Happy Birthday Jim!

Sunday, April 18, 2010

El Paso Tx  to  Benson Az  280 miles

Day 23

   
We spent the morning doing housecleaning RV chores,  then headed about 45 minutes north west on I10 to meet my friend for a little touring and lunch.

They brought us to Old Masilla, a historic town a few minutes south of Las Cruces NM.  It is similar to Santa Fe, but on a smaller scale.  Beautiful, thick-walled adobe buildings that now house shops and restaurants, around a village square.  Today,  arts and crafts booths framed the perimeter, and I bought  a couple of things. 

Me and the birthday boy

For the first time on the trip, I forgot my camera in the RV.  Luckily my friend had hers and took photos.  Later I discovered that even if I had gone back for my camera, I still wouldn't have been able to use it because my memory card was left in the lap top!  They say the memory is the first to go....

Lunch was at La Posta Restaurant.  with its beautiful decor, my friend said it had atmosphere and she was so right!  I don't believe I've ever had a margarita at the stroke of noon before.  It was one of the better ones I've had, not that I've had THAT many...but it is the only alcoholic drink that I like.  The dish I ordered was La Posta Chica, 'chica' means small...it wasn't.  But I ate practically all of it, would have eaten ALL but my wimpy palate couldn't handle heat of one the things on the dish.  Oh...and I have NO idea of what I ate, except for the taco, which I recognized.  At least nothing had TWIGS in it, like my last Mexican meal!

Enjoying Margaritas!

Small?  No, and that's without the dessert that came with it!

As you enter the restaurant...

Part of the town square and church in Old Mesilla

All too soon it was time to leave.  We were hoping to be able to get close to Tombstone AZ by evening.  We were out of town and immediately into range lands.   There are areas where many dust storm warning are posted, thankfully we didn't have to deal with that.  I could see rain showers heading toward El Paso, but we didn't encounter any rain today! 

Yesterday we left the Central Time Zone somewhere near Van Horn Texas.  Today we entered the Pacific Time Zone when we crossed over into Arizona.  We are so confused...the only way we know the correct time is to look at our cell phones!  The good news was that we gained an hour so drove a little further and make it to the city of Benson, located at the exit for Tombstone, about 25 miles south of here.

This RV park is very nice.  One of the nicer ones we've stayed in, heated pool, spa, dog walks, cable, good WIFI, near stores...and unfortunately also near a double RAILROAD TRACK!    The train whistles woke us many times during the night.  All the nicer RV places around also seem to be close to the tracks too...

Tomorrow, is going to be cool, cloudy and showery...what a surprise!  We are going to tour Tombstone.  You know....Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, OK Corral, Boothill...etc.