We got on the road again, immediately crossing into New Mexico and across the desert towards Las Cruses. It is hazy, but I think it must be dust since we ran into numerous highway signs warning of possible dust storms and zero visibility. Although we had a Strong wind, no dust storms materialized. Just another beautiful sunny, warm day.Las Cruses ( pop. 74,000, elev. 3,908) was founded on a site that was covered by a group of crosses marking the graves of members of a caravan that was ambushed by Apaches. The name means "the crosses."
A little further down the road we were stopped at an inspection station. All vehicles had to pass by an officer and a dog. I guess if the dog gets excited, you get stopped. Fortunately, the dog wasn't interested in us at all.
About half way to Arizona, we passed through a "riverless valley", the Mimbres Valley. The Mimbres River stops flowing north of here and goes underground, surfacing again in Mexico. This is the first of many rivers -- with no water that we encountered. It is a dry, thirsty area.
New Mexico and Arizona have those friendly welcome signs -- like Florida. Even though it is hot here, I decided to wear jeans and tennis shoes instead of flip-flops. I'm particularly sensitive to rattling noises too. Jim said these signs remind him of why he likes Washington.About 50 miles into Arizona, we pulled off to find a tourist information center in Wilcox. Looking at an information kiosk, I discovered that Wilcox has an "historic district." In fact, Warren Earp (brother of Wyatt) was killed in a shootout in one of the saloons and buried outside of town. Envisioning a wild west town -- restored to look much as it did in the days of the Old West-- I asked for the city walking tour brochure. The lady said they were out of print, but managed to find me one. This should have given me a clue, but with western cowboy songs playing in my head, off we went.
When we got there, Jim said he thought that we would do better making it a driving tour. There was a block of old buildings facing the railroad tracks and station on the other side of the street. the original buildings were there, but had been remodeled and occupied by other businesses. The Saloon where Warren was shot was now PINK and occupied by a Candle and Gift shop. I thought I heard Warren turn over in his grave... Most of the other buildings had been turned into something related to Rex Allen, a famous cowboy singer/actor from Wilcox. His horse, Koko was buried in railroad park across the street.We got back on the trail and managed to get through Tuson (pop. about 500,000) without incident. The downtown area looked very pretty with a mix of modern and Spanish architecture against the backdrop of the mountains. Ever since El Paso, we have noticed that the overpasses are decorated in nice colors and Indian motifs. They are really nice and much more pleasant to look at than the usual cement.
We stopped for the night at Casa Grande, half way between Tuson and Phoenix. It is a very nice little town ( about 25,000 ) with Spanish architecture and a varied industrial base. Our hotel looks out on the desert -- flat land with a few mountain peaks in the distance.
The town was founded in 1879 and named for the Casa Grande Ruins near by. The ruins are a National Monument and contain the remains of a pre-historic (1300's) Hohokan farming village. In fact it was the first such ruin to be taken over by the Feds for preservation ( late 1800's). In the 1930's they built a roof over the main ruins to protect it from further erosion. Archaeologists are still recovering more remains of the villages from nearby fields.
We saw our first of many totem cacti. They are amazingly tall, sort of like trees. We also saw a number of cotton fields - which surprised me. And we saw a mechanical cotton picker in action producing large truck bed-sized bails of cotton.Tomorrow we head to the Grand Canyon. We are really looking forward to that.
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