Saturday March 9th, 2019 – We drove into El Paso to find the Surreal Art Gallery and Sculpture Garden. We met the artist Ho Baron at his home and he was kind enough to give us a tour. Ho was generous with his time and explained how his pieces came to be. The sculptures were definitely surreal. He has smaller works that are made with dolls that are certainly unusual! We spent at least an hour visiting with Ho, who has 2 Masters degrees and has traveled to 40 countries as well as being in the Peace Corp. 

He published a book of his work (which we happily purchased) and signed it for us. If you want to see more about him and his unusual art you can go to hobaron.com and learn all about him.

It was a great stop for a unique opportunity. I don’t think in our travels we’ve seen anything quite like his work. It was an experience to remember.

Our next stop was Historic Downtown El Paso. There’s a lovely old theater there. The Plaza Theater was presenting Evita and it was nice to see the crowd all dressed up for the theater presentation.

Since it was an Art Day we walked to the El Paso Museum of Art and took in centuries old paintings, contemporary artists and youth art. It wasn’t a huge museum but it certainly filled the bill. If you look closely at the black and white mural you can get a sense of its size – that’s me at the foot of it.

We took a quick trip through El Centro at the edge of downtown. The buildings were colorful and the stores fronts full of all kinds of stuff from over the border. Lucky’s limited storage keeps shopping to a minimum for us so we just took a look and called it a day.

Side Note:  81% of El Paso’s population is Hispanic or Latino. El Paso has an estimated population of 679,000. That’s a population density of 2,500 people per square mile! Just across the Border is Juárez, Mexico which is #20 on the top 50 Highest Murder Rates in a non-warring country. Yet El Paso, a stones throw away has a murder rate of 2.9 per 100,000. St Lois Missouri in comparison was 64.9 per 100,000. Since 1997 El Paso has been ranked one of the top 3 safest cities.

The photo above is a view of El Paso from the Scenic Drive Overlook. 

Friday March 8th, 2019 – Yep, I had a Birthday so the day was mine. I know, I know, how totally unlike me to want a couple of cocktails, some time at the casino and a fun dinner out! I’ve hit another life goal and have Medicare on board. We kicked off my 65th with drive to the Sunland Casino and Race Track. We didn’t do the horses but we did sit in the Race Track bar for a drink. We stayed and played (they have 700 slot machines) for hours. The casino was kind enough to give us 30.00 each in free play for signing up for their Players Card, sweet! We had a blast but alas no big win for me. Luckily we are a team and JP won back what I lost. So, no harm-no fowl for our gambling day.  Every time I used my Players Card the machine wished me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

Afterwords we had dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. It was our first visit so they gave us a sampler of sides to go with out hot buns and sweet butter. The food was great and was plenty for dinner a second night. The service was hopping and the crew took a break to do a little line dancing between the tables. Add a giant margarita with a Patron Shot for a mere 2.00 and we were totally fans!

We made a stop at Cabella’s so JP could pick up a bass rod and reel he’s been hankering for. I guess that cancels out his win balancing my casino loss but he was happy, so what the hay! 

Thursday March 7th, 2019 – Today was a drive day and we were out in time to only have a little of the big wind that was in the forecast for mid-day today. The roads are under construction so it took a bit to get to Anthony through the detours. We found the El Paso West, Journey KOA behind our arch-nemesis Camping World. The KOA is clean and out of the way but it is desert mountain landscape so its mostly a flat treeless lot (otherwise described as a “desert-paradise).”  The KOA is at the base of Franklin Mountains State Park so that does make a nice backdrop. 

Wednesday March 6th, 2019
We drove about an hour to White Sands National Monument. It’s pretty amazing to see miles of white sand in every direction. The sand made a glare like snow on a sunny day. There were hiking trails, dunes to slide down in saucers, and cool looking picnic areas. It’s 275 miles of gypsum sand –  the largest gypsum dune on earth. It’s so big astronauts can spot it from space!

After we drove the White Sands Loop we headed toward Alamogordo to see the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

HAM, the first chimpanzee to travel into space is buried on the grounds.

There were interactive displays, simulators, missiles, and rockets.
It wasn’t huge but it was interesting.

There was an Induction Gallery honoring Gene Roddenberry as the newest inductee into the International Space Hall of Fame. The exhibit had all kinds of Star Trek memorabilia, photos and info. Who doesn’t want to say “Beam me up Scotty”?  Now you see us – then you don’t!  

