Picking up our shipped car in Dallas, TX, we finally crossed the state line into Southeastern New Mexico passing through the border town of Hobbs and nearby town of Artesia.

Travelling down the main street of Hobbs, I saw this prominent structure and surmised that this may be an oil town, yeah?  HaHa!

Winning 17 State Boy's Basketball Championships, Hobbs High School has the most championships in New Mexico history!  Besides having talented athletes, their coach Ralph Taskor, was known for employing a "full-court press" the ENTIRE game!  This technique is grueling, but, effective!

By the way, I think that the state has one of the PRETTIEST license plates!

Seen from one of the light posts, this is one run-in I'm glad that I wasn't involved with!  HaHa!

While driving through Artesia, we came across Abo Elementary School.  What is so interesting about this school?  Well, the school was built TOTALLY underground to double as a fall-out shelter!

Constructed in 1962 at the height of COLD WAR fears, it was designed to withstand a 20 megaton blast 10 miles away!  Why Artesia, you say?  Well, just up Hwy 280, Atlas Missile silos dot the landscape and was placed there by SAC in the early 1960's.  Therefore, it was a potential enemy target.  Also, 30 miles south is the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, (WIPP) one of the world's few underground DUMPS for the permanent disposal of transuranic radioactive waste.  It's stored 2000ft. down in a salt rock formation.

Another interesting fact about Abo Elementary is that it was used to incarcerate 600 mothers and children seeking asylum during war in Central America on August 31, 2014!

I'm hoping that you now realize, that the tiny towns you may pass on your journeys, can be a place of fascinating facts or history!  Don't judge a place by it's size!  IMUA! (Go forward!)