The Great SouthWest Passage aka Chronicles of Las Cruces - Episode 2: “How dry I am…”

When you tell people you are going to the desert the first thing they say to you is “It is so dry there, drink a lot of water.” Even if they have never been there themselves they give you the great desert warning. After this trip what I can say is until you have been there, experienced the dryness, you have no idea what it is like. But I am going to tell you.

First of all everyone carries water with them – jogger, water bottle in hand, mailman, water bottle in mail bag, construction worker, student, business woman, all have water. Everyone offers you water too. We went into a realtor office at 9 am one day during the trip and the receptionist said “Would you like some water (pause…) or maybe coffee?” She gave us two big bottles. Our other realtor brought 3 big bottles of the stuff when we were out for a couple of hours looking at new constructed homes. Me and mrsfabp had a water bottle in our sporty little rental that we drank from constantly. You need it!

The air here is dry, DRY I say. We went out to the desert to watch the sun set and saw rain falling from some clouds but disappearing before getting to the ground. WikiAnswers says “Virga is any form of precipitation that doesn’t reach the ground. There could be rain virga or snow virga.”

I spilled some water on my shirt (surprise!) but it seemed that instantly, it disappeared, shirt dry again. Towels dry quickly after a shower as do people.

One other amazing thing is the feel of dry skin during warm weather. At home, when the temperature approaches 70 degrees, your skin feels moist, almost clammy especially if the humidity level is above the comfortable 50’s. Here in the LCNM (Las Cruces, New Mexico), the skin stays dry. Sure, my lips chapped a bit, but I would trade that in for clammy any day.

Have a drink on us, don’t mind if I do.