American RV Park, El Paso, TX

We drove to LAS CRUSES, NM to see the sights. From the conical mountain named Picacho, standing solidly beneath the western mesa, to the soaring stovepipes of the Organ Mountains to the east, behind the hump of Tortuga peak, Las Cruces and its neighboring villages and towns occupy all of the Mesilla Valley and spill upward onto the heights. It’s an elderly city with many attractions, diversions and destinations.
The city’s name means "the crosses." Legend has it that the crosses were to mark the graves of three unlucky travelers on the Camino Reál, perhaps as long as 400 years ago. The blending of the indigenous peoples with the Spanish colonists and later the cowboy and western settlers makes for the compelling, spicy mixture of language, cuisine and lifestyle of today's Las Cruces. What was once a travelers' rest stop on that ancient road has itself become a destination for travelers — Forbes magazine’s number one small metro area in which to do business, and Money Magazine’s top area in which to live.
We drove through the historic La Mesilla town that has excellent restaurants and small shops. Couldn't stop long enough to really indulge ourselves.



Stahmann Farms, Australia's legendary pecan company, is the world's largest family-owned pecan grower, and harvests millions of pounds annually. The Company runs a fully integrated operation from farming to processing, value-adding, gourmet baking, sales and marketing. Located on US 70 between Alamogordo and Las Cruses, the above picture was of the dormant tree farms that went for miles. We stopped at their country store to explore and I loved the convection's and gourmet sauces and spent far too much. Everything I bought was superior in quality and taste. Their pecan icecream was to "die" for!
Ray's Reflections:
Our last stop in Texas was El Paso. We stayed just north eight miles, next to Camping World. Very nice large park with no foliage at all and a view of snow-covered mountain tops to our East and North. Traffic in town was heavy so I decided to ride to our next stop in Deming, NM 90 miles to the west and check out the parks in the area. The trip over and back was uneventful on straight I-10, loaded with 18-wheelers and most were friendly and waved back. Mountains would appear on the horizon and I started calculating how far I could see. Turns out in this area visibility was 40-50 miles, again no trees, but the desert view constantly changes. With an occasional herd of cows, road runners, and sheep. After looking at all RV parks in Deming, I changed parks to the one north of town. The one we had selected via internet was on a 1.5 mile dirt road. I do not Do DIRT!
I traveled to Deming by bike on a beautiful day, minimal winds and noticed many signs along I-10 warning of dust storms. The day we moved to Deming, we had head winds at 30-50 mph with gusts , now I understood the reason for the signs. Several days later, Marsha and I rode the bike to Columbus, NM, next to the Mexican border. The first mountain we passed on the left was Florida Mountain. Strange but true. Route 11 again was mostly straight with a border check point 6-8 miles from the border. Also, we passed an old movie set along the highway with fake frontages and a WWI original plane mounted 40 ft. off the ground on a swivel. We stopped at Poncho Villa State Park and took a few pictures and headed back. About 15 miles from the border was a tethered blimp, now in the Florida Keys tethered blimp meant radar, is this the same in New Mexico? b:if cond='data:blog.pageType !="item"> >