Hey hey USA - 14th October - a look at the past

 We had one thing to do before we left the Guadaloupe Mountain area. It meant back tracking, but a little way up the road was the remnants of one of the Butterfield Overland Mail staging posts. The Butterfield Mail was the first stage coach services set up to carry mail and goods across the continent of the USA. It travelled between St Louis and San Francisco and initially must have been a hell of a scary ride.

Because of the access to water one of the stations was located in the Guadaloupe Mountains. There is little left remaining to mark the spot except for some walling and timber, but there is a monument and an information board.






As we left the shelter of the mountains we passed through a vast salt flat. It was so unexpected, we had not noticed it on the map, that we had to stop to take some photos. Alan even spotted sone sandhill cranes in the distance.
It was late when we got to our destination of Las Cruces in southern New Mexico. We had thought of getting a take away but learnt that all of New Mexico closed down at 9.00pm, so we had to cook. But we were now at our lovely base and would be settled for a few days.









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