New Mexico, Old Mesilla - Thursday, April 18, 2019 - Tour of the Plaza

Mesilla was established in 1849.  The Double Eagle restaurant where we are headed for lunch was established in the same year.  It is the oldest structure on the historic plaza, which is itself a National Historic Landmark.  The most beautiful structure on the plaza is the Basilica of San Albino.  The church is only open during services so we haven’t been able to see the inside.  But, I always admire beautiful stained glass windows.

We’ve been here before, but I always enjoy a walk through the shops.  We were here early so there is still plenty of parking.  I didn’t find anything I couldn’t live without (RVers have to be selective).

The plaza is getting ready for the Easter celebrations and parade this coming weekend.

This beautiful cast iron entrance gate leads to the Double Eagle restaurant.  This building has been home to some of Mesilla Valley’s most prominent families.  It has also been a cotton warehouse and then a series of small shops.  In 1970 Robert O. Anderson, who later became the president of Atlantic Richfield Oil bought the building and turned it into a restaurant.  He brought in gold, crystal, art and antiques.  The building was purchased in 1984 by C.W. Ritter and his wife who added to the antiques and art.  There are several ornate rooms off of the main patio where we ate lunch.  I peeked into a few of these but meetings were going on so I didn’t take pictures.  The paintings and sculptures throughout the building are all museum quality and date from the 1880’s through the 1930’s.

Lots of greenery in the lobby and throughout the building.

I had to be careful of the pictures I took of the bar.  Greg said the blog might get an R-rating otherwise.  There were lots and lots of paintings of “ladies” on the walls.  Otherwise, it was extremely ornate.

We ate lunch in the Billy the Kid Patio.  Billy the Kid was jailed in Mesilla in 1881 and tried for murder.  Next to our table was a seven foot carved stone fountain surrounded by Cycad Palms, which can be traced back to dinosaur times.  These plants are valued at $5,000 each by botanists.  They had no idea the danger I posed to these plants.  I’ve only managed to keep two of my original six houseplants alive.  I had the San Franciscan sandwich for lunch (with leftovers for supper).  I would definitely recommend this one.  

Dona Ana County, where we are located is the largest pecan producing county in New Mexico.  Some of the trees in the orchards we passed coming in date back to 1932.  Legacy Pecans is a family owned farm here in the valley.  Our only purchase of the day besides lunch was some really great pecans.

The Patio saloon was owned by Judge Roy Bean, the famous Texas Hanging Judge and his brother.  He got his start here in Mesilla and then stole the town’s money which was kept in the only safe in town (at the bar).  He then headed for Texas.

One of the gift and jewelry shops in town, the Thunderbird de la Mesilla, is the oldest documented brick building in New Mexico.  Construction on the building began in 1860.  It has been a general store, residence, saloon and town hall.  Two former owners were killed during robberies.  Things were much calmer today.

New Mexico, Las Cruces - Tuesday, April 16, 2019 - White Sands National Monument

On our drive into Las Cruces we had to find the “Recycled Roadrunner”.  Directions to this roadside attraction were a bit sketchy indicating it was at an eastbound rest stop off of I-10 “just before you get into Las Cruces”.  We found it at mm 135.  Over the years the sculpture has been “refeathered” by several rounds of recycled products. 

Looking out over the area where we will be staying for the next few days.

This is us, looking good!

As we were getting ready to head out this morning Greg did an especially good cleaning on the Jeep windows so I could take pictures.  It was all in vain a short time later – we were hit by a huge swarm of some kind of insects.  Yesterday the same thing happened to us in the RV.  When over 100 bugs hit your windshield at the same time it’s pretty noisy!

Our destination today was the White Sands National Monument.  We stopped at the visitor’s center so Greg could clean the windshield again.

The mineral gypsum occurs in some of the rock layers in the nearly mountains.  Rain washes the gypsum into the bowl shaped basin below.  The shape of this basin keeps the gypsum from flowing to the sea.  Instead, the water evaporates and the gypsum is left behind.  Water and wind break up the gypsum crystals into gypsum sand which is carried by the wind into the dunes.

