Las Cruces, NM and more!

Wed. Nov. 6th
We left Bernalillo by 9:30 am and headed south with Las Cruces, NM as our next destination. We reserved a spot at the local KOA before leaving which gives one a sense of ease knowing there is a place at the end of the day.
John figured we'd hit a truck stop type fuel station just the other side of Albuquerque. The first sign on the hiway for fuel lead us deep into a smallish town only to find we were too big for any of the stations. The second one wasn't much better but we did fit, just, and so fueled up and headed back down the road.
We rolled into Las Cruces around 3pm and "Minnie", the nickname I've given the Garmin, directed us to the KOA.
Set up camp and made a plan for the next few days.

Desert and rocks on the road to Las Cruces, NM

Rocks and desert....

Thurs. Nov. 7th
Took a tour of the local "Old Town" called Mesilla. Again, many really old buildings with plenty o' history. Much of it ending with good towns people or ranchers being murdered by rustlers or thieves. :O.
I happened to notice a pottery shop, heh heh heh, and just had to stop in. There were two women working away, one on pottery and one with fabric. We had a good chat and the potter (Diane Cook) showed me around her studio. Her husband (Bob Cook) also does pottery. He digs his own clay locally and makes great light fixtures. I purchased a lovely bowl depicting the red and green chiles that a such a big part of New Mexican cuisine.
The ladies suggested a restaurant called "Andele" for us for lunch so that is where we headed. John had the red chile pork bowl and I had the green chile beef bowl. Both yummy and sooo, sooo filling!
After lunch we waddled back to the car and had decided that we were so close to El Paso, Texas it would just be silly not to go take a look. It took us about half an hour to get to Texas and we purchased a post card.
We returned to the campsite in daylight.

An old historic building in Mesilla, NM

A cool doorway

Another cool doorway in Mesilla. Chiles ristras anyone?

The Potteries, Mesilla NM

Just one paddock of a MASSIVE dairy operation on the way to El Paso, TX

One of the large interchanges in El Paso, TX

  Fri. Nov. 8th
This is our first car only overnighter trip. We locked up the mo-ho and headed to White Sands National Monument which was our first stop on the way to Carlsbad. WOW! What an amazing and beautiful natural wonder. You can hardly believe your eyes when you see these gorgeous white sand dunes. As with many of the museums and parks, there was a very good, short video to teach/inform you of what you are about to experience. If you ever find yourself in New Mexico you MUST see White Sands! The photos speak for themselves.....

The start of the gypsum sand dunes at White Sands National Monument

A very large dune in the heart of the dune field

We have been told there are roadrunners all over NM. This is the closest we've come to seeing one...

Signs the nocturnal Kit fox had been around

Snowy, fine, white gypsum sand

Looks a lot like a road in winter back in Alberta, except it's sand not snow!

After spending a few hours, including a nice picnic, at White Sands Nat'l Monument we headed East towards Carlsbad. We had to cross the Sacramento Mountains. What a great drive!! It was a two lane, windy road but the pavement was very good the whole trip. A steep climb up into forested mountains and then back down into desert.
As we approached Artesia, the town at our junction, we caught a whiff of oil. Yes, we were in oil country! Pump jacks and batteries dotted the countryside. We drove through the town and at the junction, straight ahead and what I would call, right smack dab in town, was an oil refinery! They really do things differently here in the good ol' USA.
Turning South towards Carlsbad we employed "Samantha" to find our hotel. She took us to our accommodation via the outskirts of town avoiding the traffic and lights.
I used Urbanspoon to find a local restaurant for supper and we enjoyed a decent pizza at same.

Forest up on the mountain pass to get over to Carlsbad

Well lookey here, a ski lift. Doesn't look like they will be opening soon.

City of Champions! I hope their luck is better than Edmonton's lately....

As a closing note on this blog, I have been "blogged down" by painfully slow internet. This particular post is a second go as previously it was lost (after two hours of writing and uploading photos, grrrrr). I hope to get a couple more posts to catch up while I have decent internet.
Later taters!