Lounging in Las Cruces

This week we took a short jaunt down Hwy 70 to the second largest city in New Mexico; Las Cruces. Again the view and the weather have been fantastic. Wasn't sure the truck was going to make it up over the Organ Mountains as we travelled from Alamogordo to Las Cruces. Man, the incline was sooo steep!

Just outside Las Cruces is the small town of Old Mesilla. This historic area has been restored/maintained to reflect its early 1800s heritage. A "hot spot" in the mid 1800s, this town saw many outlaws on its streets, including Billy The Kid. Jim is standing next to the courthouse where Billy The Kid was sentenced to hang. The Kid eventually escaped, thus avoiding his death sentence for a short period.











The town is very picturesque and certainly worth the aftenoon stroll.













That being said, the real find in Las Cruces has been the RV Park - Hacienda RV Resort! This place is fantastic! The attention to detail is
obvious in the layout of the park, the cleanliness of the facility and the friendliness of the staff. The park offers a complimentary breakfast and daily newspaper. On Friday evenings, they sponsor a happy hour, complete with free margaritas.











It also offers a therapeutic hot tub and exercise room. The sites, while no where near as large as the ones at Stephenfield, are quite spacious and and well designed.











And the dogs love the large off-leash park











RV buddies - this is a must stop when in New Mexico!

Nestled in New Mexico

Well we have moved beyond Texas and have nestled nicely in New Mexico in the Tularosa Basin.

Totally surrounded by mountains, the view is breathtaking.

We climbed to 9,100 ft when we visited Cloudcroft, just 16 miles away from our campsite. Unfortunately, the high altitude resulted in much colder temperatures. Not enough snow to ski and too cold to golf; so we didn’t stay there for long but sure enjoyed the ride to and fro!

The Tularosa Basin has no outlet to the sea. As such, water either sinks into the ground or collects in low lying areas known as playas. When the water evaporates it leaves behind grains of gypsum. Just west of Alamogordo, there’s a large collection of these gypsum particles know as White Sands.

Standing on the dunes and looking at the miles and miles of sand, we felt like we were in the middle of the Sahara. These dunes are constantly moving and changing shape. Driven by the strong southwest winds, the sands cover everything in their path.

The National Park staff has to clear roads and parking areas on a continuous basis as we do when clearing snow. The plowed roads look just like snow.

In fact, the dunes could be mistaken for hills of snow so you could hardly blame a person for trying a little sliding while there! Even Benji and Zoe got into the act.

Despite the cold temperatures in the mountains, temps in the valley have been very conducive to golfing. In what seems to be an unfortunate trend, the Security folks at Holloman AFB wouldn’t give us access to the base on our own. That being said, a very nice gentleman named Bob, who winters at the campground we’re parked at, is a retired Army serviceman. He has access to the Base and he took us golfing there.

When we decided to visit New Mexico, we hoped to see some spectacular desert and mountain scenery. So far we have not been disappointed. It’s amazing to see the different types of vegetation found in the desert. Wildlife seems to be in abundance, everything from roadrunners to coyotes (no snakes, though).

This week it’s on to Las Cruces and a visit to Billy the Kid’s home town and perhaps a trip across the border into Mexico.

Chillin' in the Chihuahuan

As we departed Del Rio, we headed towards the West Texas Mountains, through the Chihuahuan Desert. This land is known as the last western frontier. Everywhere we look reminds us of settings for old western movies. The view is spectacular in all directions!

Enroute we crossed a canyon of the Pecos River. The bridge allowed us to cross with ease - can't imagine how the early settlers ever made it across in creaking wagons, or even on horseback.



Shortly after crossing the Pecos, we stopped in the town of Langtry, home of the infamous Hanging Judge, Judge Roy Bean. Known as the "Law West of the Pecos", he was quite the carouser; drinking and gambling while holding court at his saloon. Despite his nickname, we were told there is no record of Judge Bean actually carrying out one of his hanging sentences. The love of his life was a British actress named Lilly Langtry, hence the name of the town and the reference above the bar. Oddly enough, the two never met. Lilly finally visited Langtry after the Judge had passed away.

On Tuesday we took a drive up into the West Texas Mountains and visited the town of Fort Davis and historic Fort Davis army post. This post was initially established to protect settlers travelling from San Antonio to El Paso, as they surged west to find gold. The post remained in use until 1891. The reconstruction is extremely well done and includes things like bugle calls, the sounds of mounted soldiers on horseback, as well as music from the band, all combining to make the visit more realistic. It's interesting to note, the Fort was not enclosed inside a wooden palisade. Apparently, forts after the Civil War were not constructed that way - guess Hollywood took liberty with Post settings.

The Hospital and Officers' Quarters & parade square

After Fort Davis, we ventured a little higher into the mountains, to the peak of Mount Locke, to visit the McDonald Observatory, part of the University of Texas. This facility is home to the Hobby-Eberly Telescope, the third largest in the world. It was designed to specialize in spectroscopy, the technique astronomers use to break down light into its component wavelengths.

This week we ventured back onto the golf course. Played at both Alpine and Marfa. The Marfa course boasts it is the highest course in Texas, sitting at an altitude of 4,882 ft. We also took the time to visit some local establishments, including a German brewery, a local winery and eateries such as Penny's Diner, which looks a great deal like Mel's diner on old TV show

So now it's on to New Mexico. Certainly glad we stopped in Alpine - great folks, excellent climate and relaxing environment (although perhaps just a little too isolated for any kind of extended stay)

On the Road Again

Three days of hard driving found us safe and sound in San Antonio. We found our RV just as we had left it (which meant we needed an RV repair man because our slideout wasn't working!). All that aside, by Friday we were ready to roll and headed west to the little town of Del Rio, Texas.

Of course, Jim has jumped right back into the Texan swing of things, with his "little" 32 oz bottle of beer!

On Sunday we took a drive to Brackettville, the site of the shooting of the JohnWayne movie, The Alamo. In fact, this "town" has been used to shoot upwards of 60 different movies since it was constructed in 1957-59, including Lonesome Dove, Jericho, The Bullfighter and The Gambler to name just a few.

In front of the Alamo....

The town.......

and Main Street

Jim and I even managed to wet our whistle at the local cantina...

That's all for now. Tomorrow it's off to Alpine, Tx, enroute to El Paso and New Mexico. Perhaps there's a round of golf in our future........