Las Cruces and Hatch NM

Yesterday was a busy one.  We woke up early to clear skies, a light wind, temperatures in the 40’s and a cold trailer.  Oops, helps if you remember to close the ceiling vent before you go to bed.  No problem, we’ll just turn up the thermostat on the propane heater to take the chill off and give the small electric space heater a helping hand.  Oops, no propane heat.  Heinz worked on it for about an hour and being the Renaissance man that he is, got the problem diagnosed and fixed.  Turned out to be a bare thermostat wire causing havoc.

After completing repairs and eating a quick breakfast we were off to Las Cruces, New Mexico, home of New Mexico State University, to look around.  While there we ran across an artist’s street fair and stopped to look it over and learned that February is Art Month in New Mexico.  Strolled the fair looking at all the wares, bought a jar of mesquite/wildflower honey and a necklace and earrings of turquoise, looked over the dogs up for adoption at the Humane Society’s booth (no, Suzi, we didn’t come home with one), and listened to the Mariachi band.

Street Fair

Street artist at work

 

Street Fair

The obvious

Drove around the town for a bit, then took the scenic back road up to Hatch, NM, home of the world’s best green chile peppers.

Hatch is a small town; village is probably a better word.  There is not much there except pepper fields and pecan orchards.  We did stop at a couple of chile stands, but as it will not be pepper season until the fall, we were not having any luck finding anything but ristras of dried peppers.  Then I noticed a sign outside of Chili Willie’s advertising frozen green peppers.  Heinz stopped (probably so he wouldn’t have to listen to me whine anymore) and we went in.  It was my lucky day.  We bought their very last bag of whole, frozen green chile peppers, a two-pound bag.  The woman in the shop told us that the first cutting of the season is traditionally Labor Day weekend.  Guess we’ll have to go back then.   You can order peppers on line, but they are pricey since they are shipped overnight.  And shipping them would also mean no trip to New Mexico for the Chile Festival!

Leaving Chili Willie’s, Heinz noticed a RV sales place with some old Airstreams on the lot.  Needless to say, we pulled in immediately to check them out.  There were three in all, 2 trailers and one motorhome, all from the 60’s and needing VERY big hugs.  All three had all the original fixtures and cabinetry, but would need complete overhauls.  Not real sure we’d be up to doing this again, but you could see the potential in all of them. 

We drove over to Mesilla (south of Las Cruces) to find a restaurant we had been told about, La Posta de Misella.  The restaurant has been open since 1939 and is in an adobe building that was originally built in the 1840’s by Roy Bean and his brother, yes, that Roy Bean…the hanging judge.  The place was later a stagecoach stop for the Butterfield Stage Line.  The building was terrific, the decorations phenomenal, and the food… to die for!

La Posta, the building is painted throughout

After eating WAY too much good food and drinking a really fine margarita made with Dos Luna tequila, we waddled out to the plaza and wandered around.  The area has quite a few old adobes and the oldest brick building in New Mexico, built in 1860.  The original owner opened a mercantile in the building and was killed in the building by bandits in 1866.  His heir came over from France to claim his inheritance and sold it to another man in 1886.  That owner was also killed in the building by bandits.  Over the years the building has been used for several different businesses and is now another shop.  We also got to hear the church bells and mass at the Basilica de San Albino on the plaza.

Basilica de San Albino

Shrine outside a home

Home doorway in Mesilla

And of course, we made some more friends along the way…

Today we are staying close to home as the temperature has dropped into the high 40's/low 50's and the wind is blowing 25-30 mph with gusts up to 40+.  There is dust in the air everywhere, so neither of us is feeling very ambitious about getting out and about.  Tomorrow we plan to head up to Alamogordo to see the White Sands National Monument and maybe do some hiking in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park.  Then on Tuesday we are planning to leave here and move our base of operations into the Gila National Forest in southwest New Mexico to try boondocking, fly fishing, and bird photography.  There are no services in the forest, so if I don't get a post out tomorrow night, we'll catch you up on our adventures when we get to Albuqurque in a week or so.