On to Tucson and Sierra Vista

Before I left Las Cruces I decided to take Mary's advice and try the restaurant in Mesilla just south my hotel.  It's called La Posta, and it's just my kind of place.  A little funky, with macaws and tucans in the lobby, cheap furnishings, and wonderful food and service.  It's just off the plaza in old Messila.

I then took off for Tucson in the morning to see Jennie.  Once again, I was surprised at the amount of green in the desert.  There were mountains in the distance, but fairly flat plains leading up to them.  The scrub was green and surrounded by a blanket of yellow flowers.  There were many types of yucca, tall and short, but blooming and pretty.

It's always fun with Jennie. We talked for hours, ate her special suffed green chile casserole (excellent), and compared notes about the family history.  She lives in the hills above Tucson in a lovely house with an old weimaraner named Heidi.  For some reason Heidi and I hit it off.  I miss dogs.  With 2's allergies, I haven't had pets for years.  Heidi is very feeble, but knew I liked her.  Jennie and I have now analyzed all of you, and decided we loved you anyway.  If we had blank spots in our analysis, we just made stuff up.  She's lots of fun, and I can't wait to see her again.  It's spring in Tucson, and the blooming of flowers is exciting. See the pics of the flowering cacti. 

The next morning I took off for Sierra Vista to see Mei.  On the way I saw the sign for Tombstone, so took a little detour there for about an hour.  It's mostly a tourist trap, but, hey, I'm a tourist!  I wandered around town thinking of something to get for little Alex's birthday party (Jameson and Sasha's daughter).  When I got to Mei's, she and I did find something for her in Sierra Vista.  We had a nice Korean dinner and she showed me around the base where she works.  She's teaching and in school, and we had a really nice time.  She has a nice house, friends, and likes Sierra Vista.  It's a little isolated for my taste, but seems like a friendly town with a high proportion of military and students.  

When I left the next morning to travel to El Paso, for the night, I hit a dust storm for the last 75 miles.  I could see ok, and only had to slow down once for about 1/4 mile, but it was impressive to see areas all around where there were high concentrations of blowing dust.  When I arrived in El Paso (so I'd have a direct shot to Carlsbad the next day), it was still really windy.  Most of the evening the wind was gusting to about 40-50 miles per hour, shaking the windows.  I was glad to take off the next morning for Carlsbad, thinking that if it was going to be really windy, I might as well be 800 feet below ground.