Providing sustenance to skaters is a familiar sight: an Airstream! Perhaps this is MobileBooth West’s long lost cousin. Nothing says winter like eating hot dogs in the sun, reflected off a shiny silver trailer.

Despite the many distractions nearby (sun overhead, palm trees swaying, and the ocean just blocks away…) the Booth was set up in no time, thanks to a little elbow grease. Bring on the stories, California!

We began the day in Baylor Canyon, slowly making our way into the Organ Mountains. Flocks of desert quail kept us company while we picked our way through a rocky creek bed (which Hilary mistook for a path).

Our pre-concieved notions of “desert” were continuously challenged throughout our time in Las Cruces. Dry and dusty New Mexico is home to a delicate and varied population of wildflowers, innumerable towering yucca plants, dozens of species of grasses, and all sorts of resilient animals. Some areas are rocky while others are covered in sand; some spots are home to only cactus while others can sustain a variety of plant life. “Desert” does not begin to describe the beauty we encountered while in New Mexico.

In the evening, just before sunset, we made our way to White Sands Nat’l Park, whose gypsum desert couldn’t be more different from Baylors rocky terrain. The sand there was pure white and cool to the touch. The towering dunes sustained only the most rugged plants and insects. To us Northerners, the scenery looked more like a snowy January evening than a blazing hot dusk in the desert.

Above, facilitator Rachel Falcone takes a rest atop one of the sand dunes. The sand itself was a sight to behold, but the delicate flowers that survive at White Sands deserve attention, too. Their roots tap into the nutritious soil beneath the dunes and their stems grow rapidly to stay above the surface of the ever-shifting landscape.

As the sun set on the desert, we packed up memories of New Mexico’s immense natural beauty and wealth of interesting people to carry with us as we head towards a new landscape: Texas!

97 year-old JosÈ Gonzales came to MobileBooth West with his daughter RosaLee Chavez to talk about his education in a one room school house in rural New Mexico. Back in his day, going to school was no picnic… in fact, it could be downright dangerous!

19 year-old teacher Miss Pruitt was not about to be run off like the previous teacher at Cutter School (who was allegedly driven mad by a “cut up” named Lloyd and was never heard from again). Before anyone had time to misbehave on the first day of school, Miss Pruitt pulled out her six-shooter to let the kids know she meant business. The gun stayed on her desk in plain sight, and when the “cutting up” began, she cocked it and pointed it straight at the troublemaker – the notorious Lloyd.

The gun wasn’t enough to scare him, and he kept right on misbehaving, so Miss Pruitt invented another punishment. She asked JosÈ to help her rig up two tiny nooses hanging from the window frame and she strung Lloyd up by his thumbs. He was left to dangle there in the hot sun for the rest of the school day and his poor thumbs were black by the end. He never did come to school again.

Mr. Gonzales told facilitator Hilary Marshall that she’d be surprised by his story, and she certainly was. The west was “wild and wooly” back then, and we thank Mr. Gonzales’ keen memory for reminding us of how much things have changed!

Gila Nat’l Forest in southern New Mexico covers 3.3 million acres of publicly owned land and contains the nation’s first Wilderness Area, which by law must remain undeveloped and without roads. The park offers visitors the opportunity to experience a vast array of landscapes, ranging from 10,000 ft. peaks to grassy valleys, from dry plains to lush piÒon and juniper forests. Gila is a place of peace for hikers who seek genuine solitude, or for StoryCorps facilitators with a few days off.

We barely scratched the surface of Gila Nat’l Forest’s offerings during our brief visit, but we certainly enjoyed ourselves. After an impromptu picnic in the truck while waiting out an evening hail storm, we soaked in the steaming Gila Hot Springs (above) to warm up. The waters soothed us for our next day’s hiking at Gila’s Cliff Dwellings.

The dwellings (above) have always been a popular destination, even before formal trails allowed thousands of tourists to to wonder about who might have inhabited these stony structures. Tucked neatly into large caves looming over the west fork of the Gila River, the dwellings were a safe haven for hunters and trappers after the original inhabitants were long gone, and the many artifacts that must have been left behind were poached long ago, leaving the identity of Gila’s people a mystery forever.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings were built under roofs of porous rock, which has slowly eroded over the years. The minerals contained in the rock left patterns of sooty black on almost every surface, a stark contrast to the colorful wild flowers and lush forests in the valley below.

After Gila, we visited City of Rocks State Park (below). A wild storm was rolling in across the desert and we could see the rain falling from miles away while we enjoyed blue skies.

City of Rocks is an odd spot: a fistful of giant boulders thrown to earth by a volcano thirty million years ago, or as folks say around here, by angry gods. It’s easy to get lost in the maze of stone and tufts of grass, with silence around every corner. Somehow we managed to find our way out, just as the late summer rain began to fall. We headed home to Las Cruces, well rested after two days in the wilderness.

Andy Zimmer (right) and Tod Apedaike (left) had never met before their visit to StoryCorps. What was obvious as they settled in at MobileBooth West was that neither of them walks; they roll. Tod has used a wheelchair his whole life and Andy has used his wheelchair since a bike accident two years ago. Across the StoryCorps table from one another, however, they discovered that they have a lot more than wheels in common. They share a passion for extreme sports, a “similar outlook on life,” and desire to be and remain fully independent. “Something like this doesn’t change who you are,” said Andy, and what these two guys are is strong stuff. Skiing, rugby and sled hockey are some of their favorite pastimes. Andy also works to make local hiking trails accessible to people of all abilities (parents with strollers, visually impaired individuals, anybody and everybody).

A big thank you to the Center for Persons with Disabilities at Utah State University for bringing Tod and Andy together for their interview–and for a tremendous partnership while we were in Logan.