"Going to El Paso this week." Topic

I am going to El Paso on Tuesday, be there till Monday. Any stores or places to visit?

Man so far away…

Sorry about that.

Cattleman's Steakhouse. Stay in the hotel the rest of the time.

Since I have friends down that way of the country and visit it on occasions, to be constructive:

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER VISIT JUAREZ

If you hire a car there is the White Sands National Monument that is kind of cool, it's about an hours drive to the north.

Drive about 1 hour 45 minutes out of El Paso you have the New Mexico Museum of Space History in Alamogordo.

As to visiting El Paso, you have my deepest sympathy. The finest view of that city is in a rear-view mirror.

Did I mention:

UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER VISIT JUAREZ

El Paso has plenty to enjoy for the history minded. The Army museums at Fort Bliss are well worth a visit as is Hueco Tanks State Park & Historic Site east of town. There is a mission trail that links the Spanish missions at Ysleta, Socorro and San Elizario on the south side of town. All date from the late 1600s when the Spanish were driven out of Santa Fe during the Great Pueblo Rebellion. Check it out online.

Keep your head down and be alert. El Paso is not a place to be traveled around lightly.

The First Armored Division Museum at Ft Bliss, as well as the replica of old Ft Bliss are worth seeing. Plenty of good mexican food but don't listen to anyone who tells you to go to Chico's Tacos, they are just garbage. Juarez isn't as dangerous as it was, down to one murder a day from 8 a day but there is plenty of street crime and the cops might shake you down and even haul you in for a few hours. Besides, you need a passport to get back into the States nowadays. If you go to White Sands look up periodically, the Luftwaffe's Advanced Fighter school is at Holloman nearby and you might see a Tornado fly by, or an F-22 as they are based at Holloman as well. War Eagles Museum on the westside has some interesting stuff. Don't bother with the El Paso History Museum, its a joke. North of El Paso on I-10 is Mesilla, which is a cool little town, best known for a trial of Billy the Kid. It was also the Capital of Confederate Territory of New Mexico- Arizona. If you go there are some cool shops (nothing gaming related) although the bookstore often has difficult to find books on the Civil War campaign in New Mexico and Pershing in Mexico. La Posta is a great place to eat there but it can get crowded. If you can get in say hi to the piranha they keep. Further north on I25 are the ruins of Ft. Selden, the boyhood home of Douglas MacArthur.

The Missions are a waste of time. NONE of them , despite what they will tell you, are the original buildings, the oldest dates from the 1840s, the other two are from the 20th Century, one as late as the 1930s. They are unremarkable, either inside or out. Near the San Elizario 'mission", which was actually a Presidio, there is the old El Paso County jail, which locals will tell you is the only jail Billy the Kid broke into (supposedly to break a friend out). There is no proof or record that this ever happened.

I guess you are getting the feeling that a lot of El Paso's history is Bravo sierra and thats true. El Paso had a great tradition of gunfighters (John Wesley Hardin met his end here when a town cop, John Selman but a bullet through the back of Hardin's skull while Hardin was playing "chuck a luck" at a bar. Selman himself was gunned down soon after. Two Madams had a gunfight over the employment (and some say the charms) of a soiled dove. The headline stated that the loser was shot in the Public Arch, and wild west aficianados often want to see the "Public Arch" but that was a typo, the losing Madam was shot in the "pubic arch". Town Marshal Dallas Stoudemire late of the 45th Alabama blasted, three men in four seconds on El Paso Street, of course two of the three were innocent bystanders. But all those places are gone now. John Wesley Hardin and John Selman are buried in Concordia Cemetery.

Hope this helps,

John

I just escaped from Fort Bliss! Definitely see the museums on post. They are worth a look and I think they have a Mi-24 Hind which was pretty cool. Game stores are non-existant!

Billy Yank

Keep your head down and be alert. El Paso is not a place to be traveled around lightly.

That must be the reason it looks so much like Mos Eisley.

First clue: as near as I could tell, there's bars on the windows of everything that has windows.

Damn, I went to Jarez. But I did have two Border Patrol agents and several Mexican nationals with me. And it was before things got ugly. Er.

You could drive over to Carlsbad Caverns. I thought it was well worth the detour.

Cattlemans was great, went there the last time I went. I keep hoping that the shopping will improve.

You could drive over to Carlsbad Caverns. I thought it was well worth the detour.

Carlsbad Caverns is worth the trip, but I never suggested that for the same reason I didn't suggest Lincoln NM, center of the Lincoln County War, because that's a bit of a hike from El Paso.

BTW my general reaction to that part of the United States is that it is, with due apologies to the residence, wall to wall -all.

Work takes me to Las Cruces, NM a few times a year. The drive in the summer months from the El Paso Airport to Las Cruces can be the worst 50+ miles of your life. No air movement, cattle ranches right next to the roadway and 100+ degree temperatures makes for a mind altering combination. I cannot offer any better advice on El Paso, as it is best as a place to pass through to get somewhere else. Las Cruces is a bit better (where Mesilla is located), but after years of travelling to El Paso the redeeming qualities have been lost on me.

Well I did find a game store with FOW and XWing. Not a huge selection but if you are into Warhammer or ccg it was okay. Sun City Games. Also Hal's Hobby Warehouse had a good selection of model kits and supplies.