December 27, 2019
One of our sons was home for Christmas, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to have an adventure together. We wanted to go somewhere we hadn't been, but we didn't have a lot of time and it was winter, so our options were limited. We chose the exciting destination of El Paso. One of my friends has a sister who has lived in El Paso for years, and when she heard we had chosen it as our destination, she was flabbergasted. "Why would you go to EL PASO, of all places?" she said. "There is nothing to do there."
Well, not to give away too much, but (post-trip) we would disagree.
However, on the first day of our adventure, we thought the trip might turn out to be a colossal failure. We had booked an early flight on Southwest Airlines from Ontario to El Paso with a one-hour layover in Phoenix, arriving in El Paso at 9:55 AM, which would give us almost a full day. At 3:15 AM when we were in the car on our way to the Ontario Airport, I got a text letting us know that the flight from Phoenix to El Paso had been cancelled because of a lightning storm in El Paso. Southwest would put us on on an 11:00 PM flight, but that would mean sitting around all day in the Phoenix airport and arriving very late at night in El Paso. We had a non-refundable hotel room 80 miles from El Paso in Alpine, Texas, and we would not get there until the wee hours of the morning. We had activities planned that clearly were not going to happen, including dinner at a restaurant in El Paso that Bob had his heart set on.
While waiting for our first fight, however, my crazy husband hatched a plot. We would give up the second leg of the flight, rent a care in Phoenix, and drive 430 miles through Arizona and New Mexico, reaching El Paso in time for our dinner reservation and with plenty of time to make it to our hotel in Alpine. We were able to reserve a car in Phoenix that we would drive to the El Paso Airport, drop it off, pick up the other rental we had scheduled there and eat at the restaurant where we had reservations, and then drive three more hours to Alpine. Fun, fun, fun!
One of the benefits is that we would be able to stop for a meal along the way that would far surpass the airport food we would have been stuck with in Phoenix. We had a delicious breakfast at Five Points Market and Restaurant in Tucson.
We were hungry, as you might deduce from the FIVE entrees we ordered for the three of us. The hot chocolate was amazing, just like everything else.
I enjoyed the desert scenery alongside the road:
We stopped to get gas at a station that was worthy of being a destination itself. If I every need a rattlesnake hat band, now I know where to get one.
The shop was well-stocked with Mexican Talavera pottery, handmade by artisans in Southern Mexico. We have a pot in the same pattern as the one on the bottom shelf of the left photo below that we bought in Villahermosa, Mexico.
This vehicle was pulled up outside. I'm not sure if it is for photos, for rides, or for real.
We forged ahead and made it to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in time to stop and take in this 20-foot tall and 20-foot long roadrunner sculpted of recycled metal bits. In 1993 it stood in the place that had provided all the materials to create it--the city dump. Eight years later, the sculptor, Olin Calk, gave it a makeover and moved it to a rest stop alongside the freeway, just west of Las Cruces. It was remodeled again in 2014, but this time with thrift store rejects and scrap metal from the recycling center.
The eyes are Volkswagen headlights.
The wings include cast-off crutches, a computer keyboard, cell phones, bike parts, and children's toys.
Can you see the metal spatula on the top tail feather? How about the ski pole on the bottom feather?
The roadrunner is the state bird of New Mexico. I think they should be proud of this creative version!
The rest stop/outdoor art museum also provided us with a great view of the craggy Organ Mountains.
The day was waning, and we needed to hustle to make our 5:30 restaurant reservation at Tabla.
We arrived in El Paso and drove straight to the airport to swap rental cars. Texas is so, well, TEXAN.
Gas prices were a dollar or more cheaper than we were paying in California.
We made our way as quickly as possible to Tabla Restaurant, which is located not far from the Southwest University Park baseball stadium. I was quite enamored of their stained glass, something I haven't noticed on a stadium before.
L: Spicy potatoes with herbs and aioli. R: Grilled octopus on hummus and served with olive tapenade:
L: Baked goat cheese with honey, sweet onion jam, and grilled bread. R: Mushroom tart with ragu, sherry, and cheese.
L: Avocado, cherry tomato, cucumber, and parmesan. R: Chickpea fries with chipotle curry ketchup
Overall, it was a delicious meal, a great start to our Texas Adventure.
After dinner we drove 3.5 hours to Alpine, arriving there around 10:00, having driven over 650 miles since leaving Phoenix.
One of our sons was home for Christmas, and we thought it would be a good opportunity to have an adventure together. We wanted to go somewhere we hadn't been, but we didn't have a lot of time and it was winter, so our options were limited. We chose the exciting destination of El Paso. One of my friends has a sister who has lived in El Paso for years, and when she heard we had chosen it as our destination, she was flabbergasted. "Why would you go to EL PASO, of all places?" she said. "There is nothing to do there."