Our last stop was at Hi D’ Ho Drive in for dinner. It’s ranked #1 of 53 places to eat in Alamogordo. It’s a local fav and you could tell – the drive-in spaces were all full. Imagine a BLT plus a burger served on grilled Texas toast, hot and yummy fries with a fresh squeezed lime-aid. No wonder it’s #1!

We headed back to Las Cruces at sunset fat n’ happy!

Tuesday March 5th, 2019 
Las Cruces has been a good place for us to take care of business. We decided to do our 90,000 mile service on the truck, tied up loose ends for my Medicare. Nothing exciting to report but it’s a relief to have our to do list almost complete, the truck good to tow and our taxes mailed off.

Sunday March  3rd, 2019 – Today we went to the Old Town of Mesilla. Its was small but had lots of character. It dates back to the 1800’S and by the 1870’s was in its prime.

The town still has a historic feel with its bricked streets and adobe style buildings. According the Visitors Guide, many of the residents are direct descendants of its earlier settlers. There were some cool store fronts, a myriad of shops with a Mexico flavor and some upper end boutiques. One of the stores had amazing hand stitched boots (the price is on the picture to the right). 

We were there just as the Basilica of San Albino service was just letting out. Its a lovely church built in 1855 and rebuilt in 1906.

One of the towns claims to fame is that Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced here.

We stopped into an Art Gallery and met the lovely Kay Susin who was kind enough to have her photo taken with her work. The photo between us is called “Whispers of Spring” and was the 2018 first place selection at the Sun Bowl Art Exhibit at the International Museum of Art in El Paso.

Our last stop was to Andeles for a good (and HOT!) Mexican meal. I probably didn’t need TripAdvisor to tell us this is THE place to eat in town. We could probably have guessed by the crowd! We certainly aren’t in Oregon anymore – I had the green sauce (mild they said) and my mouth was still on fire!

Saturday Feb 2, 2019 – Today we headed into Las Cruces for the Farmers Market . It felt SO good to be outside with no jacket and the sun overhead! There were lots of people, some unique hand crafted items, local produce, honey and baked goods. The picture on the right is of a booth that sold toys – being created on the spot with a 3D printer – that was a new one for us!

There were some interesting historic buildings and the movie theater was cool and showing matinees for the kids. 

Later we scored a great meal at Rudy’s BBQ. I’m so glad we have the internet to scope out great eats while were traveling. This place was super casual with folding chairs and picnic tables but it had a great vibe and REALLY good BBQ! 

Side Note: Its a little weird to see the stop lights horizontal rather than vertical. We’re guessing its due to the wind here.

February 28th – March 1st, 2019

We had sunshine and clear skies driving to Las Cruces. The Las Cruces KOA is called Journey and sits just outside of town. We spent our first day just getting settled in and making a plan. We decided this would be a good spot to take care of business.
We had the oil changed and tires rotated on the truck, went to the library to print and copy, finished up the taxes and tied up loose ends. Even on the road there’s a “to do”list!

Wednesday Feb 27th – We made a trip downtown to old Historic Silver City. There is a lot of ART there! The stores are even singled out by “ART” on their windows and the sidewalk in front of their stores and galleries. JP chatted with a couple of artists and grabbed a photo with their work.

We popped into the Historic Plaza Hotel. It dates back to 1880 and is still up and running. 

We had a really good lunch at Diane’s Downtown. It certainly earned its TripAdvisor rating. The restaurant was pretty, the service was good, the beer was cold and the food fresh and yummy!

We filled the second half of our day with a trip to City of Rocks State Park.  135,000 years ago there was a volcanic event 1,000 times bigger than Mt St. Helen’s that caused these rock formations to form. They’re huge and have interesting shapes and formations. The State Park is a Campground too. It’s weird to see a RV nestled in-between the towering rocks. 

The picture below gives an idea of the size of these rocks – Jerry is at the base.

Tuesday Feb 26th – This morning we drove Hwy 180 S to Bill Evans Lake, another Trophy Bass Lake. The lake was small but pretty. JP looked happy fishing under clear skies and sunshine! We stopped in a little town called Cliff so JP could visit with a local fishing guide. He builds fishing rods and knew the scoop on all things bass. The cold weather doesn’t make for good bass fishing.

We keep crossing the Continental Divide at 6,355 feet.