m his boyhood haunts n

ear the Tularosa to the high country above Taos, four-wheeled the desert, and deliberately detoured to see assorted hamlets, ghost towns, and remote archeological sites. He looked forward to the time when he could show Sara and Patrick the wonders he already knew and discover new ones together. Johnny's movie would be their first opportunity to do that as a family. As he left the Bootheel, the Mountains receded and gave way to mesquite flats, playas of sand, and stretch

es of irrigated cotton fields that were startlingly green against the dun-colored terrain. He passed through Lordsburg, a dusty ranching and railroad community that drew its lifeblood from the intersta

te traffic with little to offer other than fast food, cheap motels, and self-serve gas stations. Beyond the town the desert continued to dominate. Flatlands were interrupted by an occasional mesa or the knobby spines of low hills. In the distance barrier mountains rolled skyward, promising relief from the heat of the day. It was raw country, where monsoon rains ran over the hard-baked soil and spilled into deep-cut arroyos, the su

n cracked

• the earth into spid
• er like fissures, an
• d harsh volcanic mo

untains sto

• od, weathered and desol
• Single-stage light gas gun