I took a different route south from the Gila Cliff Dwellings, turning east onto Rte. 35, then a short jog back west on 152, and finally a very straight shot down 180, where I picked up I-10 again in Deming. About an hour away from Las Cruces, I headed east with a destination in mind that I had read about recently in Budget Travel. I hadn't heard of it before, even with the hundreds (probably now thousands) of hours I've put into lodging research. So I decided to check it out. I put a call in and found, as I suspected for an off-season week night, plenty of vacancies.
Meson de Mesilla is a "boutique hotel", a phrase I see more and more frequently and am still trying to completely identify. This particular small hotel has fifteen rooms and a gourmet restaurant, is less than a mile off of I-10 and is surrounded by adobe walls. It has more than a motel feel, yet less than a hotel. I can't quite place it in any category. First impressions are truly important and, unfortunately, my solo traveling backfired this time. The well-meaning desk girl assigned me one of what turned out to be just a handful of very small rooms, not recently remodeled, as many of the others are. I understood how this happened. Single person, one night translated to a logical customer to put in a compact room with one double bed. Compact is right, as the bed took up most of the room. I wasn't unhappy, but was puzzled. This just didn't match the description I had read about or the pictures I'd seen on their website. I went to get my overnight bag and paused at the front desk to ask about the variety of rooms they offer. Since the occupancy level for the night was very low, they offered to show me a couple other rooms. Big surprise - they were night and day different from the one I'd been given. One in particular was especially pleasing to me, the Saguaro Suite, more than twice the size of the other, newly remodeled, with a huge bed, sofa and sitting area, beautiful antiques and a back door out to a patio that looked out over the mountains. I asked the difference in the price. Ten dollars. I switched immediately and resisted the impulse to ask why, with an almost-empty house, they hadn't originally shown me that room or at least offered options. I decided this had to be a solo travel fluke and let it go. (Note: Always, always ask if you're not happy with a room you're given. You have nothing to lose).
Because I'd eaten very little that day (fruit and muffins at the cabin the night before and a granola bar during my Gila hike), I decided to check out the dining room. There were about five options, all delicious sounding. I splurged and got the filet, which was prepared with a veal stock demi-glaze wild mushroom sauce and served with a medley of fresh vegetables and potatoes. Soup, salad and bread rounded the meal out. It was delicious and served by a waiter from Ojai, a favorite California town of mine. We had fun chatting about our favorite fish tacos there :) Eat filet while talking about fish tacos - go figure :) Though dinner was an additional charge, breakfast was included in the lodging. I opted for a green chili cheese omelette that was served with chorizo, orange juice and coffee. Overall, the service was great. The lodging was fine, once I changed rooms. Looking back and thinking what I would write about this place, I find myself wishing I hadn't seen the less desireable room first. Or that the small room had ben remodeled along with the others. It's amazing what old carpet and chipped paint can do to the memory banks. I hope they consider upgrading these rooms in the future. Thinking about it, the basic premise of the Budget Travel article was to highlight lodging under $100. that offered good value. I guess I have to agree that this fits that bill. Even with a filet mignon dinner added, it's possible to slide out without crossing that hundred dollar mark. For a sort of inn, sort of hotel, sort of B&B, it wasn't bad. I checked out and headed into old Mesilla, which was once the largest town between San Antonio and San Diego. Now a cluster of historic adobe architecture and quaint shops, it provided grounds for exploring. The weather was perfect and the old central plaza and surrounding streets very quiet and peaceful. It wasn't always this way, as desperados many times frequented these streets. Billy the Kid was captured here, and tried and sentenced to hang in the old courthouse, now predictably the "Billy the Kid Gift Shop".
I found a very cool little coffee house in an outdoor garden, not far from the 1905 Fountain Theatre. The Bean, as it's called, served up a delicious vanilla latte and offered free online access on a computer in the back room. It turns out this business is moving out onto the main drag, Avenida de Mesilla, next month, but promises it will retain it's fun and funky atmosphere. From there I wandered through a few shops, including El Mariachi Curio, located in the oldest brick building in New Mexico, built in 1863. Another shop (I'm trying to find the name in my notes, ugh...) had very cool wall-hanging figures made from coconut shells and corn husks, then painted with bright colors. As with most historic old town areas, old Mesilla has a church (San Albino), historic plaques in many corners and alleys and numerous restaurants and art galleries. I got out of there in the mid-afternoon and took back roads down to El Paso, admiring long archways of pecan trees that branched out over the road. I stopped once along the way at Stahmanns Country Store, where I fell victim to free taste testing of pecans and left with a tin of pralined pecans to keep in the car. I caught I-10 again at El Paso, escaping most of the crowded border city, and headed east across Texas.
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