The Double Eagle Restaurant in Old Mesilla

Thursday - 1 January 2004 - Las Cruces, New Mexico:  HAPPY NEW YEAR! We hope you all had a great night last night and don't have big heads this morning! We were so tired (and sad) last night that we were asleep hours before the New Year dawned. But at midnight we were awakened by firecrackers, gun shots and fireworks. Later, we heard rain drops on the top of the camper and then heard our automatic ceiling vent-fan covers close! They work!

And we woke to glorious sun and warm weather! Didn't even have to turn the furnace on this morning and we have the windows open. So lovely. We had a quiet morning, as I was trying to convince DT to do "nothing" today. Go nowhere. Watch Bowl Games. Sit in the hot tub. Enjoy the sun. I am still reading through all the instruction manuals for all the "parts" on this coach. Today was the toilet. I couldn't figure what was the big deal about this fancy porcelain toilet. It is called a "residential" toilet, yet it works the same way as every other RV/Marine toilet. Until I read the manual. There is a switch on the back, setting the toilet to "residential mode". It flushes and flushes and rinses and rinses and then fills the bowl up with water! Who knew! (The other mode, which our toilet had been set on until now, is for water conservation while dry camping.) Is this more than you wanted to know about our toilet?  Too bad - I can't tell you how excited I am about this discovery.

But the day took a bad turn when I ran over to the The Wal-Mart to buy Black Eyed Peas. Since DT's Dad was a Texan, it is custom in Our Family to eat Black Eyed Peas each New Years Day for Good Luck. The The Wal-Mart was sold out. Sold out of canned Black Eyed Peas. Sold out of frozen Black Eyed Peas. Sold out of dried Black Eyed Peas. Sold out. That's what I get for going to a The Wal-Mart on New Years Day 20 miles from the Texas border. We may have an unlucky year... but since we were actually IN Texas yesterday, maybe that will counter-act the curse and all will be well. We were forced to eat Buffalo Wings while watching the Rose Bowl.

There is a big snow storm in Oregon. Our housesitter phoned to say she felt there was too much snow for her to leave our house today - even if she drove DT's truck. My brother phoned from Sisters (I just love to type that) to say they have about three feet of snow. It was snowing so hard and was so windy, HooDoo Ski Bowl had to close. Snowing too hard to ski - that's a good one!

Tonight we went back to the get Double Eagle restaurant in quaint Old Mesilla - the old historic plaza which has seen so much of the story of Mexico, America and the joining and un-joining of both countries. We were here last year and had a nice evening. The food is good, but the building is so interesting and so beautiful that it was worth another trip. Well, the Double Eagle is only about a mile away from the camper, so it wasn't really much of an effort. The Double Eagle property has been placed on the National Register of Historic Places and was built as a private residence. Though it sounds like a golf course, the restaurant is named after the US $20 gold coin, the Double Eagle. We dined in the Maximilian Room, which holds a huge painting of Ferdinand Maximilian Joseph, Archduke of Austria - who was made Emperor of Mexico in 1864 by Napoleon III. For some reason, the Mexicans didn't think they wanted to be part of France and Maximilian was shot by Mexican leader Benito Juarez. (Thank goodness, can you imagine how awful Mexican food would be with tarragon?) Never mind, the room holds three seven-foot-tall Baccarat crystal chandeliers and has 24 carat gold painted ceilings!

The Maximilian Room in the Double Eagle Restaurant

The building is said to be haunted by the son of the original owner and his lover, the house maid. Legend says the Mother was so upset that her son was in love with the house maid that she stabbed the girl to death after catching them "entwined".  In the melee the Mother accidentally stabbed her son and he died three days later. (That was one seriously messed-up Mama.) The ghosts still haunt one of the rooms, the Carlota Salon, to this day. Even though the room is equipped with modern motion detectors - broken glasses and tipped-over chairs are found by morning. Two chairs in the room that are never used are slowly becoming worn!

We had an undisturbed meal and the only thing I stabbed was my salad. Double Eagle was not serving Black Eyed Peas tonight, but all the staff noted they had eaten some today! We tried many things tonight - but especially enjoyed the green chile wontons! How's that for an interesting dish? The wonton skins were stuffed with (locally-grown) Hatch green chiles and cheeses, fried and served with a pineapple salsa. Simply amazing!

RV Park: Hacienda RV Resort