Leaving Las Cruces

We drove off this morning, but we could make a return visit on our way home. We really liked the hotel. Cool place.

Driving towards the City of Rocks State Park, we listened (as we have been) to the book on CD for Dress Your Family in Cordoroy and Denim. David Sedaris (the author) is also the narrator, which is as it should be, since all the stories are related to his life, his family, his experiences, and listening to his "voice" with his "voice" is a great experience. Of course, we sometimes fear we will get into an awful accident, since some of his stories are so funny, the tears nearly blind us. Other times the stories are so poignant, we achieve the same result. From this particular collection, our favorites are Us & Them and Six to Eight Black Men.

And so we laughed ourselves all the way to the park, which was amazing. Here we saw massive monoliths of volcanic rock sitting in an otherwise large flat prairie. The rocks themselves have been utilized for some 44 or more picnic shelters, all nestled among the huge boulders, and complete with picnic tables, etc. It was a great decision to stop at this place. They also have an absolutely astounding number of jackrabbits. So, for an animal lover like me, it was nirvana.

From there we continued to Silver City, where we contemplated staying in an old hotel on the town's main street, The Palace, but just the thought of hauling all our "stuff" up this winding staircase in the un-airconditioned environment put us off. So here we are at the Holiday Inn. Sorry folks, but this is as close to roughin it as I get. "Roughing it" being the fact that one of us (moi) has to drive us to dinner downtown and back. It's only a few miles, but it still needs to be done sans alcohol content in the blood. Ah well. Small price to pay for pristine white sheets, a spotless and large bathroom and a hot breakfast in the morning.

Since the room was not quite ready, we drove to the University of Western New Mexico (I think that's what it is called and forgive me if I'm wrong) and saw an incredible collection of pottery (Mimbres and Mogollan for those who know or care) that literally fell into their hands when a family found them packed away in boxes in a relative's garage after the man had died. The entire collection was purchased for $3,000. Unbelievable! Some of the best pieces we've seen.

We did take a little side trip up to Pinos Altos, which is a very old little mining town just up the road. It was interesting, but seemed a little too self-conscious. It could just have been we were not up for it. We may head back in the morning before driving to the Gila Cliff Dwellings about 2 hours north of here.


Time to head out to dinner downtown. I have changed the slideshow at the top. For those who don't know: you can click directly on the square picture, and it will take you to a larger slideshow. If that is still not large enough, there is a link to the right that allows you to "View as Slideshow" in full screen mode. Once again, the pictures are unedited and none have been eliminated, and not all are captioned. I just wanted to get them up and out to you all.