Tucson to Las Cruces, NM, Jan. 21-28, 2010

---

THE BASICS
Friday featured a lunch at the gorgeous old Arizona Inn in Tucson. Next day, we walked the self-guided tour of "Historic Downtown Tucson." Then we drove to the DeGrazia Gallery.

On Sunday, we decided to leave Tucson and drove as far as Willcox, AZ, stopping at the wonderful Amerind Foundation en route. Monday we visited Chiricahua National Monument, and Tuesday ventured to Cochise's Stronghold.

Wednesday, on the road again, to Las Cruces, NM. Thursday we walked in the White Sands National Monument, and then paid homage to lost astronauts at the Memorial Garden of the NM Museum of Space History. We dined at La Posta, a renowned Mexican restaurant in Mesilla, just south of Las Cruces.

THE FLUFF
When I met my high school lockermate Carolyn at the Arizona Inn, she led me back through multiple courtyards and gardens with vividly flowering plants and past several restaurants until we arrived at poolside. No one was swimming; it is cool out here. The Inn is just across the street from the UMC, where victims of the shootings had been treated. After lunch, we drove to Carolyn's home in the foothills of the Catalina Mountains. Carolyn is an artist and interior decorator, and her house is fascinating and gorgeous. She said that the infamous Safeway is her grocery store, just three blocks from her home. But we were learning that Tucson blocks are nothing like NYC blocks, so we didn't go to the site.

On our walking tour of downtown Tucson, we first encountered an anti-abortion parade. Later, we arrived at the Congress Inn where Dillinger Days were being celebrated. Dozens of autos from that era were lined up outside, shining in the sun. We were a bit unsettled by all the actors running around with guns; it was two weeks to the day after the horrible Tucson shootings. We had a pleasant picnic lunch in a colorful downtown square, then headed off to visit the DeGrazia Gallery, on Carolyn's recommendation. Tucson has grown, and it is a long drive from one end to another. We encountered lights and busyness, and did not enjoy the ride at all. We clocked 21 miles back to our RV park, and adjourned to the hot tub to relax.

There were still some possible places to go in Tucson, but we were ready to get out of our second big city of the short trip so far. The terrain east of Tucson is pretty much flat desert with distant mountains, but gradually it changed to the rolling hills that we enjoy. The Amerind Foundation (American + Indian) in Dragoon is lovely. There are small but splendid exhibits of artifacts from many different Indian cultures; many more are stored there, since it is a research foundation. The art gallery featured exquisite Indian artifacts, and then possessions of the man who had become fascinated by Indian cultures and moved there from Waterbury, CT, to establish the research center. At first, the scrimshaw carvings were surprising, but then they became understandable.

Willcox is a dusty town, which preserves its "historic downtown" yet has all too many abandoned buildings, as have too many of the towns we see. It is finding ways to thrive, however, and there are many wineries in the area. Our RV park there looked "dusty," but turned out to be surprisingly nice. RV folks were friendly, as usual, especially the guy who gave us a jump-start - which didn't work, and we puzzled and puzzled until we realized that the new key we had had made unlocks car doors but won't start a car.

The Chiricahua National Monument is 35 miles south of Willcox, through desert that is mostly barren - but there are rolling hills, and we much prefer this kind of terrain to city driving! In Chiricahua, there are "standing rocks", balanced on top of each other, formed long ago through volcanic eruptions. Somewhat similar to Bryce, although green lichens growing on the rocks substitute for Bryce's red coloration. We drove a winding road up to a mountaintop where the view was huge in all directions. The Indians had named the mountains out here "sky islands" because they are unconnected to each other, but small groupings stand apart. We took a brief hike (I am still overcautious about the ankle which I broke a year ago).

As we had driven through the barren desert terrain, I was puzzled about how the Apaches and soldiers had hidden from each other. We surely learned when we visited Cochise's Stronghold, about 40 miles southwest of Willcox. It consists of steep hills and huge boulders, rugged terrain where soldiers would not approach unless they were crazy. The history of how the US Army treated Cochise and Geronimo is not very pretty. We had a nice picnic lunch, sitting in our beach chairs in the parking lot of an attractive small campground, basking in the sunshine. Then we hiked a couple of miles into the canyons.