Well, not to give away too much, but (post-trip) we would disagree.
However, on the first day of our adventure, we thought the trip might turn out to be a colossal failure. We had booked an early flight on Southwest Airlines from Ontario to El Paso with a one-hour layover in Phoenix, arriving in El Paso at 9:55 AM, which would give us almost a full day. At 3:15 AM when we were in the car on our way to the Ontario Airport, I got a text letting us know that the flight from Phoenix to El Paso had been cancelled because of a lightning storm in El Paso. Southwest would put us on on an 11:00 PM flight, but that would mean sitting around all day in the Phoenix airport and arriving very late at night in El Paso. We had a non-refundable hotel room 80 miles from El Paso in Alpine, Texas, and we would not get there until the wee hours of the morning. We had activities planned that clearly were not going to happen, including dinner at a restaurant in El Paso that Bob had his heart set on.
While waiting for our first fight, however, my crazy husband hatched a plot. We would give up the second leg of the flight, rent a care in Phoenix, and drive 430 miles through Arizona and New Mexico, reaching El Paso in time for our dinner reservation and with plenty of time to make it to our hotel in Alpine. We were able to reserve a car in Phoenix that we would drive to the El Paso Airport, drop it off, pick up the other rental we had scheduled there and eat at the restaurant where we had reservations, and then drive three more hours to Alpine. Fun, fun, fun!
One of the benefits is that we would be able to stop for a meal along the way that would far surpass the airport food we would have been stuck with in Phoenix. We had a delicious breakfast at Five Points Market and Restaurant in Tucson.
We were hungry, as you might deduce from the FIVE entrees we ordered for the three of us. The hot chocolate was amazing, just like everything else.
I enjoyed the desert scenery alongside the road:
I also really enjoyed the book we were listening to during the drive, the autobiography of an American neurosurgeon who writes about battling stage IV metastatic lung cancer.
We stopped to get gas at a station that was worthy of being a destination itself. If I every need a rattlesnake hat band, now I know where to get one.
The shop was well-stocked with Mexican Talavera pottery, handmade by artisans in Southern Mexico. We have a pot in the same pattern as the one on the bottom shelf of the left photo below that we bought in Villahermosa, Mexico.
This vehicle was pulled up outside. I'm not sure if it is for photos, for rides, or for real.
We forged ahead and made it to Las Cruces, New Mexico, in time to stop and take in this 20-foot tall and 20-foot long roadrunner sculpted of recycled metal bits. In 1993 it stood in the place that had provided all the materials to create it--the city dump. Eight years later, the sculptor, Olin Calk, gave it a makeover and moved it to a rest stop alongside the freeway, just west of Las Cruces. It was remodeled again in 2014, but this time with thrift store rejects and scrap metal from the recycling center.
The wings include cast-off crutches, a computer keyboard, cell phones, bike parts, and children's toys.
Can you see the metal spatula on the top tail feather? How about the ski pole on the bottom feather?
The rest stop/outdoor art museum also provided us with a great view of the craggy Organ Mountains.
The day was waning, and we needed to hustle to make our 5:30 restaurant reservation at Tabla.
We arrived in El Paso and drove straight to the airport to swap rental cars. Texas is so, well, TEXAN.
We made our way as quickly as possible to Tabla Restaurant, which is located not far from the Southwest University Park baseball stadium. I was quite enamored of their stained glass, something I haven't noticed on a stadium before.
Tabla is located in a little alley, and it looks like just the kind of restaurant that Bob enjoys.
Their menu consists basically of tapas, or small to mid-sized dishes of artisanal (translation: expensive) foods. We were trying to eat mostly vegetarian on this trip, so that is reflected in our choices.
We enjoyed the following:
L: Brussels sprouts with sweet and spicy sauce. R: Roasted cauliflower with tomatoes, garlic butter and herbs:
L: Spicy potatoes with herbs and aioli. R: Grilled octopus on hummus and served with olive tapenade:
L: Baked goat cheese with honey, sweet onion jam, and grilled bread. R: Mushroom tart with ragu, sherry, and cheese.
L: Avocado, cherry tomato, cucumber, and parmesan. R: Chickpea fries with chipotle curry ketchup
Overall, it was a delicious meal, a great start to our Texas Adventure.
After dinner we drove 3.5 hours to Alpine, arriving there around 10:00, having driven over 650 miles since leaving Phoenix.
Much better than spending the day in the airport. A nice lunch, a great dinner, seeing some beautiful desert country, and I love to drive.
ReplyDeleteFlying instead of driving, that is very epic.
ReplyDelete