Heading northeast next morning, we bypassed El Paso and cut off about 50 miles on a two lane highway, Route 26, through a huge valley, mainly agricultural with cattle ranches and isolated homes, some back from the road at least 2½ miles. We passed only one small community at Nutt, with a motel named “Middle of Nowhere Motel” - I’m sure they thought so, but maybe they haven’t driven through the center of Nevada.
Reaching Hatch, we stopped at the small town with the magnificent title of “Chile Capital of the World” where small grocery stores were practically hidden by hundreds of dried red chilies hanging in bundles from poles underneath open huts. Chilies are the most famous crop of this State and each September, the town hosts a chile festival where one can buy fresh roasted green chilies and tempt your taste buds with green chili burgers. There are several spellings for the capsicums, but “chile” is the Spanish version used in Mexico and here. Santa Fe is the only state we know of that has it’s own Official Question “red or green?” The official answer “Christmas” gets you both types of chile.
For much of the way Interstate 25 runs not far from the Rio Grande, a river with not much depth or volume. It begins in Colorado, transverses New Mexico and forms the border between Texas and Mexico where it eventually empties into the Gulf of Mexico, if enough water remains. Despite it’s name, meaning “Big River”, and its being the fourth longest river system in the country, some ecologists worry about the lack of rainfall and overuse of its waters.
On the eastern side of the river beyond the mountains, is the largest military installation in the U.S. called White Sands Missile Range, encompassing about 275 square miles. White Sands is also known for its place in history as being the site of the world’s first atomic bomb explosion in July 1945. It now enfolds a Nasa Test facility and Fort Bliss military reservation, a truly incongruous name for a military testing site. There is an apparently wonderful space museum at Alamogordo, just too far for us to visit on this trip. The white sands stretch from El Paso for about 180 miles to just below the tiny community of San Antonio.
Some of the American towns and cities have delightful names such as Truth and Consequences, a place we passed that day to reach “Bosque Birdwatchers RV Park” named presumably for nearby Bosque Del Apache Wildlife Refuge. It has just 38 spaces and is delightfully quiet with just the occasional soulful sound of a train’s whistle. Quails (members of the pheasant family) abound in the park - they’re quite colorful, amusing birds with a little curly tuft on top of their heads and run so fast with their heads forward they almost seem to be gliding over the gravel.
The lady owner of the campground is 84 years old and one of the permanent residents, aged 91, loves to cook. Howard asked if he ever brought her some of the meals and she said, “no, but he keeps inviting me over to his trailer for a meal, and I know the real reason he wants me up there.” She said that he keeps asking her to marry him, so she has to refuse the offer of a nice home-cooked meal.
No comments:
Post a Comment