Day 14: Deming-Las Cruces 69 mi

Today was another easy day. We got a fairly early start despite the relatively short ride. An increasing tailwind propelled me the 61 mi in 3 hrs to Old La Mesilla, a lovely old Mexican village square established in 1850 with adjacent Basilica of San Albino. The old village has many arts, crafts and jewelry stores and the very quaint and old Eagle Restaurant just off the square where many lunched in the central open-air patio. We enjoyed this colorful place for a couple of hours before proceeding through urban traffic, past the University of N.M. ending at Sonoma Springs Presby.Ch.where we bunked down in the sanctuary. It is the new home of the same congregation I stayed with on my last trip but now located in a new expanding, gated upscale subdivision and, ecumenically located right next to a new synogogue. Tomorrow we will have to climb some to get past the Organ Mountains which provides such a dramatic dropback to this city.