5in29: Day 8-11. Las Cruces: Part 1
2024-12-18 ~ 12-21. Las Cruces, NM
I included multiple days in the posts about Las Cruces because it makes better sense to combine them for thematic topics. Las Cruces is the highest point of this trip. I have so many things to write about but this post gets too long and it took too much time for me to prepare. Additional materials will be added to the AABB website later.
There are multiple parts about Las Cruces: Parts 1 & 2 are about the old memories and the replications of them, and Part 3 is about the new events and attractions.
Special Moment #1: Arriving in Las Cruces
35 years and three days ago, on December 15, 1989, I arrived in Las Cruces. As described in my memoir, Las Crosses, my first American advisor Dr. Davison picked me up from El Paso airport and drove me to Las Cruces via I-10 in his Jeep, dark at the time. The night of December 18, 2024, I arrived via I-10, too, but from the west side, and I drove a camper van with a friend. The multitude of emotions was hard to express with words—maybe the appropriate words would come to me later. So many things have happened since then. It felt like a lifetime. To some people, 35 years is a lifetime. I am grateful to all the people who helped me get to this location 35+ years ago, and to all the people who helped me get where I am in my life today.
The night view of the city looked huge from a distance, with lights spreading out wide, making me wonder whether the city had expanded tremendously, or if I remembered wrong from 35 years ago.
I had to check it out: the population in 1990 was 62,648, as mentioned in the preface of my memoir. In 2024, Las Cruces’ population is 115,956. It almost doubled!
Special Moment #2: El Paso Airport
We drove to El Paso Airport just to experience what I did 35 years ago. Texas is the 5th state on this 29-day trip and we crossed it today.
I-10 had closures and Google Maps re-routed us to alternative roads on both ways.
Although not the entirety of I-10 between El Paso and Las Cruces, the section available and the alternative ways reminded me of what I-10 was like: mostly desert and utility poles. It also reminded me that a section right outside Las Cruces had terrible odors—animal manures. It still smells terrible!
Some parts of El Paso airport brought back my memory. Overall, it does not conflict with what I remembered, especially the palm trees—they looked shorter than I remembered but they were there right when I’d walked out of the luggage claim.
The rest of the airport was not familiar to me. I only had that one experience with the airport—arriving in 1989.
Special Moment #3: Dr. Davison’s Home
I have been texting Diana, Dr. Davison’s daughter, who now lives in north AZ. She told me the address of Dr. Davison’s home, where I spent my very first night in the U.S. Unfortunately, it was very different from what I remembered. But then, I only visited that home once and didn’t get to examine it thoroughly in daylight.
A sad fact is that the buffet place where we had dinner was out of business for a while now.
Special Moment #4: Luminaries in Old Mesilla Town
Those Christmas lights I described in the first chapter of my memoir Las Crosses: I didn’t know their name until Diana told me this time. I found them! They wouldn’t be good for a snow city like Syracuse: the snow could easily bury them.
These luminaries must be a local thing. They were in many places. But later during the trip, I didn’t find them in other cities, even though they’d have no snow.
Update after visiting Albuquerque: its old town has Christmas Eve luminaria displays. So at least luminaries are found in other New Mexico cities.
The following photos were taken at the Old Mesilla town in Las Cruces.
(to be continued)