Pancho Villa, Elephant Butte,and Albuquerque

 Our first New Mexico State Park visit was at Pancho Villa, just a few miles from the Mexican border.  It was the site of the Pancho Villa raid in 1916.  For the US it was a first for many things in the military, including first airbase, first grease rack.
(Who would think of such things?)

 We visited here in March.  The museum was quite interesting.  It really marks the leadership of General " Black Jack " Pershing who later would command the Allied forces in World War I.  10,000 forces were sent 400 miles into Mexico.   They didn't catch Pancho Villa, but they did scatter his followers.  And they learned a lot about chasing the enemy through the desert.

Motorized troop carrier.

Note for the Dodge Touring Car used to escape the raid.  Bullet holes and all.

1915 Dodge Touring Car.












General Pershing soon discovered that the mechanized vehicles--including this car--were better at chasing through the desert than using horses and burros.

The use of the vehicles and the first use of the airplane helped to be ready for WWI.

 The next State Park after Caballo was Elephant Butte.  The part of the lake you see behind our unit is but a small section of the lake.  It continues for at least 10 miles further north.  There were a large number of campers and boaters taking advantage of the lake this past weekend.  This is New Mexico's largest lake--on the Rio Grande.  It is obvious when you walk to the shore that the lake is way below normal in the drought.

Adding to our collection of older motorhomes is this classic belonging to one of the camp hosts.  Looks like a 1960's or 1970's?  Dodge Champion.  The artwork reminded us of tie dye and "flower power"

Never found out what "Moon dog" referred to.  We were thinking 1950's radio hosts???

Today, we are at Enchanted Trails in Albuquerque.
This campground is a Passport America spot, which means we camp for half price--$15-- per night.  They only allow 2 nights this time of year, but that is plenty for us.  To the right of the red truck you notice the Route 66 sign?  That's right, we are camping on Route 66.  Only for a short time right now, but we might come back this way to go west.

This campground was  trading post in the 1940's. It is at the top of a hill just west of Albuquerque.  It is located at about 6,000 foot elevation.  The building was used in several mediocre films.

 You have to love the above in the campground.  The 1954 Vakashunette trailer towed by a 1950 Hudson Commodore named " Evelyn"

 To the right is a 1963 Winnebago trailer , about 12 feet long or so.  As you can see, the owners of the campground are into antiques.

 This trailer is a 1956 Yellowstone "Geneva".  It looks like a number of older aluminum( think Airstream) trailers from the era.

What caught our eye is the view inside from the window above the hitch.  See below.

Note the all wood interior.  Also, note the full sized residential refrigerator and stove.  Since these trailers are available to rent, they have been updated somewhat to modern standards.

 Collecting antiques.  We were surprised to see this
old Wurlitzer organ inside the campground office area.  This theater organ was quite old, but they are refinishing it with modern digital sounds that recreate the original huge theater organs.  It already has a new set of keyboards and pedals.

   And lastly, we couldn't resist this little gem. 

This would be a century old karaoke machine.


Well ---kind of---sort of.  Quite entertaining.

 Quite windy the past two days, so we have stayed at Caballo Lake State Park.  Winds steady at 35 to 40 mph with gusts up to 60.  When it gets that windy in Southern New Mexico it also means lots of sand with no visibility.  We've been enjoying a bit of Spring around the park. This is a  strawberry cactus in bloom.

Always fascinated by old rvs.  It seems that New Mexico has a larger number of older units still in use.
This one is on a private permanent site just outside the park. I'm guessing up to 50 years old by the style?









Don't know if Time Maker is the maker of motorhomes or the name of this one. It seemed in very good shape with new antenna on roof and all.

 We don't dine out often, but we have found two places recently that we couldn't resist.  People around Caballo recommended Sparky's in Hatch as great food.  So, away we went.  We followed a side road down, past field after field of Alfalfa, chiles, and pecan groves. 

