23 years ago in TIME Flies and other Thoughts

…or there about…
We moved to Las Cruces, New Mexico, from Colorado Springs.
When my husband first told me he had a job interview there, I said, “I’m not moving there.” We were less that 50 miles from the border of Mexico and at the time I had heard lots of scary negativity. 50 miles was a wee too close for me.

We lived at Mile Marker 1 of I-25. It seemed like the edge of the USA almost.
Plus the landscape was brown. I was used to the lush green & trees of Colorado.
When my dad came to visit once he said that New Mexico must have been God’s leftovers when creating the earth… and that is why it was so ugly and brown.

I hated it there at first. I recall saying to a Gal in BSF that I didn’t know why anyone would ever like it there. And she… having lived there a few years, agreed! Wow that wasn’t encouraging at all!
Another thing I didn’t like about this part of New Mexico was the town was about 60,000 and little shopping. If we wanted those other stores I had been used to and restaurants, we had to go to El Paso, TX. (about 45 miles). From El Paso you could see the border of Ciudad Juárez. And homes that looked like shacks, lined the border.
While I lived in New Mexico, we did do to Ciudad Juárez twice. Once because a family member was visiting and wanted to do some shopping in the border town. And another time we visited an Orphanage and brought them Christmas Gifts. (Which really was more practical useful things).

The house we bought was a huge blessing to us. It was on 1 ½ acre at the end of a dead end street. There was Desert terrain all around. No one lived behind us or to the one side of it. Coyotes, Rattlesnakes and other vermin and insects lived out there. Often, we saw couples talking strolls on the paths back there. Or heard an occasional dirt bike. We did Paintballing on that land a few times.
Our Backyard was huge and enclosed by a Rock wall. We had a In-Ground swimming pool built and still had plenty of other room for other things. We had 5 covered Patio’s and a Deck on top of roof. The roof was the best place to be on the 4th of July; you could watch the Fireworks all over the city. Also a great place to look at the stars or wait and watch any sky event. The property had 40 different kinds of Rose Bushes and gob of various desert plants. Unique.
My Picture on Prosebox is a Mexican Bird of Paradise. It was my favorite Plant. Super Unique!

My beginning of the Open Diary happened in New Mexico, I spent hours reading diaries from their beginning and collecting readers. I still retain a few of those.

We attended a wonderful large Church there..
Our daughter graduated from High school there and found her guy and went to the University there.
While we lived in Mew Mexico, we went to Carlsbad Caverns once.
And when company came we took them to Old Mesilla (Like Old town in San Diego), Very Touristy. Whenever we were in various stores and announcement would be made, it was in both English and Spanish. That was new to me.
Las cruces was a nice little town then but about 40,000 bigger now.
I loved the weather. We never needed a coat in the 4 1/2 years we were there. Just a light weight jacket if that. Having that pool was great in the summer!

In time we became content with being there and could have retired there one day.
The house felt like a retreat; a wonderful place for large gatherings. We grew to love that house and Las Cruces so much that if we were ever to move back, we would ask the owners if they wanted to sell.

The Land of Enchantment

PS...... Okay yeah, I admit the Scorpions, the Centipede’s, the Tarantulas, and the Rattle Snakes were a bit much…….