Tucson, Mesilla and Why We Travel

We check out of the Courtyard Marriott in Scottsdale and happily set off south in our Advanced RV.  We meet friends in Tucson for brunch.  Our friends’ house is perched on a hillside with easy access to hiking and biking trails.  We enjoy their desert garden and spectacular views.  We head west on I-10, arriving in Las Cruces, NM about 5PM.  We check into Hacienda RV Park, a welcoming place with an office, laundry and bathhouse in a clean, southwest adobe building.  For dinner we head to Historic Old Mesilla on our Tucson friends’ recommendation.  We park our Advanced RV on the central plaza bordered by with low adobe buildings and a large Catholic church. At one corner is the small adobe courthouse where Billy the Kid was tried and sentenced to hang in 1881, history that confirms we are in the old, wild southwest.  We are pulled across the plaza by the sound of live music in an open-air bar.  We join a small, diverse group, listening and singing along with an eclectic rock band with an amazing singer. We enjoy margaritas and the last few songs of their Sunday evening set.  We find Double Eagle Restaurant and Peppers Café in the oldest structure on the historic plaza, dating to the late 1840’s.  This former home to a series of Mesilla’s prominent families is now decorated with turn of the century crystal, art and antiques, with the pressed tin ceilings preserved.  We eat at Peppers Café, a former open courtyard, now called Billy the Kid Patio, where I enjoy my shrimp stuffed rellenos and Mike likes his bacon/ham beans and tortilla soup.  This is why we travel:  unexpected delights in out-of-the-way places.