Thursday, 3-5-98

A nother sunrise greeted me this morning. We started our day at 7:00AM with a trip to the Blue Bird Motorcoach tent for a breakfast of doughnuts and hot chocolate. I picked up a complimentary USA Today newspaper. We made plans for the day and I read the latest news. Kay, Nora, and Dorisdean were going to a craft class. Barbara and Dave were going to take in a seminar. Tom, Dick, and I were waiting for the service center to open. Dick and Tom needed service for their motorhomes and I wanted to arrange for my awning to be repaired.

Vendors were located in tents next to Pan Am Center

There was a fairly large crowd waiting to get in to the service tent. When I finally found the A&E Awning booth, there was only one person ahead of me. A small plastic lock lever broke on a support arm on my case awning, but the service people said they didn’t have the part I needed. As a result, they would have to replace the whole support arm. All I had to do was give them the model number. Oh no, I would have to go all the way back to our motorhome to get the information. So I hiked back, taking a short cut through the athletic field. After making the round trip on foot, I was told that there were no arms available of the length used on my model of awning. Oh well, I did get a couple of numbers I can call when I get home.

After leaving the service center, I walked around the vendor’s booths. There is just about everything, sold at this convention, that a person would ever want or need for a motorhome. By the time I made the rounds, it was time for lunch, so I walked back to our motorhome. Tom showed up shortly and invited me over for lunch. He made some get hot dogs using the same kind of sausage he used last night. The rest of our group found their way back to camp for lunch.

After lunch all of us decided to take the free shuttle bus to the little town of Mesilla. But the bus was not coming as scheduled. The young man who arranged for the shuttle buses (his name is Charles) said the bus company had failed to send buses yesterday and today. So he had contracted for another company to run the shuttle.

While waiting for the bus, Kay and I talked to Charles. He turned out to be a very nice young man. He represented the Mesilla Business Owners Association. He and his family own a couple of stores in Mesilla. It turns out that Charles is putting together a web site for the town of Mesilla, so we talked at length about designing and setting up web pages. After waiting for over an hour, the bus finally arrived.

The driver spoke only Spanish, so Charles rode with us to give directions to the bus driver. During the ride to Mesilla, Charles filled us in on a lot of the interesting information about the area. The driver was a character. Charles translated a bit of what they talked about.

Mesilla, New Mexico is just a few miles south of Las Cruces. At one time Mesilla was the center of commerce in the area until the railroad came through in the 1880s. The railroad was routed through Las Cruces and the growth of business shifted north. Mesilla remained small and relatively unchanged.

The church at end of the plaza in Mesilla

In the center of town is a charming square or plaza with a small bandstand in the center. There was a mariachi band playing when we were there. At the far end of the plaza is a church made of yellow brick. Located at the opposite end of the square is the oldest brick building in New Mexico. The red brick building was built in 1868 and still has the original ceiling throughout most of the store. Across the square is a quaint gift shop that was once the courthouse where the notorious outlaw Billy the Kid was tried for murder, convicted, and sentenced to hang. The old courthouse now is the "Billy the Kid Gift Shop."

The name over the door says it all

We all visited the gift shops and galleries. Dick and Dorisdean went back to their motorhome a little early while the rest of us checked out every store around the plaza.

Dave, Barbara, Tom, Nora, Kay, and I decided to stay in town and have an early dinner. We dined at a place called La Posta. We all enjoyed a meal of delicious Mexican food. This was a great way to end our day of sightseeing in Mesilla. So we headed back to the FMCA convention area. While riding the shuttle bus back to the university campus, we made plans for tomorrow’s activities.

We had a nice meal here at La Posta

Once on campus, we visited the motorhome display area and took the tour of several big class A monsters. After seeing the wonderfulness of motorhome living, we caught a tram back to the camping area. Along the way we saw a second Roadrunner bird on this trip. It came within 20 feet of the tram.

Our tram ride turned out to be an unusually fun experience. We got on an unfamiliar tram that took us to places we didn’t know existed. Then we had a driver who was somewhat of a comedian. He provided us with entertainment all the way back to our motorhomes.

We didn’t bring any bad weather with us. It has been beautiful here. The high temps are in the low 70s while the lows have been down around the low 40s with an occasional dip to 39. Today was the first day we've seen clouds and they were very high and thin. It made for a spectacular sunset we viewed during our tram ride tonight.

A beautiful end to a fun filled day

When we arrived at our campsite, we all were tuckered out. So we decided to call it a day and turn in for the night. It has really been a fun trip. The best part is that we still have more to do.

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