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!