Las Vegas, New Mexico

 

To Las Vegas, New Mexico

May 18 Sunday Las Vegas, NM

We departed Roswell at 11am this Sunday morning. Traffic was light but the wind was relentless. Wind speed was a constant 20-30mph and hit us on our port beam most of the day. (Wind was out of the west and we were traveling north. At times there were gusts to about 40 mph and I was pleased to learn how stable our truck/trailer rig is in these conditions. Elevation gradually increased and by trips end we had risen from a little over 2000 feet to 6400 feet elevation.

Long way from anywhere!

Breakfast for lunch

Me trying to order lunch on my phone!


We stopped for fuel and lunch in Vaughn New Mexico. We ate at Penny’s diner; the meal was good but the experience came with a twist. Upon seating yourself in a booth you have to scan a barcode with your phone to bring up their menu and then place your order via the phone ap. One of the kitchen staff brings your order to the table. It was not a bad experience, just something new to us, but we couldn’t help but think of people we know who would go hungry trying to figure it out!

In the adjacent parking lot were many trucks transporting sections of wind turbines. It is amazing at how large these new systems are.




We are not taking a direct route to our destination in Los Alamos, we have decided to spend a night in Las Vegas New Mexico. The reason why? Just because we’ve never been there before.

Our overnight camp is at Storrie Lake State Park just outside of the town. It’s difficult trying to compare the campground to other pubic parks in other regions. New Mexico is most a very arid desert like landscape so it’s not going to be camping in a lush forest-like back in the southeast. 

All camp spots have a wind shelter




That said, this park along the lake did have some greenery and was somewhat picturesque, but the campground facilities were very rudimentary. This is not specific to this campground, all New Mexico State Park campgrounds are pretty basic, in fact most don’t have any utility hookups at all.

The town of Las Vegas was a bit of a surprise, In the residential area surrounding New Mexico Highlands University features homes of fine old architecture on streets lined with old growth trees. Most lawns were lush green grass.





The old downtown area seemed a little quiet, but it was on Sunday. The sprawling college campus is probably keeping the downtown business scene alive even though most of the franchise businesses are located at the town’s perimeter.

Overall, it seemed like a nice place, but I’m sure its cold in winter at 6400 feet elevation!

I don’t remember what our site number was or what we paid for the night.


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