We arrived in Las Cruces on the Thursday evening, school, set up and concert on the Friday and on the road again on the Saturday morning bound for Tucson, Arizona. Las Cruces was warm, sunny and desert like, the name is Spanish for "the crosses" and many crosses can be seen around the town and outlying areas.The evening we arrived we had a glorious sunset again, indeed it seems common in these parts as in Texas.

Travelling on on Saturday and stopping at a road side rest area the sign told us to watch out for Rattlesnakes, and at the next one they had added poisonous insects too! We kept to the paths and checked the ground before we moved our feet. Later on speaking to one of our hosts about it she said that she had lived here for years and rarely seen a rattlesnake, but then she kept away from the places that they liked and didn't go poking around under bushes - however she never told me what places they liked!!!

The rest area obviously had had trouble with people breaking into the vending machines, it wasn't going to happen again. In fact nothing short of the key, the hydraulic cutters that firemen use, four hours with a sharp hacksaw or two pounds of gelignite would let you gain access to break into the machines.