On the Road With Doris & Ez

We're going on a road trip!!!! Could be three weeks could be three years, we'll see. Read below to see where we are now.....

Friday, March 16, 2007

Exploring Southern New Mexico and West Texas – March 2007

We are traveling through the land of far horizons. Sometimes the terrain is so flat and the horizon so distant it seems you can see the curvature of the earth. That doesn’t mean it’s boring or featureless, just big. We sometimes drive for miles without seeing another vehicle or human habitation. It must be tough to scratch out a living in this harsh country. The roadsides are scattered with abandoned buildings, dilapidated trailers and faded signs for businesses long shuttered and gone. Some of these seem like somebody’s good idea gone bad; sometimes it doesn’t even look like a good idea!

There are still interesting sights, even if you have to drive a long way to see them. Mesilla is a small town just outside of Las Cruces that’s been a bustling burg since the 1850s. We loved the old adobe buildings lined up around the central square and the ceilings made of plaster, wooden beams and willow branches. In some places you could still see the straw and corn husks used as original building materials. Most of these buildings are now home to restaurants, gift shops and other tourist traps featuring what a friend described as “everything chili.” Billy the Kid hung out in these parts and we saw the building where he was tried and convicted of murder. Of course, I guess Pat Garrett gunned him down before he could keep his appointment with the hangman’s noose.

Today the town of Mesilla is surrounded by acres and acres of pecan farms. I hope we can return sometime when these beautiful orchards are green and leafy. We also made a stop at one of New Mexico’s few wineries – the St. Clair Winery in Las Cruces. The tasting was fun and we even picked up a few bottles to add to our “cellar.”






The Carlsbad Caverns are the big attraction in Carlsbad, New Mexico. We took ourselves on the self-guided tour and then joined a guided group to see another part of the cave. It’s awesome! Some of the cavern rooms are enormous and filled with an amazing variety of formations. On our tour, the guides turned off the lights for several minutes so we could experience absolute darkness – a bizarre and slightly unnerving feeling.

Our first stop in the Lone Star State was the town of Alpine. Despite the name, you won’t find Bavarian architecture or townspeople dressed in lederhosen, but there are some pretty large hills around! Alpine was our starting point for a day-long, 250+ mile road trip to Big Bend National Park. The Rio Grande didn’t look very grande when we visited, but the rocky cliffs rising above reminded us of the Grand Canyon and other familiar Arizona landscapes.

This is rugged, desolate country. You wonder what life was like for the people who eked out a living here over a hundred years ago, because it doesn’t look that easy even today. Before the national park was created, farmers lived the area close to the Rio Grande River, but their fields are gone today. We saw the ruins of a small adobe hut where Mexican farmer Gilberto Luna raised his large family until he finally died in 1948 at the age of 108! The crumbled remains of other old adobe buildings and abandoned settlements are scattered across the area. Ours was a quick trip, but this scenic area is definitely worth a longer visit.
Life at nearby Fort Davis might not have been as difficult as that of Gilberto Luna, but it was not without its hardships. Just north of Alpine, this fort was most active after the Civil War and protected traders and settlers traveling through the area from marauding Indians. When the two regiments of the famous Buffalo Soldiers who served at Fort Davis weren’t out on patrol, they reportedly suffered from long periods of inactivity and boredom. Some of the buildings here have been restored and furnished as they were during the 1860s and recorded versions of the bugle calls that marked the daily schedule of activities gave us an idea of what routine at the fort was like.

We’re headed toward San Antonio and Galveston, but our next stop on the way is Del Rio. Check back soon and we’ll tell you about it.

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