Sunland Park Casino and Racetrack, El Paso, Texas…

We left Columbus, New Mexico and headed east on highway 9 until we arrived just outside of El Paso, Texas. Our destination for the next few nights was just short of the Texas border in New Mexico at the Sunland Park Casino and Racetrack. To the left of the entrance there are 8 sites in the parking lot with water and electricity (30/50 amp).  There is no sewer but they do have a dump station nearby. The sites are first come-first served so when we arrived around noon there were three taken and we slid into slot 8. Slot 8 is the best one on my opinion especially when the horses are racing at the track. The reason was our front window overlooked the racetrack where we could watch the ponies warm up every morning.

Since the horses were racing the day we showed up we went inside to pay our $15.00 per night fee at the casino security office. We paid for two nights and then went on over to the racetrack to bet on a few races. We bet on two races and didn’t win either of them but it was fun and before we could bet on the third race we were received a call from a friend we wanted to meet up with. I have mentioned him in the blog before. He was a professor of mine when I attended Texas A&M University whom I worked closely with.

We met with Merrill and his wife Sonia to have a late lunch/early dinner at one of their favorite New Mexican restaurants, Carnitas Queretaro. I ordered some red chile cheese enchiladas that were pretty good and Sharon ordered Asado Bellazano.which was better than mine easily. The best meal was the Carnitas that Sonia ordered. After our wonderful New Mexican styled food.we returned to the casino with them to have a drink at the bar at the racetrack. It was really good catching up with what was going on in their lives.

The next day the two of them had to go to Las Cruces so Sharon and I used the time to do some grocery shopping and we also decided to try lunch at one of the El Paso Reader’s Choice Award places for lunch. Taco Tote is also a New Mexican style fast food restaurant that specializes in tacos and is know for their salsa bar. Once again Sharon ordered the best taco which was a very good shrimp taco. Mine was good but Sharon’s was better and best of all their salsas were excellent!

It clouded up in the afternoon and with rain in the forecast we went back in to the casino and paid for one more night. Since we had signed up for a players card and gave them our email address we were rewarded with $20.00 each free play. We spent some time playing on their money and luckily left with a good share of their free money.

The next morning we woke to rain and I was worried as I had scheduled Safelite to come and repair three rock chips in our windshield. My coverage on my insurance has a high glass deductible but they will repair small cracks and chips for free. Fortunately the worst of the rain held off until he had repaired our chips. Since it was raining Sharon and I did a little more shopping at Costco and bought one of the rotisserie chickens that would be so good for travel food the next day.

Since it was St.Patrick's Day and it was still raining we decided to  go over the casino to have a few green beers and ate some pretty good Rueben sandwiches with some beer battered (black and tan) onion rings. Everything was on special and the whole meal along with a couple of beers each was only about $15.00!

Wednesday morning came and there was still a light rain but we decided it was time to move on and so we did. Next up is a one-nighter in Van Horn, Texas…

Pancho Villa State Park and Las Palomas, Mexico…

I would have loved to stay in the Chirichaua Mountains a bit longer but with the birding not as good as I had hoped we moved on down the road. I hadn’t noticed it was Friday the 13th (guess you can tell I am behind on the blog) but apparently Friday the 13th took notice of me. My plans were to leave Rusty’s RV Ranch and make the short drive over to Deming, NM but I wanted to drive part of the way on highway 9 east instead of driving the majority of the way on I-10..

Well… that was my plan but I apparently missed my turn and before I knew it I saw Pancho Villa State Park. I could have turned north to continue on to Deming but since I knew some bloggers were staying at the park and since we hadn’t made any reservations at Deming we pulled in to set up camp at Pancho Villa State Park just outside of Columbus, New Mexico trusting it was probably fate that brought us there.

Pancho Villa State Park and the town of Columbus have several buildings remaining from the 1916 raid of the town by Pancho Villa. Although the raid was repelled and Pancho retreated into nearby Mexico the raid highlighted the need for Columbus to acquire the first tactical military airfield in the United States. A squadron of JN4 Curtis Jennie biplanes were housed there to provide aerial reconnaissance for troops trying to apprehend Pancho VIlla. Although they never caught up with him (mainly because  the troops were recalled due to World War I) Pancho did meet his end in 1923 from assassination by his own people in Mexico supposedly either as an act of family revenge or for political reasons.

The park was a nice spot for us to sit and let the next batch of windy weather pass us by. We also finally had the chance to meet up with Steve and Karen of RVing: The USA is our BIG Backyard. I first met Karen via an old RV chat line at the RV Dreamers site and long before we purchased our RV she was one of many I sought out advice from as to what I should expect from the RV lifestyle. We almost met in person in Wisconsin but finally did at this park very near the Mexico border.  What a great couple they are… and exactly as I had imagined them to be. We shared a delightful afternoon of laughter and stories.

Another highlight during our stay was our visit to the border town of Las Palomas, Mexico. We really didn’t need anything in Mexico but had heard good things about the Pink Store. We walked around town for a while checking out everything and made a small purchase of freshly made flour tortillas at a bakery. Then for our last stop we entered the Pink Store and before we had spent 5 minutes in the store a young lady asked us if we would like a complimentary margarita… why, heck yes is surely the correct response to a question like that!

The Pink Store has a wide assortment of crafts made by local artisans with an abundance of bright colors on display. We were having a blast looking at all the wares and there were some very nice glassware and artistic pieces for sale. There were also some humorous and slightly x-rated pieces of “art” as well… The young lady soon noticed our glasses were empty and offered us another margarita… ummm, yes we accepted her kind generosity! Well after several very strong margaritas we had quite an assortment of colorful items we had purchased. We had so much fun at the Pink Store we stayed and had a late lunch/early dinner there with yes, you guessed it, another margarita…

The food was pretty good but the margaritas were better and after we got back to Pancho Villa State Park we had planned to visit a campfire that Karen and Steve said they were going to light up. The wind was blowing pretty good by then so Sharon was having some trouble with her contact lenses again. Sadly we missed the camp fire but I was thinking the margaritas may have had more to do with that than the blowing dust since soon after we arrived back home Sharon had a nice long nap…

After the windy weather blew through we decided to move on down the road as we have to eventually be near San Antonio to visit our grandkids. We left out of Columbus and moved on down highway 9 east until we landed in El Paso, Texas. Well actually we are just across the border in New Mexico at the Sunland Park Casino and Racetrack where we plan to visit an old friend of mine…