Day-14-June 8, 2016-Into New Mexico and Harry’s Birthday
Drove 221 miles in 4-1/4 hours.
Got up to 100 degrees, but it’s a dry heat. It’s actually not that uncomfortable.
We gained an hour five minutes after we left the camp when we entered Mountain Time. Although the area looks dry and colorless, when we stopped at a roadside stop there were trees and shrubs blooming with pink, orange, yellow, blue, purple and white. Drove west to Esperanza, where we could see Mexico on the other side of the river. We got a message on our cell phones saying “T-Mobile Welcomes You to Mexico”. Out in the West Texas Town of El Paso…we stopped for gas. Busy city but traffic wasn’t too bad. The overpasses are decorated very nicely. Lots of residential areas nestled in the foothills of the mountains. Drove through Las Cruces, elevation 39,000’ and were waved through Border Patrol right before our exit. We’re staying at Little Vineyard RV Park for two nights. Nice campground, big, very empty. Indoor pool and spa, etc. There are a lot of campgrounds here, three more right next to this one and even more in town. Set up, then went to St. Clair Winery. They have more wineries in NM and we’ve been to the one in Albuquerque a couple of times. Small tasting room, nice people. From there we went to dinner for Harry’s birthday. We had asked for a nice place to go and people told us the best place was The Adobe Deli. We said we wanted something better than a deli and they said, “Oh, no, this isn’t your usual deli”. And it wasn’t. Almost impossible to find from the outside if you don’t have good directions. It is an old schoolhouse that was put up for auction in 1978. A man from Long Island, Van Jacobsen, who vacationed here put a bid in and won. He had no idea what to do with it but his family had delis in NY so he decided to make this a restaurant. But what a restaurant! He didn’t change the layout of the school, some old books still remain in one of the rooms that used to be the library. The main dining room is the auditorium/cafeteria. Full bar, every type of liquor you could want, they even make their own wine and have a wine room where the owner, Van, had us sign the door. I tried to sign next to the place where Henry Cavill, aka, Superman signed, but couldn’t find it. Van took us on a grand tour of the place, stopped in the room where they roasted their own coffee beans and ground us a bag of coffee on the 1952 grinder. In one room he had a carpet that four presidents had walked on. It was originally in a hotel. More antiques, etc., etc. in other rooms. We sat at the bar first, then the dining room which is lined with taxidermied wildlife and trophies of all sorts, even a huge alligator in a glass case. There’s a cinema size video screen that was running a sports clip when we were there. But the food!!!! At lunch they have deli sandwiches (I forgot to mention the deli counter up front), but at night it’s all about the steak and ribs. We were warned so we only got one order of ribs and brought half home. It came with homemade onion soup, baked potato (half of that came home, too) corn on the cob, soup, salad, and a warm wet towel for sticky fingers. The ribs were delivered on an upright skewer and were the best we’ve ever had. Drove through a housing development on the way back. I love the adobe type homes with stones instead of grass for lawns. We finished the night off with a beautiful New Mexico sunset and a birthday cupcake back at the RV. Great time in Deming, NM.