Day 72: Anthony to Las Cruces

March 17, 2014

From our motel with the expansive view of I-10 we cut down across the Rio Grande toward Hwy 28. The Rio Grande is a strange sight. It is completely dry. We later learned that the flow is controlled by the dam Elephant Butte dam, north of Las Cruces, at Truth or Consequences. Nowadays, water is only released into the river for a brief irrigation season, then it is all over.

Hwy 28 features in some of the tourist materials as the prime scenic drive in the area. We agree. Instead of desert scrub there are fields of cotton or oats, and many many pecan trees. Further, houses instead of being scruffy trailers were nice looking adobe. The only thing, for much of its length 28 has no shoulder. It's the standard story with no shoulder roads - with no traffic you just have to hope the drivers coming from behind see see and pull over. With enough traffic, it becomes a question of whether the drivers try to squeeze or zoom by, or surprise us by slowing down and waiting until the coast is clear.

It turned out that 28 is used by enough cyclists that drivers are used to the situation, and except for a couple of close calls, it was OK.

The Rio Grande, completely dry. Illegal Mexican immigrants used to be called "wet backs" from crossing the river which further south forms the border. Now they are "scratch backs".

I told Dodie that the Southern Tier was trying to make amends today for its past use of wind, hills, cold, traffic, etc. Here we had a flat road with no wind, little traffic, and only a little too hot. Still, we have been thinking that the Southern Tier has been quite a challenge. Our spirits were lifted a lot when another cyclist approached and crossed over to talk to us. It was Henk, from Netherlands - Friesland.

Cotton field and mountains viewed from NM 28

Pecan orchards are irrigated by flooding

Henk was older than us, and like our friend Juul from Katwijk, has cycled all over the world. He was really tickled to see our stickers and mementos from Friesland. When we asked him why on earth he would come here (started in San Diego) he answered right away, for the challenge. We were buoyed because here was a "real" cyclist that considered this a challenge. Also it was really pleasant to reminisce and talk about places in Holland and Friesland.

While we were talking to Henk, a day cyclist out of Las Cruces came by and stopped. It was Dave. Dave told us about the large pecan orchard coming, and he recommended both a nearby Mexican restaurant and one in Las Cruces. Dave had spent his childhood in Montreal, where his father was a medicine professor. The family moved to the US when the father moved to UCLA. Talking to people, whether local or from away, is one of the really interesting things that comes with touring.

We recrossed the Rio Grande and followed the directions we had been sent by Jenia. Jenia is Warm Showers host that we had read about in an article in CGOAB. Jenia had clearly also read about us, because she contacted us at the beginning of the tour to make sure we would stop by. The Pecan House no doubt gets its name from the many pecan orchards surrounding it. The land itself has 72 trees (though only 12 are producing). This allowed me to drag Jim (Jenia's partner) out to have me ask my naive questions about pecans.

I learned that the harvest begins in November, or whenever a freeze cracks open the husks that contain the nuts. Once this happens, the nuts can be harvested any time, even now. Jim and Jenia only pick their pecans for their own use, so there are lots still on the trees. The surrounding orchards are irrigated from wells, through flooding rather than sprinklers or drip. When a field of about 2 acres is flooded they will use one and a half million gallons of water. When this is done the level in Jenia and Jim's well will drop. They have already had to deepen their well by 40 feet.

Even though we have not generally used Warm Showers, we always find it an enriching experience, because you get to meet local people and better understand local issues and environment. We have spent the afternoon listening to Jim tell about the local area and his experiences working here. These descriptions, often colourful, have been a real treat.

The restaurant Dave recommended was closed

On the door - no colors? Dodie explained to me this means no gang members

Pecan firewood for sale. Dodie is no more amenable to bring this home than she was with mesquite

No shoulder road, but this driver managed to miss Dodie

Catholic church in San Miguel. There was nice deep shade here so we ate our lunch.

Stained glass window at San Miguel church

Pecan tree husk. We are slowly becoming familiar with this tree that is so well known here.

Pecan alley. This is part of one of the largest pecan orchards in the world.

At this season the pecans look awfully stark.

Proof that I am guilty of pecan pinching!

Local pecan shelling plant, but we understand most whole nuts are exported to China.

Pecan harvester. The trees are shaken, then this thing vacuums up the nuts and discards the debris.

Re crossing the Rio Grande. So strange, because the thing is shown in blue on the maps.

A nice building that is serving as a B&B

Huge amounts of irrigation water runs in the furrows

Our bikes reach a cool sanctuary at Jenia and Jim's

More fun at Pecan House. Jim demonstrated for us two quick recipes. For the first he out 8 pats of butter in a pan, adds canned apple pie filling, covers it with cake mix, adds about 8 pats of butter over the mix and covers all with about a cup and a half of apple juice. So this is a no mixing recipe. Baked for about an hour, you get a quite passable apple cobbler.

If you are too hungry to wait for that, you can heat a flour tortilla over a flame (good to have a gas stove for this), butter it and sprinkle cinnamon and sugar. Jim calls this a Mexican donut, Back home, when desperate we would do this with toast.

Putting the butter on top of the cake mix.

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 4,209 km (2,614 miles)

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