"The Way West"...Day 60...Saturday, August 11, 2012

I'm up at about 7:00AM to make coffee and plan out today's drive. I'm heading for Carlsbad, New Mexico where I'll have access to both Carlsbad Caverns and Guadalupe National Parks. The question is whether I want to go the whole way (and arrive late) or stop somewhere along the way. I'm thinking that I'll go as far as Las Cruces, New Mexico and spend the night there...then continue on to Carlsbad on Sunday.
The drive is pretty uneventful...stretches through the desert, some interesting mountains, an impressive canyon in Arizona just before the border with New Mexico. I get into Las Cruces around 3:00PM, and check in at the KOA. It's nice, but pretty spartan...I'm parked on a concrete slab, and I have to detach the camper and park the Explorer cross-wise behind it.
I've researched restaurants here and identified a few interesting possibilities. Unfortunately, the best places that I've picked out are closed for dinner on Saturdays. So...I go with my fifth or sixth choice, La Posta, located in the old town of Mesilla. I'm looking forward to eating here in New Mexico because the cuisine is distinctive. It's based on Mexican cuisine, but the sauces (red or green) are very unique. The red sauce is based on dried red chiles, while the green uses fresh locally-grown green chiles. I'm just a few miles from the town of Hatch, New Mexico which is the chile capitol of the U.S.
Driving into Mesilla, I pick up the great smell of roasting chiles...restaurants are roasting green chiles on open fires in back. La Posta is big and touristy, but the menu looks good, and the place is packed. I was initially inclined to order something with the "green sauce", but the folks at the next table are raving about the "red". So...I get a prickly pear margarita, an order of excellent guacamole, and the enchiladas with red sauce. When I think of enchiladas, I think of corn or flour tortillas filled with some type of meat or cheese and covered with ranchero sauce. Here in New Mexico, though, they serve the tortillas, dipped in the sauce, stacked like pancakes...usually without meat, but plenty of cheese. That's how my meal comes out...a stack of tortillas, smothered in red sauce and topped with an optional over-easy egg. They are really, really good...the sauce has great depth of flavor and just the right amount of heat.
Back at camp, I haul out my little 22" Vizio TV and hook up the cable. It was up to 106 degrees today but now, as the sun goes down, it's cooling off...down through the 90's and 80's before settling in comfortably in the 70's.
So...I watch some TV...CNN, a movie (Fast and Furious)...drink a few cold beers. Around 11:00PM, the temperature has cooled off enough to sleep comfortably...so it's off to bed.