Day #31 - 4/12/2011 - El Paso, TX to Las Cruces, NM - 48 miles

You can see our route from El Paso to the KOA campground in Las Cruces, NM HERE.


I guess I should say something about El Paso, this west Texas city of 800,000, stumbled upon by the Spanish in 1598 and really taking off after the Civil War, continuing to grow even now because of cross-border trade with Mexico...I should, but I'll limit it to how I knew of El Paso at the age of 6 because of the chart-topping hit by Marty Robbins, El Paso, that my mom played over and over and over on the record player in the basement as she worked on her ceramics.


Anyway...

Up at 4:45am after sleeping poorly…I think it was the low battery chirp of the smoke detector that kept awakening me at 60 second intervals.  Oatmeal, CNN, then out-the-door and on the road at 6am.  With the change to Mountain Time Zone, the sky was already light.  And, with El Paso being the biggest city we’ve been in for hundreds of miles, the major roads were already buzzing.  It didn't take very much biking to tell that we were no longer in the Texas desert along US90.

Did you know that wine making dates to the 1800s in the El Paso region of Texas?  I didn't, either.  Zin Valle Vineyards produces a full menu of wines.

Zin Valle vineyards dates to 2000.  While the climate may be suitable, there were some soils issues as the new owners brought in 100 tons of sandy soil to create planting rows of 3' deep.

The road we were on passed in and out of Texas and New Mexico but, after the winery, we remained in New Mexico.  Unfortunately, we took off on some small errant rural road and missed the Tex-New Mex border crossing sign.


But: what great landscape!   If any scenic feature defined the landscape upon entering New Mexico, it was the pecan orchards: neatly aligned rows of bare trees covering acres of land, often flooded.

Pecans are not native to New Mexico and were first planted in the early 1900s.  New Mexico now has about 30,000 acres of pecan trees that produced about 50 million pounds of nuts in 1999.  New Mexico State University's agricultural section has a department devoted to the industry.

The pecan farms were reminiscent of the large cattle ranches in Texas, but clearly with a different feel: a small managed forest versus acres of grass and cattle.  I preferred the pecan trees.

Pecan farms are available for purchase at a pretty reasonable price.  (You should click on this picture.  You should.)

Flood irrigation of pecan farms is a standard practice.

I lingered in this area, rather captivated by the trees reflecting in the water.  This is one of my favorite photos...you should click on it, too.  You won't regret it.

There were long stretches of highway, flanked by pecan orchards, where the cars would disappear long enough for it to become nearly silent.

Not quite as pretty as the pecan farms were the fields of picked cotton.

Cotton farming is an important issue in New Mexico as it touches on free trade as well as subsidies.

 We entered La Mesa, New Mexico, a 4-block square "town" where we stopped for a rest.

So, it turns out that right across the street from this gas station is the famed Chope's, a restaurant famous for its green chile dishes. 

I had been alerted by a friend about the cuisine in this part of New Mexico, especially the famed green chile dishes...but we missed out on it in this area!  The New Mexico chile, especially when harvested as green chile, is perhaps the defining ingredient of New Mexican food compared to neighboring styles. Chile is New Mexico's largest agricultural crop.  Chope's, it turns out, is legendary, with lunch crowds exceeding that of the local population.  Next time. ;(


We biked on, entering nearby La Mesa, New Mexico.  There was a church and not much else.

The San Miguel Catholic Church, a common church name in this area, dates to 1927.

The day was spent passing through mile after mile of pecan orchard...it was definitely one of the most scenic parts of the trip so far.  There is something I find special when the land becomes part of the livelihood of the people who live there.

I saw someone picking their nuts; it was pretty rude...I mean, it was just plain gross.

With signs alerting you for miles in advance, you eventually come across Stahmanns Country Store, surrounded by their own pecan farms. W.J. Stahmann came to the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico from Wisconsin, on a barge traveling down the Mississippi, keeping bees along the way, purchasing the first 2,900 acres of what was to become Stahmann Farms. He and his son Deane cleared the land with teams of mules and planted acres of cotton.  Seventy years later, in a prescient move, Deane Stahmann decided to pull out his cotton plants and plant the first pecan trees in the valley, 4,000 acres in total.  

Lani discusses pecans with one of the store workers.

 After planting another 2000 acres of pecans in Australia, Stahmann became the largest pecan growers worldwide.  Regardless, it turns out that Bob really doesn't care for pecans.

With all these pecan trees, I figured there would have to be pecan blossom honey.   Was not the case.

Moving along, we passed a home with a giant woodcarving by Richard Gonzales, a sculpture and woodcarver with a strong local reputation in the  Las Cruces area of New Mexico.  I spent a good 30 minutes trying to find additional information on Mr. Gonzales on-line, turning up just enough to confirm that he had done some wood sculptures locally.   Finally conceding that the Internet-Google tubes had failed, I called the phone number on the plaque at the bottom of the carving that was visible on the photograph.

The area code had changed, but the remainder of the phone number was correct, enabling me to contact Mr. Gonzales.

The reason why the Google had failed to turn up any useful information on Mr. Gonzales was simple: he does not have a computer, email address, nor web site.  Fortunately, he did answer his phone and was happy to talk with me.  The wood carving above was done in 1993 and sits on the property of the person who bought it.  Mr. Gonzales has been a life-long native of Mesila, NM (population=2180, an area dating to 1848 that was founded by a group of people who whose butts were chafed when the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo moved the U.S.-Mexico border south, thereby making them Americans.  Mesila became again, a few years later, part of the U.S.)  

The large carving on the left was done by Mesila native Richard Gonzales in 1993.

Mr. Gonzales has been carving tree stumps since 1992, often with stumps that are brought to him from the owner of the land where the tree had died.  He noted that there were not many trees in the area, but the recent harsh winters had lead to an epidemic of tree death and many stumps to carve.  He moves from project to project, commissioned by what has been an endless series of clients who seek out Mr. Gonzales by word of mouth.

Finally, after about 40 miles of an incredibly scenic stretch of New Mexico (something neither of us had anticipated!) we pulled into Las Cruces.  With a population of nearly 100,000, Las Cruces is the economic and geographic center of the fertile Mesilla Valley, which is the agricultural region on the flood plain of the Rio Grande. 

 The biking conditions were generally excellent: flat and favorable winds until the final half-mile climb to the KOA campground.  We took a cabin at the campground and relaxed the rest of the day, taking advantage of the WiFi to plan, read news and blog.  We bought a can of chili from the KOA store to add to our lentils and quinoa…yum.

KOA campgrounds seem pretty consistent.  Nice facilities (common showers, pools, playground for children) with plenty of spots for RVs and campers, there are usually a few cabins. 

The KOA cabins are about $60, a little more than twice what it would cost to pitch a tent.  Besides being more comfortable overall, they provide a time saving.  Still, for that price, I can usually find a cheap motel and avoid having to deal with the shared bathroom/shower.)

Lani, looking in

This cabin is  virtually identical to the cabin we had in Perry, FL, from the layout to the  bunks.  Spartan.

Lani gets a little laptop time in.

It was a great day...we entered New Mexico and bike in rural pecan-flanked splendor for about 40 miles.  I know the image of the orchards will stay with me a long time.


Tomorrow: 60 miles along the I-10 Interstate.