I have covered our day trips from Las Cruces in my previous posts. Now that we have left Las Cruces, I want to fill in some of our other adventures.

The weather was cold when we arrived, it warmed up for a while and then it was cool again. We took advantage of the warm weather to go on a couple hikes in the area.

• On February 2 we went to Dripping Springs. It was a little busy but I got a place to park right by the visitor’s center. My US National Park pass got us in. We hiked the trail and checked out the sanatorium, dripping springs and the hotel. Amazing to think people walked up there, took a horse or drove a car up there. It was a good hike and we covered over 3 and half miles.
• February 9 we went to Lucero Canyon. We walked along the wash. At the beginning there is not much to see. It is sandy so there is some difficult walking. After hiking for a while we started to see some interesting rock formations and some fossils. About two miles in, there are some very fascinating petroglyphs. It was nice that we were able to get close to the petroglyphs and we could see human figures, animals and geometric shapes. At then end of the hike, there is a rock ledge. We could have went over it and continued, but we were over 2 miles out and had to go back the same way. On the way back we hiked into a gusty wind so it was difficult at times. We stopped and looked at the petroglyphs again. The total hike was over 4 miles.

We checked out a few museums in Las Cruces.

• First we went to the Zuhl Museum on the New Mexico State University campus. They have a very interesting collection of petrified wood, fossils and minerals.
• Then we went to the NM Art Museum also on campus. They had a big installation that was ok. Part of the installations were some wood panels that were interesting and made me want to do more woodworking. They also had a Warhol & Friends that was very cool. Lots of interesting pieces. And a room with nineteenth-century Mexican retablos – religious images painted on tin plates.
• The afternoon of February 14, we went to the Las Cruces Museum of Art. They had a great exhibit of parody and tribute art. It was a private collection and I was impressed by the quality and the number of items. It also provided an art history lesson with explanations of the art that was being parodied.

February 7 we went to the Las Cruces Community Theater production of Clue. Before the play we went to Zeffrio’s Pizzeria. It was busy. We probably could have waited a few minutes for a table, but there were places at the bar, so we took those. We started with a caprese appetizer then pizza. Pretty good. We went to the community theater and had seats in the front row. We were close, but it was nice not having anyone in front of us. Good production. Lots of good performances and in the end, the butler . . . stole the show.

Of course we played more trivia. Often with our new friends Greg & Marianne. It was always fun and sometime we took home a prize.

• We went to Dry Point Distillery for a special David Lynch trivia. Greg, Marianne and their daughter Payton joined us. We were informed that there would be no David Lynch trivia. We were bummed and a little upset. Marianne was upset and talked with the trivia person. It was the only reason Payton was there. We stayed and played trivia. We did ok and finished in the middle. We found out later that Marianne called the trivia company and complained. They apologized and gave her a $25 gift card. They said they are going to do the David Lynch trivia on Feb 15. We will be in Arizona and Greg & Marianne will be in North Carolina. We did not go back to Dry Point for trivia again.
• We went to Truth or Consequences Brewery a few more times for trivia. Greg & Marianne usually joined us. We always had fun and usually did pretty good but did not win any more gift cards.
• We went to Little Toad Creek Brewery for trivia two times. Greg and Marianne joined both nights and Payton was there one night. We did really good and finished in 1st place both nights. The trivia master was new and there were a couple errors. But it was fun and we won $30 cash each time.
• We went to the Pecan Grill & Brewery for trivia two times. The first time it was just Karla and myself. There were some big teams but we held our own and took 2nd place and a $20 gift card. The second time Greg & Marianne joined us. We started slow in trivia but got everything correct in the speed round and got a perfect round where we doubled our score. We won 2nd place and another $20 gift card. Karla and I used our gift card from our last win and we gave the new gift card to Greg & Marianne.

We also visited some breweries and taprooms:

• Icebox Brewing Campus location taproom.
• Spotted Dog Brewery in Mesilla. Good burgers and tasty beers.
• Icebox Brewing Picacho Peak. We split a chili cheese burger that was delicious.

Our last Friday in Las Cruces was Valentine’s Day. We went to Mezcla in the Hotel Encanto. They had a special Valentine’s dinner that I was not aware of. It started with Champaign, then salad then entrée. Karla got the New York strip and I got the salmon. It was ok but not great. Karla got cheesecake for desert and I got the tiramisu. Pretty good.

We are now in Phoenix and will be here until March 16. Then one more stay in Sierra Vista before we head back to Minnesota.

All the Las Cruces pictures are in this album: