’s space program.
The indoors has four small levels with exhibits teaching the history of space exploration. It also has a children’s discovery area and a proportionally large exhibit glorifying Star Trek.