Back on Mountain Standard Time!

Before leaving El Paso, Denis spent the morning at the War Eagles museum. Vintage aircraft from WWII, the Korean and Viet Nam wars; also 49 vintage cars and motorcycles. A bit of history - the first use of planes & motorcycles by the US military was when they were chasing Pancho Villa around this area. Sorry Dave no cannons but there were rockets.

War Eagles rockets

So it's good-bye to Texas and hello New Mexico. We camped at La Vina vineyard, of course tasted and bought some wine and wonderful cheese. The craft/farm market the next morning was disappointingly small. Most of the usual participants were at show elsewhere,
we bought a dozen eggs and continued on our way. We walked around a pecan grove on the vineyard property. There are miles and miles of pecan groves in Texas and New Mexico. Travelling the secondary road towards Las Cruces, we passed through the small town of San Miguel. We noticed a group of people on horseback and a crowd standing around as well. We found a place to park and walked back there to find that it was a Catholic mass being celebrated. There we about 40 people on horseback, some in full Mexican costume with suits and sombreros and ladies with full ruffled skirts. The priests served communion to the mounted participants from a set of steps.

Just a few of the vaqueros

I think the priests had a more precarious perch than the lady on horseback

Leaving the trailer in Las Cruces we drove across the highway to old Mesilla, incorporated in 1848. This area was part of Mexico until 1864 so the architecture reflects that influence and has been well preserved. The courthouse where Billy the Kid was convicted is now a gift shop. In the evening we went to the University grounds where 7100 luminarias lined walkways. Luminarias are paper bags with a couple inches of sand in the bottom and a candle. There were carriage rides, carolling, hot chocolate and kids activities; and all in your shirtsleeves and not a drop of snow. It just didn't seem quite right!

Heading west again we spent another night at a winery in Demming. We waved adios to New Mexico and moved on into Arizona. On the Arizona side of the border you travel through Texas Canyon, an area of huge boulders, quite unique terrain. We camped in Benson for a couple days. We took a day trip to Tombstone, visited Boothill and saw a gunfight. Walked around the town and took a trolley ride. Then we continued on to Bisbee, it was a copper mining town. Talk about cliff dwellings the buildings are built up and down the steep hills, we noted a lot of staircases. The town has been declared a National Historic site. It would be an interesting place to spend some time. We saw another interesting spot, maybe part of Bisbee or a separate town called Lowell; it was like an outdoor museum.
From there we continued our circle to Sierra Vista, hummingbird capital of the US, and back to Benson. Tomorrow we are visiting the Kartchner Caverns before leaving for Tucson.

Just a few collectibles including the guy behind the truck!



Eastward Ho is Heading West

Continuing our visit to San Antonio - We visited 2 of the missions, San Jose and Mission Conception. There are 4 besides the Alamo which was originally a mission also. All are active Catholic churches with the exception of the Alamo. At San Jose we took a tour with a park ranger, all of the mission except the church is a National Park. 

Well the highlight of our San Antonio stay! The light up parade (30th annual) on the Riverwalk! We lucked out with our table, when we made the reservation we were on the back of the patio at a bar table, higher and with bar stools. The manager showed us the table and said he'd get some stools with backs for us. He seemed concerned that the decrepit old fogeys might fall off the stools after a glass or two of wine. On the night of the parade we arrived and were seated front and centre, they had crowded 3 tables (with 2 people at each) in where usually there are 1 four person table and 1 two person table. We 'rubbed elbows' (literally) with our neighbours - Gail and James from Houston, who come every year to see the spectacle!

Canadian Christmas Float!

Riverwalk after light up

Alamo Plaza

Our last day, Denis visited the Texas Ranger museum and I went to the Spanish Governor's Palace and walked along as much of the Riverwalk as I could. There were more people on the Riverwalk and the Alamo Plaza than the previous night. In passing we heard that the wait for a table at one restaurant was an hour and a half. I wanted to sit out along the Riverwalk but most places had a minimum half hour wait, luckily we scored an inside table in front of an open full length window, so we were in the midst of the action and no wait!  Sad to leave San Antonio, not sure if I'm done here.

One night in Del Rio, tried to go to Val Verde winery (1883, oldest winery in Texas) but they were closed :(. On the road again we stopped at Langtry and visited the Judge Roy Bean, only law west of the Pecos,  museum. The terrain is mostly flat, scrubby mesquite and cactus seem to dominate.  And the border patrol, it is amazing how many miles of nothingness they patrol, they must be the biggest employer in the area. We spent 2 nights in Alpine, most of the RV's in the park looked like they hadn't moved in years! We set out bright and early, well kind of early, for Big Bend country. We visited the ghost town of Terlingua, where mercury was mined in the late 1800's. Continuing on we stopped in Lajitas, mostly a golf resort  Part of the resort has been built to look like an old west town. When we were reading some history panels we met  a couple guys from New Zealand. Opening comment, very nice truck! We continued along the Rio Grande, some very beautiful scenery. The one fellow had been to Canada, even to Edmonton. We were both surprised, we thought the Rio Grande was a bigger river; then we read a panel that it is 'greatly diminished'. 95% of the water is diverted, mostly for agricultural needs but also for cities. It seems incredibly sad that 'the powers that be' have allowed that much  disruption. I did not get my feet wet, did not cross the border but my phone gave me a 'welcome to Mexico' message!


Rio Grande, greatly diminished

Heading to the west Texas town of El Paso! We saw a blimp, actually a 'Tethered Aerostat', so the border patrol gets some help with surveillance.

We spent the last couple days exploring around El Paso and we are leaving the 'cowboy boot capital' without buying any boots, although I saw a pair of English riding boots that were tempting. We tried out Famous Dave's BBQ, not quite up to Denis' and Cody's standards but pretty good. We're moving across the state line to New Mexico tomorrow, camping at a winery, we might not get any farther!