Pie Town, NM to Mexican Border

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=REZog0TDYDw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

We made it to the Mexican Border! We arrived on October 30th, which is also my birthday. What a great day and special way to complete my Triple Crown. Apparently they don't allow picture or video taking at the border crossing for safety reasons. But we learned this AFTER we had taken pics and videos from a Mexican border agent who berated us for doing just that. Then we were questioned by a US border agent who thought we had come in from Mexico. After some brief questioning and explaining we headed back north towards Columbus, NM. It was rather anti-climatic finishing at this border crossing, but we still took the time to enjoy it. We got a hitch to Las Cruces on Halloween from a guy who transports human cadavers that need to be taken to funeral homes and coroners for autopsies. That's creepy, especially because I was sitting in the back with the stretcher. In Las Cruces we rented a car for 4 days; we decided that we wanted to check out some things on our trip up to Albuquerque. We stopped at White Sands National Monument the first day and got to camp in their 'backcountry' for the night. This was a great stop, it's not crowded and it's the largest white sands dunes park in the world at just under 300 sq. miles. We then headed towards Roswell, NM but on the way there stopped in Artesia, NM for their Bluegrass Festival. That night we stayed just outside of Roswell at Bottomless Lakes State Park. It's a small park that has a couple of small, very deep lakes. The next day we spent in Roswell at the International UFO museum. If you like this kind of thing you'd enjoy Roswell. I do find alien and UFO topics fascinating so I loved the museum. Roswell is famous for the 'Roswell Incident' that happened in 1947. An alleged UFO crashed and alien bodies were recovered. The museum primarily focuses on this event and all the witness accounts (affidavit statements) and the alleged cover up that followed by the military. It basically goes like this: we have recovered an alien spacecraft and bodies to ooops, we meant weather balloon to oh, those weren't aliens they were crash test dummies. It's all very interesting to me, and in my opinion everyone's first account of what happened is probably the true story with the events that unfolded. Either way, Roswell is still synonymous with aliens and/or UFO's more than 60 years after the incident...everywhere in town you see it. We are now in Albuquerque, staying at the very nice Route 66 Hostel in downtown. We've enjoyed having all the big city food options and conveniences. Our CDT hike is over and our adventure is coming to an end. I'm looking forward to flying back to Syracuse and spending time with my family and friends for the Winter. Maybe someday I'll be able to wrap my mind around what all this has meant and put it in context. For now though, I'm glad to be done thru-hiking but I'll miss it soon enough I'm sure. I want to thank everyone who helped me along the way and to my friends Josh & Stephen for sending out all my food drop boxes right on time. To my friend Safety Officer: its been a true adventure unlike any other I've had. We endured and persevered through so much extreme difficulty...the navigation, the endless lightning storms, blisters, rain and rain and even more rain, then cold and snow, intense winds, the Knife Edge. At times, it never seemed like we would finish the CDT. But we also experienced the wild greatness and mind numbing beauty of Glacier NP, The Pintlers, the early morning Antelope of the Great Basin, the remoteness of The Bob, a Grizzly Bear wandering through a high mountain meadow, the majestic and intimidating snowy San Juans, Elk bugling, Coyotes howling right outside our campsite, the many fun times we had in towns along the way. So many great memories. Our friendship bond is only stronger now, you're my good friend and thank you for sharing this experience with me. This adventure is over but I wish you well on your life's journey.