It’s like a winter wonderland out here.

A pure white dune field is one of the rarest landscapes on earth.  Only a handful of gypsum dune systems exist, this is the largest.  Several films have included scenes filmed at the dunes, a couple I recognized where Transformers, 2006 and Year One, 2008.

The boardwalk between the dunes is a nice walk.

Lots of picnic areas throughout the facility.  All with shields to protect from the wind.

They have sleds available at the visitor center if you feel adventurous.  

After you leave the paved road about halfway through the facility you are on packed gypsum which looks like ice.

New Mexico, Alamogordo - Saturday, April 14, 2018 - Boot Hill RV Resort

We left the Grande Vista RV Park a little after 9:00 this morning.  For the first time in six months we are out of Arizona.  My jobs while we are traveling (after we get the Jeep hooked up) is to fetch snacks and drinks and to document the trip with pictures we can enjoy later.  Obviously I am out of practice, tried twice to get a good picture of the New Mexico sign without any luck.

Despite being windy we had a good day for travel.  Traffic was pretty light in most places.

We just drove by White Sands National Monument this year, we visited a few years back.  If you haven’t seen this place and have the opportunity to go, I recommend you stop.  Looks like the sands have taken over the fence along the interstate.

We are spending the night at the Boot Hill RV Resort in Alamogordo, NM.  This is a really nice place and the Good Sam rate for a full hookup 50 amp site was just $27.75.

To make this stop even more exciting McGinn’s PistachioLand is right across the road!  Sorry, I shouldn’t make fun, it is a nice place, and there is free wine, fudge and pistachio tasting.  In addition to wine, fudge and pistachios they have ice cream, cookies and all kinds of souvenirs.  Outside is the world’s largest pistachio, a 30 foot monument to the farm’s founder, Thomas McGinn.  We walked over so it was a nice way to spend an hour and get a little exercise.

We found a nice Pink Moscato I’m sure we will enjoy later.  The Hatch Red Chili Wine is for some of our more adventurous family and friends to taste when we get home.

New Mexico, Albuquerque - Saturday, April 22, 2017 - Heading to Amarillo

We’ve really enjoyed our time here in Albuquerque. We will be leaving tomorrow heading to Amarillo for an overnight stay.  We plan on taking advantage of the free breakfast provided by the RV Park before we leave.  We ate their breakfast on Thursday and were surprised that more than just bagels, juice and coffee were provided.  They offered yogurt, hard boiled eggs, cereal and waffles in addition to what we expected.

I forgot to mention in my post about the zoo that the combo ticket for seniors is just $10.00.  That gets you into the zoo, the aquarium, the botanical garden and includes unlimited train rides.

We had such fun square dancing with the clubs here.  Everyone was so welcoming.  One of the callers, Jerry Gilbreath, really knows how to mix things up so that even experienced dancers sometimes have to stop and think.  We found that the square dancers here are more vocal and enthusiastic than most we have danced with – sometimes it was hard to hear the caller over the dancers.

Friday during the day we spent catching up on laundry and cooking.  We cooked a whole chicken in the crockpot, part of it went into Cranberry and Almond Chicken Salad the rest will go in the freezer for something later.  A pot of beef stew made with Mrs. Dash Beef Stew seasoning, an Italian pasta salad and Oatmeal cookies are going to taste good as we travel this next week.

This morning, Saturday, we went grocery shopping at Smith’s which is part of the Kroger family.  The produce section is always our main target and the one here definitely differs from the Midwest ones we are most used to.  We could find cactus, many different kinds of dry beans sold in bulk, huge bags of dried chilis, corn husks for tamales, probably 20 kinds of tortillas and hundreds of piñatas of all different shapes and sizes.  However, if you wanted potatoes a ten pound bag of russets was your only option.  I still don’t know what we are going to do with ten pounds of potatoes, we’ll be eating those all the way back to Indiana.  I wonder if they always have the piñatas hanging everywhere or if they are just anticipating Cinco de Mayo sales.

