We were up bright and early, so we enjoyed coffee and read
for a while, since there was a rare rainstorm.
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| We never got tired of looking at the clouds on the mountains. This was the rainy day. |
Then we set out to get stuff we
needed for comfort and joy. I say joy because we got some goofy snowflake gel
things and a string of LED lights to make Ursula all festive. We also got two
heaters, one for the front and one for the bedroom. They worked out great for
the rest of the trip, since it would get chilly at night when warm up nicely
while the sun was out. We also went to Target and Lee got some pants and I
forget what else.
By the time we were finished, Steve called, so we went to
his house. By then the rain had cleared up, so we dove to La Mesilla, which is
a very old part of town, to explore and have lunch.
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| La Mesilla square, with craft vendors |
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| Basilica on the square |
There was shopping, so I
was happy. Lunch was at a very old restaurant, La Posta.
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| That's one OLD restaurant |
While waiting for our
table, I picked up a lovely tin bluebird to hang in Ursula, and a new checkbook
cover with a tree on it. My old cover had “only” lasted ten years, which is
actually pretty good for the cheap on they give you when you open an account.
So, the restaurant was quite the quirky masterpiece, and
featured very loud parrots, and many interesting, ancient rooms.
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| That scary saint dude is trying to hug Steve, and Lee is scared some piece of decor will come get him. |
The food was fine, but my mango margarita was superb. We
also had lovely sopapillas for dessert. Hey, it’s vacation time, and I lost 50
pounds! Fun can happen!
We walked around La Mesilla, and I picked up a lovely coffee
mug with a donkey on it—it is some famous pottery, and really heavy and nice.
It is my official “Ursula Mug.”
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| Donkey mug! |
I also got an inexpensive Mexican blanket and
got Lee a nice walking stick, made, I think, of mesquite. We also got some cool
coffee from a place that roasted it right there. I hope to give some to my
friend Mike, who roasts his own, to compare.
Once we were done with that, no more shopping! It was time
to see the Nature. So, we drove to the foot of the mountains outside of Las
Cruces, the ones we could see from the KOA. We had a nice time taking pictures
of the plants and the amazing clouds on top of the mountains. It was really
beautiful. We walked to where we could see a cave where a hermit once
lived—there is a lot of interesting history in the hillsides!
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| A fish-hook cactus and its fruit. |
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| The sky was an amazing color. |
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| The hermit cave is there at center right. |
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| The clouds were just sitting there, hugging the mountains |
We returned to Steve’s so we could have a wonderful dinner
with Steve and Guy. They had made a beautiful brisket, delicious beans with
very tasty salt pork in them, cornbread with chiles, and totally amazing chile
rellenos. OOOweee, those were good. I ate a lot of them, though not too much of
the other stuff. It was so nice to get to see them again and catch up on what
was going on in their lives.
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| We took them this very interesting local liqueur. It is supposedly flavored of honey, but it is NOT overly sweet. Glad we got some, too. |
And what was even sweeter was that we could go home to our
cozy Ursula and read and relax. It’s nice to take your own home with you when
you go visit people.
Lessons Learned: Space heaters are nice.
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