Fascinated by the use of water in this dry country in a time of drought.  Elephant Butte will start to release water into the Rio Grande late May to early June this year, instead of March.  Also, the normal level is 3 feet of water release, but this year 6 inches. 

So the Rio Grande from Las Cruces up to Caballo Lake is pretty much dry. And all of the canals we have seen are also dry, dry, dry.  But! The farmers are irrigating the fields and groves from wells with long intricate systems of plastic or rubber water lines and ditches.  It seems-- lots of water.  Which is lowering the water table and frustrating the farmers further down the line in Texas. Hope they get some rain soon.

We had Sparky's People's Choice. For a little over $12 , 2 plates-$6 each--of pulled pork, barbecue
beef, sausage, 1 large rib, and the best home made chile cheese fries ever!  We were full.









You can tell what is grown in the fields around Hatch.

These are called Ristras. Strings of dried red chiles.
Lots of chiles.









Chiles anyone?  Here, everyone uses chiles in everything--or so it seems.  We have enjoyed green chiles--they are popular on hamburgers.

On the subject of dining out, the other stop we enjoyed was in Deming, New Mexico. Recommended by a number of people at the Escapee Park.  We had a gigantic Reuben, and Italian sub, and French Onion soup.  Had to take home half.   There are pictures from Trip Advisor on this link.  http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g47009-d511601-i48894328-Adobe_Deli-Deming_New_Mexico.html

Hi to all.  This post begins our new adventure in blogging.  We thought this would allow everyone to follow us or not follow us as they wish.  We were missing postings to a number of you who did not follow facebook. Our picture to the left is from St. Clair Winery in Deming, New Mexico. It was our first stop as members of Harvest Hosts. 

They have hundreds of farms across the US where we can stop free for one night--no hookups. This was a tasting winery, but other spots will be vegetable farms, llama ranches, apple orchards, vineyards, dairy farms, and on.

While in Las Cruces ( a bit further east on route 10), we visited an old village, Mesilla. Note the Southwest feel at this storefront.

The Mesilla square.  We wanted to go into the Catholic Church to see the stained glass windows, but there were Good Friday services.

Even the Post Office has to follow the building code.

This was a room inside a small antique store. The display was to show Southwest kitchen ideas.

One of the buildings was where Billy the Kid was sentenced to hang.  Of course, he escaped shortly after.

Another business in Mesilla. Note the wooden gates, wine or water barrel.  At the entrance door are two large hangings of chiles.  This is a chile growing area in New Mexico.

While we were lunching at the St. Clair Bistro in Mesilla( yes, the same as the winery in Deming),this insect was visiting the hanging plant.  It was as big as a hummingbird with a very long tube in front for feeding.

This picture shows our camping site at Leasburg Dam State Park in New Mexico.  We purchased an Annual Camping Pass for New Mexico State Parks.  It costs us $225.00 and is good for a year.  Since a base spot with water is $10 per night, it will pay for itself in 22.5 days.  We are already half way there and there are 30 state parks with camping.
Remember, it is good for us until the end of March 2014.

Pecan groves next to Leasburg State Park.

There are many, many acres of pecan and pistachio groves in New Mexico.

And this is our current spot at Caballo Lake State park in New Mexico.  For those who are following the map, we headed east to Las Cruces and then we are headed north on Route 25 towards Truth or Consequences and Albuquerque.  Caballo is the second largest lake in New Mexico.  With the drought, the lake is down at least 15 feet.  Route 25 follows the Rio Grande River north.  The river is basically dry right now.  The large lake at Elephant Butte--our next stop --releases water for the farmers in the Spring.  Usually in March, but not until June this year.  Farmers are hurting.

At Lake Caballo

A view down to part of the lake and the mountains across.

And lastly for this first posting is a view north on the lake.  In the center of the picture, if you look closely, is a fifth wheel trailer that is staying in the primitive camping area.  What a gorgeous spot!