Chasing Billy the Kid

  Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States
Sunday, July 13, 2008

This will be our final stretch on I-10 for a while. We've traveled on this all the way from Florida and we'll finally be making a turn to the north on I-25. Where these two meet is the towns of Las Cruces and Mesilla, NM. It's amazingly green here in the NM desert. The summer is the rainy monsoon season. We've also finally gotten to some mountains, at least compared to what we're used to in Florida. And there are more to come that will dwarf these. We're at 3900 feet above sea level now though the rise has been gradual.

Las Cruces Mountains

Our trip to Taos and beyond will be the beginning of the real mountains. We left Fort Stockton and drove though El Paso, the site of Deb's RV driving test adventure on our way out from California in November of 2006. On the way we stopped to dewater the dogs and switch drivers. We were in the middle of west Texas, a very inhospitable place.

Texas Range

Desert Cactus

I can't imagine crossing this on horseback or in a stagecoach. We crossed into New Mexico and stopped at the tourist information center which had a sign warning of rattlesnakes. I don't know if that was for real or just put up as a photo-op for gringos. We then cruised on into Las Cruces to the Hacienda RV Resort. It seems like every RV place is now a "resort" but this one actually lives up to its name with nice sites, club house, spa, exercise room, etc. We got set up and then did a provisioning run before going to dinner at La Posta, a New Mexico Mexican restaurant in the old town of Mesilla. The building was built in the 1840s and served as a stage stop and hotel before becoming a restaurant in 1939. Many of the buildings surrounding the square in Mesilla date from the mid 1800s when New Mexico was still a territory. In reading the tourist info we picked up, we found out that New Mexico did not become a state until 1912 and was the 47th state. Bonus points for those who can name the 48th, 49th, and 50th states in order (without looking here). Mesilla was the territory capital in the old days and its claim to fame is that William Bonny, a.k.a. Billy the Kid,

Billy the Kid

was caught, tried, and hung here in 1881 at the age of 21. As I mentioned, summer is monsoon season in the Southwest, and this evening was no exception.

Another Monsoon Storm

 
When we came through here in the fall of 2006, we discovered that New Mexico makes wine. Who knew? The two vineyards that have tasting rooms in Las Cruces/Mesilla are St. Claire and Luna Rossa. We stopped at both tasting rooms and bought some more wine for our trek until we get to California.St. Claire is the largest winery in New Mexico and bottles wine under four different labels.  Both vineyards make viognier which is quite good. The St. Claire folks make a white merlot that has wonderful strawberry note.
 
After the wineries, we went to the old Mesilla town square and wandered around. The square is anchored by an old Spanish mission church, San Albino,

San Albino at Sunset

and is ringed with tourist shops selling Indian silver and turquoise and restaurants serving the usual tourist fare. We wandered in and out of the shops and Deb tried on several outfits at one shop but nothing struck her fancy. Walking around the square in the twilight was very peaceful.

Evening out in Mesilla

 
On to Santa Fe