We found out by daylight that we weren’t in the place the officer suggested… oops! We were in an arroyo, a dry creek bed. We drove further down the road and found the spot he was referring to, but it was really trashed. It was definitely the party place. We went into the town of T or C too look for a hot springs for a soak. Andrew didn’t like the looks of one place and the manager of another place gave me the creeps! And neither one had a shower we could use to wash after soaking in mineral water. We decided to go back to Elephant Butte SP and pay $5. day use fee and use the shower and day use area for breakfast.
We went back to the museum and since we paid half price yesterday ($1.50 each) she charged us only half price today. What a bargain!
We looked around for a couple of hours and then headed for Las Cruces and High Desert Brewing, a brew pub we encountered on a previous trip. In Las Cruces we stocked up on groceries and other stuff. We found High Desert Brewing and they were packed. The place is about as big as a small two bedroom house, maybe 15 tables. We had dinner and a beer (or two). By the time we finished, things had slowed down a bit and we asked about camping in the area… free camping. Our waitress said there’s a place near Radium Springs, on BLM land and she’d send Luke over (the other table server) to give us some directions, since he was more familiar with it. We found out that Luke goes fishing out there a lot, but the river’s down now and there probably wouldn’t be anyone out there. We mention that we’re from Georgia and Luke tells us he’s from Carrolton! Small world!! He’s out here for school and family. We moved up to the bar to finish our beer and talk with the locals and Bob Goslin, the brewer of the day, came out to sit an have a beer. They have three brewers on staff and we sat and chatted with Bob about beer and home brewing. We finally had to say goodbye and went to find our campsite for the night. The spot Like sent us to overlooks the Rio Grande river, but someone else had it for the night. We went down another road and found another flat spot that would do just fine for the night.