We landed in Las Cruces, NM after a 228-mile drive from the Saguaro SKP RV Park in Benson, AZ on Monday. We consulted our iPhone App for PassPort America parks and it turned us on to the Coachlight Inn & RV Park located just off I-10.
The Coachlight Inn was a reasonable $18.65 for one night with the Passport America discount applied.
As usual, we also checked for a local Elks Lodge, but their website didn’t mention RV hookups and they didn’t answer when we called the phone number. We noticed that there are a couple Military FamCamps in the area, (White Sands Missile Range, and Holloman AFB), but they are outside the Las Cruces area… and we were hoping to get in touch with an old Army buddy that lives here.
Earlier in the day, after we decided to take this particular route, we attempted to contact my old Army buddy to let him and his wife know we were passing through. We were hoping to at least see them briefly to catch up. Unfortunately, we only have Facebook and an email address as the means to contact them. We never got around to putting a phone number in our contacts list. So, we hoped they might get the Facebook message and subsequent email, but alas – it wasn’t to be, they didn’t contact us back… our short-notice and poor timing resulted in us not getting to see them 🙁 Hopefully we’ll get to see our old friends the next time we come back south.
However, we did get to meet some new friends on the way here…
we pulled into a rest-area for a quick break somewhere near Lordsburg NM and saw another Alpine Coach! What are the odds, with only ~1,700 Coaches ever built between’98 and ’08?
We pulled up next to Karen & Reg Bodeux in their ’06 Alpine. If I remember correctly, they have owned their coach for about a year and are full-timing. So, naturally, Reg and I talked for a bit while the wives walked our respective dogs. We exchanged information and said our farewells, hopefully we’ll see them again in the future. I encouraged Reg to join the Alpine Coach Association to benefit in the awesome rallies and comraderie. Safe travels, Karen & Reg!
After we got settled in at the Coachlight Inn, and since we hadn’t heard back from my old Army buddy, and hunger was setting in… I consulted one of our iPhone Apps and noticed that La Mesilla Historic District and the Mesilla Plaza was nearby. My friend Wikipedia tells me that: “During the “Wild West” era, Mesilla was known for its cantinas and festivals. The area attracted such figures as Billy the Kid, Pat Garrett and Pancho Villa. The village was also the crossroads of two major stagecoach lines, Butterfield Stagecoach and the Santa Fe Trail. The village of Mesilla was the most important city of the region until 1881.” Click HERE for more info.
We stopped at the Luna Rossa Winery & Pizzeria for dinner. We lucked out, because they have Monday specials that made it easy on the pocketbook. The pizza was great.
We then went back to the campground and had a pleasant evening in front of the TV.
Stay tuned… we’re heading north today…