We have been focused on getting settled into our new home, but we're also trying very hard to remember why we moved here: Our first camping trip was a 3 night run to Cloudcroft, NM.

Cloudcroft is about 90 miles east of Las Cruces and about 4500 feet higher than Las Cruces. So you drive out of the Rio Grande river valley, up over the Organ Mountains, across White Sands National Monument, around Alamagordo, and then up into the Sacramento Mountains.

While it was 100 degrees in LC, it was 75 in the pine forest of Cloudcroft.



Lovely afternoon in the woods

Young Bull Elk

Hiking in the woods

Aspen Stand - Just like in the Colorado Rockies

View from the Cloudcroft Senoir Center westward - The light colored strip of land in the valley towards the next mountain range is White Sands National Monument, which runs about 60 miles up the length of the valley

We never could decide what kind of bird this was, but we liked the picture

Same here

Cloudcroft has its own butterfly: Sacramento Mountains Checkerspot Butterfly

Another view across the valley westward from Cloudcroft. At this point, it was raining out over White Sands - but the air is so dry that the rain was evaporating before reaching the ground. 

Mike in the woods - along Pump House Road

The view across the mountains from Pump House

A Steller's Jay

Sleepy Grass Campgound

Good, solid advice

Sunrise over the Organs

In our last blog post we shared photos of our new house in New Mexico. In this post we would like to share photos of Las Cruces and the surrounding area.


The Las Cruces Aquatic Center - an oasis in the oasis.
Lap swimming, water aerobics, yoga and an exercise room all for $1 for seniors.

Sunset at Leasburg Dam State Park, where we lived in our trailer while our house was being remodeled.

 Celebrating our 20th anniversary in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico - an hour from Las Cruces.

 Street art in T or C

 Every Saturday year round Main Street is closed for the Farmer & Crafts Market.

 The Basilica San Albino Catholic Church in Old Mesilla, a colonial section of Las Cruces.

A short 20 minute drive behind our house is the Organ Mountains and Desert Peaks National Monument. It has great hiking and spectacular vistas.

 Speaking of vistas

 Views across Las Cruces from the west, looking towards the Organ Mountains.

View from the east looking across Las Cruces. The swaths of green are groves of pecan trees along the Rio Grande.

 View of the Organ Mountains from Buena Vida Park across the street from our house.

 Sunrise over the Organ Mountains from a morning walk in our neighborhood.

 Our own personal slogan living in Las Cruces

We moved away from Austin to Las Cruces, New Mexico just under 4 weeks ago. At that point we had owned our house in Las Cruces for about a month, but it had been undergoing renovations and we had been staying in our travel trailer. When we moved in, the renovations were almost complete, but the moving van basically unloaded into the garage so we could begin settling in slowly as each portion of the project was completed. As a result, we have been very busy for the past month.

But we want to share the story of renovating and moving in.

Soon we will also post some photos of the area and our outings. But today: The House.


The front yard

 The front door walkway

 The Back yard

Inside the living room before any work was done. Please note that the carpet, walls, ceiling, shutters, and ceiling fans are pink. The photos do not do it justice. It was real pink!

 Just as the remodeling was beginning. Among other things, they were about to cut a big pass-though in the wall to help join the living room with what was the dining room.

 Demo on the carpet and tile in the living room.

 Living room with new paint and tile flooring.

 The almost finished look: We moved the dining room into the portion of the living room that was around behind the fireplace as well as opening the wall for the pass-through into a new sitting area.

 The old look in the kitchen - it was the only non-pink room, but the black and blue and white didn't seem right for us.

 The new paint and tile in the kitchen.

  The old dining room.

 The mirrored wet-bar in the old dining room. This is where we cut open the pass-through.

The empty old dining room. Note the odd wood panel in the corner. It was for access to storage under the stairs.

The new sitting room - with the new door to storage space under the stairs. (The Harry Potter room.)

Looking into the new sitting area and the stairs up to the Master Bedroom.

The new sitting room.

The new pass-through.

 The other side of the new pass-through.

The downstairs bedroom (guest room) before renovations. Really, it was pink!

 The new guest room. Come visit!

The old pink carpet in the stairs. 

The stairs in process. 

The finished stairs.

The previous owners had a separate sitting area upstairs next to the Master Bedroom. We converted it into our office.

The Master Bedroom under previous management. 

The new Master Bedroom. Ours. 

We are nearly settled in now and leave tomorrow for a small camping trip in the nearby mountains. More travel posts will be coming soon.