We Got Guts!

Day 15
Truth or Consequences,NM to Las Cruces,NM


Leaving T or C (thats what the locals call it) we headed out and quickly learned that they do not mark road very well out here. We stopped a jogger to ask the best way to Las Cruces, and she recommended rt 187/rt 185 as it parrellels I-25 and the Rio Grande River, she said it was very scenic and a good downhill through some really nice farming communities.

Sop we were off and it was only minutes before I had my first glance of the Rio Grande! I headed down the road and quickly realized that the jogger must have meant that if I look at a map it should be all downhill as I was going North to South, because I ended up doing several decent climbs. That was ok, after all I just climbed Emory Pass-right? Well the wind gods were against me this day, I had all I could do to peddal 4 MPH for most of the morning. I actually got blown off the bike because I was going so slow! Talk about embarrassing, that was probably the only time all day I saw more that two people at one time, what timing. Only a couple of marks and minor bloodshed and I was off again.

The farmlands that were promised appeared before long, and it seems they really like thier hot stuf down here. They grow a lot of Green and red chilli peppers, along with fields of onions too. Some of the fields produced the occational car -yes I said car- sprouting up on the land as well--very unusual!

I passed many small comunities of populations less than 300 people before we reached the interesting town of Hatch. Not that it was much bigger that the others, but it had a main street and people walking about. The sighns on the lamp posts through town said "Welcome to Hatch Chilli pepper capitol of the world" there it was that is why they really seem to like thier chilli's- they DO!!

As I rolled on and got closer to Las Cruces I found myself in the midst of the largest Pecan plantations I have ever seen. There were literaly miles and miles of Pecan tree groves, all with signs that read "Pecan thieves will be prosecuted".
Who would have thought this to be such a problem!! The trees slowly slipped to the distant past and Las Cruces quickly was before me, nothing really unusual, a city like most, but very vibrant with people walking and riding along it's streets.

I headed to the KOA for the evening and was pleasantly surprised to find my name on the board welcoming me for the night( the office had closed for the night). I went to the reservation box got my site and set up camp. Tammy - thank you for finding this one - it was probably the best campgroung I have ever stayed in. She later told me it was one of the top ten in the country. I can see why--they had nice mats for the shower, everything was clean and well manicured and the sites were fabulous. I showered for the night and went to sleep so I could see the Easter Bunny in the morning!

Garmin info for the day is a s follows:
Day 15 Truth or Consequences to Las Cruces by wegotguts at Garmin Connect - Details