On the Road Again – February 2007

After two and a half months in Phoenix, Ez and I decided we had itchy feet and it was time to hit the road. Our game plan is to head east, follow the gulf coast, and arrive in Orlando in early June. From there we’ll be flying to Europe to spend two weeks with our daughter Jennifer and her husband Eric who live in Ireland. Lucky us!

So far we’ve made it as far as Deming, New Mexico, a wind-blown town under cloudless blue skies at the end of miles of arrow-straight interstate. We were fortunate enough to be here when the winds reached 30-40 miles per hour, so we spent the first day tucked away in our bouncing, rocking motor home. A perfect day for Scrabble and cocktails!

The next day we headed out on a road trip to the old mining town of Silver City, over the rugged Mimbres Mountains and down to the Rio Grande Valley. We passed through a couple of other small, picturesque historic towns on our way to Hatch, the famous chili capital of New Mexico. At this time of year the fields are fallow and all is quiet, but we did see some chili stands (see the pic above) and stopped for lunch at a little local restaurant where Ez sampled some chicharrones (pork skin simmered in a red chili sauce). He now knows he definitely prefers burritos . . .

Before coming to Deming, we spent a week in Tucson, one of our favorite Arizona cities. Here we took the opportunity to visit Biosphere 2, a popular tourist stop that we’d always missed in the past. You might remember the Biosphere, an immense greenhouse-like building where a small group of researchers was sequestered for months at a time in an attempt to see if humans could replicate the earth’s environment in outer space. We toured the various climates created inside the structure and heard how the low oxygen levels and lack of food led to conflict and strife between the researchers. Of course, some of the scientists married after they left the experiment, so I guess not all of their time was spent fighting! No experiments are going on now, but it was cool to see this amazing structure.

We headed south another day to visit the Arizona wine country. This is a beautiful area with golden, rolling hills scattered with cattle ranches. There are a few small wineries centered near the little town of Elgin, but they sure are a far cry from some of the charming wineries in California and the Willamette Valley! At the winery we visited the bottling equipment is outside under a porch and the tasting room was used to store an old TV and other rummage. I know we bought a couple of bottles when we visited before, but this trip we passed on their current selections.

We’ve also played a few rounds of golf in the last couple of weeks at some very different courses. In Tucson we joined our good friends Bill and Melanie for a fun afternoon chasing the little white ball followed by dinner at a terrific Mexican restaurant. (Check out El Sabroso when you’re in Tucson!) We traveled down to the historic town of Tubac and played at the beautiful Tubac Golf Resort. And in Deming we battled those 30-mile-an-hour winds for 15 holes on a scrubby local course before we finally gave up and ran for the shelter of our home on wheels.

It’s fun to be back on the road again. The territory we’re passing through is new to both of us and we can hardly wait to see what’s around the next bend. We’ll be going through Las Cruces and Carlsbad before heading to the Lone Star State. Stay tuned. .