THE Trip, Revisit to the Rest Stop, The Recycled Roadrunner

Copyright 2011, CABS for Reflections From the Fence

The other day Man and I made a return trip to the mesa that Gene and Daisy took us to on Christmas Eve.  I wanted day photos of the valley and the Organ Mountains in the distance - -


The highway is I-10.  If you look to the
right and left of I-10 you will
see lots of rows of brownish vegitation that looks like crops.
It is crops, those are pecan trees! 
Acres and acres of pecan trees are grown here.
I have been trying to determine how much, numbers vary,
"New Mexico has an estimated 40,000 acres of pecan trees,
which produced about 70 million pounds of pecans
valued at $133 million in 2009, per this web site.

However, what I really wanted to find was the Recycled Roadrunner Gene and Daisy told us about.  They said it was around this rest area, I could not see it in the dark.  Well, you can really see it when you arrive in the daylight!  This is a work of art designed and sculptured in 1992 by artist Olin S. Calk, it used to reside at the Las Cruces city dump, when the dump was closed  the locals united, not wanting to lose this "work of art".  So, around 2000 they moved the largest roadrunner here.  I found varying measurements on Internet sites, let say this junkyard beauty is about 15 to 20 feet tall and about 40 foot long, nose to tail feathers.

Close up photos show all kinds of recycled materials have been used, tennis shoes, old computer keyboard, an old fan and many other articles which remain un-identified!

I see an old cooking ladle and what looks like an old spotlight:

You too can visit this large roadrunner.  It is located  on I-10 E., near Las Cruces, NM

Directions:  In a rest area on the south side of I-10, just west of Las Cruces and just east of the Picacho Ave. exit, between mile markers 134-135. Only accessible to eastbound traffic.
 
(Oh, there is a sign about rattlesnakes, but Gene tells us they are hibernating right now.  Hibernation is a very good thing for them to be doing!  Ya, works for me!)



*  Again, our sincere thanks to Gene and Daisy.

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