TOWN OF DEMING, NEW MEXICO. People don’t come to this area for the city life, that’s for sure. Deming is a rather depressed town and only about 14,000 folks call
it home. It’s located 65 miles from Las Cruces and 33 miles from the Mexican border. The town is named after Charles Crocker, one of the “big four” of the railroad industry. The silver spike was driven here in 1881 to commemorate the meeting of the Southern Pacific with the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads. This was the second transcontinental railroad to be completed in the United States. The Deming area is rich in native pottery artifacts, as well as beads and stone implements made by the Native Americans who still live here.
Our Great American Adventure is lasting longer than expected. We’ve still got a long way to go before we reach Oregon.
Elsa’s House of Pies and Restaurant, one of Deming’s finest. The joint was closed when I took this picture but we plan to return. I love these kinds of little, funky cafes. Americana.
Curtis and his wife Elsa own and operate the restaurant. We spent an entire afternoon with them enjoying their company and the food.
Curtis and I hit it off right away, since we both like to cook. His great, great aunt was Pearl Bailey, and he had lots of stories to keep us entertained.
Friends from San Diego, also touring the country in their RV, stayed with us for about a week at Hidden Valley Ranch. They joined us for lunch at Elsa’s.
VILLAGE OF HATCH, NEW MEXICO. Even smaller than Deming, the village of nearby Hatch is home to only about 1,600 hearty souls. Hatch is widely known as the “Chile Capital of the World,” for growing a wide variety of peppers, especially the New Mexican cuisine staple, and one of New Mexico’s state vegetables, the New Mexico Chile. The Hatch Chile Festival is an annual event that occurs each Labor Day. This event attracts people worldwide and small town has accommodated up to 30,000 people for this event. Can you imagine?
Ropes of fresh chilies are on display and for sale all around the village of Hatch, New Mexico.
“Hatch Chile” is not actually a variety of pepper, but is a term used to describe peppers of several different varieties grown in and around Hatch. Actual variety names include “Big Jim”, “Joe Parker”, “Sandia”, and a host of others. Green Chile is King at the beginning of the season, made into rellenos, enchiladas and stews.
NEXT STOP: Our next stop will be at Rusty’s RV Ranch, a few hours down the road, where we’ll meet our friend Jon and spend a few days catching up with him about what’s been going on in Pensacola, our home-away-from-home for such a long time.
I’ll continue my story next time.
Good to hear from you, last we heard was you were headed to Tucson. The wife ask the other day about you two and was a little worried ask to your collective health. I told her you were likely lounging by a pool somewhere dreaming of pine forest. Nice to see you out and about. I always wondered why Deming was there, now I know.