Las Cruses KOA Journey

We arrived at Las Cruces KOA in Las Cruces, NM with no national park plans. I picked this place because it was on the way to Tucson, AZ. It had great reviews online and those people said that you had to get a "view site." We got one!

Our view of Organ Mountains

Here is a better view of them. We drove past a delightful roadrunner made of recycled material on the side of the road perched at a rest stop.

The above picture shows what was behind our RV site. The kids enjoyed the playground that was just a skip and a hop over yonder. 

 While I did the laundry, the kids played with some other kids and Michael talked with their dad. We ended up having a campfire, s'mores and hot chocolate with them and their four children. The kids loved throwing a glow-in-the-dark ball back and forth to each other. I really enjoyed talking to other adults! They told us about some things in town such as the free Museum of Nature and Science that we went to after going to the library the next day. Since the internet at the campsite was slow, Michael came along to the library too.

At the museum, we met the fattest snapping turtle I have ever seen. It looked like his shell was going to pop off of him. This guy was Jordan's favorite and he seemed very interested in her too!

The kids love playing Minecraft and in the latest update they added axolotl. They were so excited to see a real one! We got to watch him eat a worm!

  

We left the museum and headed for Unidad Park. It was a wooden fortress of a park, but with a closer look you could see that it used to be great but now needed some TLC. The kids enjoyed it anyways. Through a news video, I found that the park was created in September 2001 right after September 11th. The whole community came together and built this cool and big structure in 2 weeks! Now, there are plans to take this one down and a new non-wood playground will take its place.

Once Michael was done working at the library, we went out to celebrate Jordan finishing one of her math books at Caliche's Frozen Custard, "New Mexico's finest frozen custard." We ordered and Jordan and Asher got small cups and Caleb and I got kid cups. Why? I don't know. I did not correct it and well I dropped the ball for Caleb. Sorry Caleb, I did not speak up for you when I should have; I am not perfect.

Personally, I loved mine. I like a little bit of chocolate ice cream (well, custard is creamier, thus yummier) covered with slices of bananas. Delicious! We went home and had spaghetti, meatballs (regular, gluten free and then plant-based meatballs), broccoli and apple slices. Through an experiment we were going to eat this every night for a week. I wanted to give myself a break, since I was burnt out making meals. We ended up eating this meal every other night, but it was still a nice break.

Jordan and I went to a farmer's market on Wednesday morning. We found out that Saturdays are when most people go, there was little to choose from and we went home with nothing new. We have found these hanging peppers here and there as we have travelled in New Mexico. We saw them hanging from people's houses when we went trick or treating on Halloween. These pretty hangings are called chili ristras.

That night for dinner we went out to eat our New Mexico food at La Posta De Mesilla. When we walked in there were little shops that came to a centerpiece of tropical birds and piranha fish.

Michael and I split Tostadas Compuestas (like a small taco salad) and Chili Rellenos (a couple of fried chilies). They were tasty!

After school on Thursday, we headed to the Aquatic Center. It was cheap and we basically had it to ourselves! The yellow slide was so much fun. Jordan gets the reward for going down it the most, but she was too busy going down and then running up the stairs over and over again to count how many times she went down. After going down the slide, there is a lazy river that meanders around and has some water fountains. It was a good work out to swim in the opposite direction!

Off to the left of the picture, there was an indoor spray grounds with buckets that dumped water on the kids. Over to the right off the picture was the warm pool. Asher and I laughed and laughed together as we threw a water dart back and forth to each other underwater. All of us had such a great time! The showers rated 10 stars! It was odd going to an aquatic center in the desert, but it was so very nice.

When we got home Michael had dinner ready since he knew what it was going to be. Yay, thanks Michael! We also had an apple pie, ice cream and whipped cream. This was the treat I wrote inside our Christmas envelopes that the kids get to open every day in December leading up to Christmas. This wonderful tradition was started by Granny and the kids adore it. This is our RV version and it represented our Christmas tree this year too. We finished the wonderful day by reading the book The Mysterious Benedict Society #3. This is the series that I have been reading aloud throughout this RV trip for fun.

We finished out our week with a field trip to New Mexico Farm and Ranch Heritage Museum. It was pretty cheap, but the building and grounds were very nice. Right when we checked in a lady took us on a golf cart to see the farm animals outside in the wind and cold. She showed us the pecan trees and told us that due to the hurricanes and weather in TX and GA, NM was the #1 producer of pecans this year.

She went out of her normal tour to show us this Brahman cow. This one is used in rodeos, but since we have never been to one, we had never seen a cow like this before with such a big hump.

We were also shown a cow with her own sign that said, "Corriente #1004 is okay and not stuck." This cow loved to stick her horns and head through the bars and let her tongue go wild licking all around.

Once our tour was over, we were dropped off at the Blacksmith shop where the wind was blocked and it was warmer. Caleb asked him to make a nail, he did and gave it to Caleb. That was so nice!  He talked and talked and talked to us!

There was a greenhouse onsite and I bought a big and happy mint for $5 and the nice man gave me a little chocolate mint for free too!  I miss our plants back home and am thrilled to have some plants even if they only last a little while. The bunnies were happy to have mint too! 

We had a picnic inside in the store since the outdoors were too cold. I walked around the museum with my plants. They had a gallery that talked about the White Sands Missile Range and another that talked about farmers and farm equipment.  This is where they tested the A-Bomb on a smaller scale and where they test thousands of missiles.

                                  

In the store, they had pistachio samples because they were connected to the Pistachio Museum in some way. I was going to get the green and red chili flavors since we were in NM, but after sampling them I decided that would be a bad idea. My tongue was on fire. After trying the garlic and onion flavor I knew that Michael would love that flavor. I got some for a Christmas present and he loved them!

Our last venture was to visit Organ Mountain - Desert Peaks National Monument and hike the Dripping Springs Trail. 

Another hiker pointed us in the direction of three mule deer eating some brush. I love their big ears. The other two went behind the brush. I am glad this was not my lunch!

The dripping springs had water in it today. Since the spring itself was roped off to protect the plants and there was a cemented area in its support system, it wasn't that spectacular. After our chilly picnic, the kids did their junior ranger books, the boys went on a walk to see a cave, then we headed home to play a Family Feud board game. It was really fun to play together!