5/9/2014 – it was quiet this morning and the wind calm for only the second camping day in seven. I had a list of possible stops for tonight, depending on where I stopped during the day. My first stop after leaving Three Rivers was the Tularosa Vineyards. It was my first winery visit of the trip-crazy, right? It is owned by an Air Force retiree and today I got to meet the whole gang. They make some quality stuff with grapes but for something different I bought a peach wine. It wasn’t over sweet like other fruit wines I’ve had, just nice and light. My second stop was to a pistachio producer just outside of Alamogordo. Heart of the Desert also had wines, but I have a rule of only one winery before lunch. I thought about lunch in town, but nothing sounded good, so I pressed on. I settled on Rockhound State Park, just outside of Deming and at the base of the small but feisty Florida Mountains. As I drove the short stretch of I-10 between Las Cruces and the exit for the park, the wind was pretty rough so I called the park to make sure they had sites available. If not, I would press on. Turns out it is a neat little spot with very helpful staff and new facilities. The peculiarity of the park is that they have a section of trail in the hills where you are welcome to collect rocks. I don’t know my rocks but there were some interesting pieces and I picked up one souvenir.
