San Diego CA to Deming NM

After a crack of dawn departure [9am at the gas station] we had an uneventful drive and arrived at the La Quinta Inn in Deming New Mexico at 7pm.

We had little traffic, Joan was asleep by 9:15am and managed to sleep on and off throughout the day. Due no doubt to smooth driving...

As usual when we leave the coast and travel eastward, you start crossing the mountains and go from roughly sea level to 4000', then return to sea level only to go to 4000' again, before actually driving below sea level to return to roughly 6000'. Careful experimental observation has shown me that you ears do not pop as much when you are sleeping, but I digress.

By Arizona, the mountains evened out a lot and the speed limit rose to 75mph. I should add that the temperature rose to roughly 22ºC and the gas prices dropped from $2.99/gal to $2.25/gal. Our next gas stop in Arizona was only $2.09/gal.  At this rate it will probably be under $1/gal by the time we near the border...  ... or not.

We asked the desk clerk to recommend a steak house. He suggested we use a GPS since the place looks like a house, and it was 10 miles away. The GPS suggested 8.7 miles away and 10 minutes. We must have met all of half a dozen cars in the 10 minutes, and two were coming from the dirt road we were just turning on in response to Carmen, our Garmin. 

After a mile of dirt road, we turned into a driveway with a bunch of trucks and cars parked there. The parking lot was a big square with a building to the north, a ranch house to the east, neither looking very 'restauranty'. I was seriously thinking of knocking on the house door, Joan was seriously thinking of driving back to Deming. 

We heard people walking from the south to the parking lot and they had restaurant boxes [doggie bags].  We asked if that was the restaurant entrance, which it was, was the food good? They said it was and suggested that the portions were excessively large and that we could probably share a meal and have difficulty eating it all.

So we shared a NY steak with fries, salad and an extra soup. We were hard pressed to eat everything but left very little.  Everything was very good. So for a paltry $42. we had an excellent meal, a large glass of wine and a good dark draft.  What is not to like?

Well a few things actually. The restaurant was filled with hunting trophies, some local, some from Africa and other places. The decor was eclectic with road signs, humorous signs, cowboy hats, hard hats, testimonial pictures, posters, neon signs, dozens of stuffed animals, loose bear shin rugs, and just about everything you could possibly imagine.  The place was quite huge, probably started life as a barn, Western of course. All in all, it was quite an experience which we really enjoyed.

Some of our friends would definitely have walked out at the sight of the stuffed animals, slimy jokes, western music, and possibly more. We almost left when we drove into the parking lot, which would have been a serious mistake.