They didn’t carry the brand of bread we are used to buying which fits into our low sodium diet so I had to look at the nutrition information.  I picked up one and showed it to Greg.  He said, “I can’t read it I don’t have my glasses.”  I said, “You couldn’t read it anyway, it is in Spanish.”  I have found though that as I’ve seen signs and advertisements in Spanish here they do mostly make sense to me.  Maybe if I was here for a longer stay I would find that four years of high school Spanish might come back to me.

This afternoon I’ve spent catching up on the blog.  I can’t let it get too far behind or I forget what I want to write about what we have seen.

New Mexico, Albuquerque - Thursday, April 20, 2017 - Zoo, Aquarium, Botanical Gardens

I suggested that Thursday would be the best day for our all day trip to the zoo, aquarium, and botanical garden complex. After all, people should be working, kids would be in school, and it should be relatively quiet.  That is the last time I get to do the thinking on our trip schedule.  It was Earth Day at the Zoo and every 2-5 year old in Albuquerque was there on a field trip along with their teachers, parents and younger brothers and sisters in strollers.

Flowers are out in full bloom here.

Most of the aquarium is too dark for good pictures.  The sting rays did show up pretty well.

These Garden Eels caught my eye.  I don’t know that I have ever seen them before.  They live in the ocean near coral reefs and sea grasses.  Colonies of these eels will burrow into the sandy sea floor.  Each of these muscular fish has its own burrow, which it lines with slime.  With its long body (sometimes 47 inches long) anchored in the burrow, the eel’s head sways in the water catching small fishes.

If an arm or ray of the Sea Star (star fish) is torn off it will be regrown.  A simple eye, which can sense light or dark, is located at the tip of each of the five rays.  The underside of a sea star is covered with suction cup-like tube feet.  With its powerful tube feet a star can pry open an oyster or clam and stick its stomach out of its mouth and into the mollusk.  Digestive juices liquefy the prey to be absorbed by the star.  This allows a sea star to hunt prey larger than its mouth.

A train runs from the botanical garden and aquarium area to the zoo and a place called Tingley Beach.  We rode in the cattle car.

This is a slow process as both trains pass at the Tingley Station.  One is headed toward the zoo, the other is coming back.

Most of the animals were laying in the shade so pictures didn’t turn out too well.  However, the giraffe couldn’t hide.

Some pretty well fed prairie dogs were out eating and playing.

This guy was the highlight of the day.  This is a male silver backed gorilla.  Just before he struck this pose he was running full speed across their large facility.  Just after this picture, as quick as any major league pitcher, he threw a fist full of poop at the crowd just down the sidewalk from us.  There are signs posted that things could be thrown at the crowd but I didn’t see them until after this happened.  Luckily the poop didn’t hit anyone.  After he made that amazing throw he went running full speed back to the other side of the enclosure.  I really think he knew just exactly what he was doing – and he did it well, you could almost see him smiling.

Flamingos can live up to 60 years in captivity.  They are born white, through successive molts they turn grey, brown and white, and ultimately pink from the pigments in their food.  I’m not sure I understand that because the information on their fence said they eat small crustaceans, mollusks, insects, worms, grass seed and algae – none of that is pink, unless it is the algae.

The Eastern Green Mamba is the smallest of the mamba family at an average length of six feet.  Its neurotoxic venom is being studied for Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s treatments.

The elephant yard is across from the train station.

This is a view of Tingley Park taken from the train.  It has three catch and release lakes for fishing.  Lots of people were out there.

Our last stop was the botanical gardens.  We were too tired to take advantage of all of the different gardens.  This arbor I think might be wisteria.  There was evidence of lots of purple blooms on the ground.  Wouldn’t this be a great place for a wedding?

Two conservatory buildings held flowers and cacti so perfect they didn’t look real.

This G-scale Railroad Garden was huge, but most of it was in the shade so my pictures didn’t come out real well.