Loving Las Cruces

"Forget the leaves and branches
Go straight for the flowers"

Even though we lived in NY all of our lives Cliff and I thought we knew a lot of what the United States was all about.  We did well in Geography class, we know people who live in other states and we were able to do some travelling throughout the years.  The biggest thing I am learning on the road is how little I really know.  I always thought of it being cold in the North and hot in the South .. but didn’t know people in most states have to rake leaves in the fall, there is ice in Louisiana and Texas, spring happens in the desert and the wind in the Southwest can pretty much blow you away at any given moment.  I knew people were different in different parts of the country but it is so much fun to really understand the differences in cultures and what has influenced them over the years.  I always thought about there being the Rocky Mountains, and the Appalachians, and of course the Adirondacks, but I never realized just how mountainous and gorgeous so many other parts of the country are.

"Playing in the City of Rocks"

As much as we loved Texas we were ready to get out of the dry, sandy air.  We had thought about staying in El Paso, but wanted to move a little farther so we decided on Las Cruces - and we were so happy that we did; there was just something we loved about it.  It's a good size city, so we had everything we needed, but not so big that we couldn't get around.  And they have tried to keep it authentic, blending new buildings with old architecture and it really works.  We realized right away that there was tons of stuff to do and we wanted to see as much as possible.  There was so much to see and learn about the history of the country, not just recent history, but going back thousands of years.  I have never been really into geology – I have a hard time wrapping my mind around things that are that huge.  But when you are right in the middle of it, after a while it all starts making sense.  One of my favorite days was the City of Rocks.  It’s not a huge place but as you are driving along, you see mountains in the distance and then all of the sudden this outcropping of giant rocks is right in front of you. Formed by lava flow, they are huge and every size and shape you can imagine. The fun part is they don’t put any restrictions on you and you can climb and play all you want.  It truly was like we were little kids running around exploring like we had no grownups watching us.

"White Sands"

There was also White Sands Missile Range and National Monument, where, again you are driving along and suddenly start to see what you think is snow and gradually the land just gets whiter and whiter until you are  completely surrounded by pure white sand.  There are kids “sledding” on it and no restrictions on where you can go.  You can get disoriented very easily though because it all looks the same.  Another amazingly fun day spent like little kids in a sandbox.  

"Thanks for the warning"

I have mentioned before that the dryness of the air and the land was getting to us.  The whole south is in a drought and has been for quite some time now.  We could definitely see signs of it, but none more clear than when we drove through El Paso, expecting to see the Rio Grande separating the United States from Mexico.  We kept looking, and decided we missed it, only to find out that it is virtually gone.  It is so strange to see this dried up ravine where the river used to be.  We headed up to Riudoso NM, which is in the mountains.  We both said we could actually “smell” the water in the air and were so excited to see green trees and grass and deer and elk.  It was like coming home (except for the elk).  And the neat thing is that all of these fun, kidlike experiences were actually making us understand a little better, the history of the land, way back to volcanoes and oceans that we never knew existed.

There was also a ton to learn about military and space history.  White Sands National Monument is not only a fun place to play, but it is where a good portion of the military testing goes on.  They had a great museum guiding you all through the steps of how missiles were developed from the very beginning and there was a whole area where you could walk around the missiles and see them up close.   The Museum dealt with all of the research and development of Missiles throughout the past, and while we had planned on stopping in for a short time to get some pictures, we ended up spending a couple of hours, just fascinated by all that we didn't know.You have to drive through the missile range to get from town to town, and it was just amazing to see the vast amount of land and different types of testing sites and have a little bit of an understanding of what really goes on there.

On top of all that, the cultural history of New Mexico is amazing.  The park we were in was walking distance to the Town of Mesilla a fantastic old town where you feel like you are stepping back in time.  It’s where Billy the Kid had his trial and escaped from and it had great places to hang out. We were right in the middle of Billy the Kid territory, so we made sure to watch "Young Guns", one of Cliff's favorite movies.  It was so cool to watch and recognize lots of the places they showed and to see the scenery which we had been wandering through for days.

We were planning on walking across the border from El Paso to Mexico, but as we talked to people about it, they were very adamant telling us we didn't want to do that.  It turns out that Juarez, the Mexican town on the other side of the border is the murder capital of the world.  We made a good choice on that one.  It was also very interesting, and a little bit scary, that even though we never crossed the border we had to pass through many border patrol stations, some of them 50 miles from the border.  We were nervous at first, but only had to answer questions about our citizenship and let the police dogs circle us, but it was a little more scary having to go through one with the RV and all of our belongings following behind us.  Fortunately it wasn’t an issue.

 

"Having a beer in a
tee-pee bar"

There was a great gun range where we got to play, and we may have found a bar or two to sample some of the awesome New Mexico beers.  Where else can you visit a place called Elephant Butte, visit the chile capital of the world AND see the world’s largest pistachio?  We thought New Mexico was just going to be one of those states that we crossed through to get somewhere else.  We do look forward to getting to a place with shade trees and water in their streams, but Las Cruces was one of those great surprises, with great memories and it is definitely someplace we look forward to coming back to.