A little stop in Las Cruces, NM

Las Cruces, NM

March 4, 2015 to March 7, 2015

Being chased by cold drizzly rain again we headed farther west to Las Cruces, NM.  We stayed at an over 55 park called Sunny Skies RV.  The cost for 3 nights was $108.  It was fairly quiet, but there was nightly train nearby and it was a little harder to navigate the city streets to get to.  Most folks there were there for the winter with only a few transient spots.  All in all it was an ok place to stay.

We headed out to White Sands Missile Range just east of Las Cruces to visit their museum.  You stop at the gate and go in for clearance and to obtain a pass.  The museum is located near the front gates and has a static display of various rockets tested at the range including scud busters, patriot missiles, even the Redstone rocket that Alan Shepard sat atop as he blasted off in Mercury 1, the first blast off in the space race.  They have a nice museum that included a diorama of the McDonald Ranch located at the Trinity site where they did the final assembly of the ‘gadget’ created at Los Alamos, 200 miles north.  

The security gate

could this really be a circuit board?

The Gadget

The ranch used for the Trinity detonation test

A Scud Buster

Fat Man 

Not an alien spacecraft

Redstone Rocket 

I learned that the Space Shuttle Columbia landed there in 1982 as an alternate site from Edwards due to weather.  They had displays of emergency fall out shelter supplies and the measuring/recording devices used in the various missile tests.  We spent a little while there reading all the information.  It was a nice museum and displays.  They had a small book/gift shop.  

 We headed to Alamogordo for lunch in search of Mexican Food   We enjoyed a couple of lunch specials at Margo’s Mexican of enchiladas and chile relenos.  I had the green sauce, Eric had the red.  Both were very good!  After we were full we visited a pistachio farm home of the world’s largest pistachio.  We sampled every kind of flavored pistachio and even chocolate chile covered.  Yummy, but how much can we keep eating?  We selected a bag of plain and a bag of lemon/lime and called it good.  We tend to spend less on junk food if we are full!

On the way home we stopped by White Sands National Monument.  White Sands is a 275 square mile desert of gypsum, the largest in the world.  It is a sea of white sand and is always changing due to winds.  We hiked along the dunes and I was surprised that it felt like sugar crystals.  Plants grow out of the dunes and the yucca’s look pretty cool against the white backgrounds.  There is lots to do here in the summer with ranger led walks on full moon nights, sunset strolls, sunrise photography sessions and bike rides on full moon nights.  These all sound like fun if you time your visit just right.

A visit to the little historic town of Mesilla was in order to see the little square and the San Albino Basilica.  We did a little shopping around the square and we both wanted some hand blown glass wine glasses.  We asked if they could wrapped them really good and they assured us they could.  We splurged on them for when we ever settle down and get a house.  An old friend of Eric’s suggested we try Andelay’s for lunch.  We both got the carbon tacos and has plenty left over.  They were very good and we even saved room for the sopapillas.  So good!  We stopped into their mercantile and picked up some green chile tamales.  I can’t wait to try them.  

Fancy new glasses

Billy the Kid was transported from Mesilla to Lincoln where he escaped

We made a little westward detour to cross over the Rio Grande.  I was sad to see it so low, it was a trickle.  As we went further north around Taos and Sante Fe, it was larger and running faster.  

We paid a visit to a manufactured housing dealer near the RV park just to see what they look like and get an idea of the cost.  That may be our exit strategy from full timing, but not yet!  We are still having so much fun and we are not ready to settle anywhere!

Las Cruces is not my idea of a destination, but we enjoyed our visit here.  There was lots to see and do and it was on the way to Santa Fe, next on the adventure!