Just west of Willcox is Willcox Playa, a huge salt flat where tens of thousands of birds rest. Sometimes, when it rains, it becomes a lake, but usually it is just dry salt, and when the wind blows, there are swirling clouds of white. In fact, I kept being frustrated by the fact that any mountains seemed so hazy until you got really close. Between the Playa and the emissions from a huge power plant near it, I guess I should understand.

Our favorite thing about Willcox was the frequent train whistles, which were especially frequent from dusk to dawn. Why is that sound so reassuring yet exciting? I don't know, but it is.

It's almost 200 miles from Willcox to Las Cruces, but we arrived in time to "plug in" and explore the nearby town of Mesilla, which has lots of history involving a Billy the Kid trial, the Gadsden Purchase, and more. There is a wonderful book store, and I succumbed to two southwest-related books.

White Sands is amazing. The "sand" is gypsum, worn down to a powdery substance. It moves; the Nature Center got covered over, and now they are assembling a mobile nature center! You can easily walk on the tall dunes, though, because just below the surface sand is like hardened plaster. We were mindful of the large most recent snowstorm hitting the Northeast, and I did make a "sand angel." Walking on the dunes is a very peaceful experience, and it is jarring to think that it is a missile testing range as well - in fact, there are warning notices that if you find a strange object, do not pick it up; tell an authority where it is. White Sands is another example of "Peace through Deterrence" (the slogan from the Titan Missile Museum), I guess.

After lunch, we chose to drive on to Alamogordo rather than return right away to Las Cruces. The NM Museum of Space History is a highly recommended site there, but we were not especially interested - until I noticed that there is a Memorial Garden dedicated to lost astronauts. Sometimes on this trip it seems that we are drawn to particular places, and as today is the 25th anniversary of the Challenger tragedy, I am very glad that I visited the Garden yesterday and paid homage to them all, especially to my fellow NH teacher Christa. Interesting: when I asked at the Museum entrance where the Memorial Garden was located on the grounds, the young woman at the counter asked if I meant the memorial to Ham, the first chimp in space. She looked high school age, and for her, Challenger was ancient history. She had to phone someone to learn the Garden's location.

It has been freezing overnight for the last week or more, and John has been working hard to keep RV parts from getting damaged. In the desert, it can be freezing at night, and does not actually warm up until afternoon. So we have only a few hours without multiple layers of clothing. The sky is almost always bright blue, so that John actually expressed relief when we had a cloudy day, because he was getting "bored" with the steady blue. Without clouds, though, we do not get spectacular sunsets, just soft ones.

Friday morning we visited a small railroad museum here in Las Cruces. They are hoping that a passenger line will be extended from Albuquerque down to El Paso through this town, with the nation's new thrust toward railroads. The problem is that old tracks can not accommodate high-speed trains.

While John waited for a service call to install a new water pump in the RV, Linda drove out to the NM Farm and Ranch Museum, which is in the foothills east of the city with a lovely view out over the city. Great museum! A gallery dedicated to the Dust Bowl (when the Soil Conservation Service that John worked for all those many years was established) and another dedicated to New Mexico history - natives, Spaniards, pioneers from the east, and plenty of spirited events. The most fun was riding around on a small cart to see the animals - many breeds of cows plus sheep and goats, horses boarded there for their cowboy owners. And especially to listen to the devoted, enthusiastic docent. To the east of the museum are the Organ Mountains, which I think are really cool. There are about a dozen jagged peaks in about the space which one peak ordinarily occupies out here.

It's Saturday morning and we are studying a sensible route from here to accommodate the upcoming nasty weather - 40's during the day and teens at night are formidable predictions, and today there is a high wind warning for the route we were considering, a condition which driving a big RV needs to take into account. So again we don't know where we will be next week, which is quite okay with us.

---

Comments

[Thora]

Sounds like fun!!