Tucson, Arizona and Las Cruces, New Mexico September 17 & 18, 2018

Monday, September 17, we left Camp Verde at 8:22 am heading south on I 17 to Phoenix.  Tom had made an appointment at a Cummins Coach Care to have our exhaust problem looked at.  They were not certain they would be able to do the job.  We were to be there at 11am.  We arrived about 10 am and had to wait until their break period was over at 10:20.  Looking over the problem and the temporary fix it was determined that they could not do the repair but they also thought Tom’s temporary repair would hold up until we are able to get it repaired.  We decided to keep going with Tom checking it periodically and hopefully we will have it repaired once we get home.  Leaving that facility, we continued  on to Tucson, a total of 237 miles for this day.  We camped at Justin’s Diamond J RV Park, a campground we have stayed at before.  It was a very hot day with temperatures above 104 degrees.  Needless to say, we didn’t do too much after arriving at 1 pm  and having lunch in the motorhome.  The high temperatures in Arizona are said to unseasonal for this time of the year.

Tuesday, the 18th, we were underway by 8:20 am and traveling east on I 10 to Las Cruces, New Mexico.  After 285 miles we arrived at Coachlight Motel and RV Park.  It is about 10 degrees cooler here but still hot.  We travel with generator running in order to keep the A.C. going throughout the coach but we quickly get electric hooked up once in a campground to be able to turn off the generator.  We changed time zones ( Arizona keeps the same time year round, no daylight savings) to Mountain daylight savings time, New Mexico time.  We unhooked the Jeep and drove a short distance to the Plaza in Historic Old Mesilla and had lunch at La Posita de Mesilla, a registered National Landmark.  This was a stop on the Old Butterfield Stagecoach Line.  The southwestern meals were really very good with more food then either of us could eat. The restaurant has been located in this building since 1939 but the building is thought to have been built in the 1700’s.  The interior was many rooms all ornately decorated.

  After eating we did walk around the street checking out a couple shops not finding anything of any great interest.