Las Cruces, New Mexico

is located 40 miles northwest of El Paso, TX. It is home to New Mexico State University and one of the best Mexican restaurants, La Posta. After another long day in Juarez, Mexico we ventured to Las Cruces for sight seeing and dinner. We met an elderly man downtown and he recommended eating at La Posta. He and his wife have eaten at this restaurant every Tuesday night for the past 35 years so we assumed it would be alright to eat there and he was right. It was some of the best Mexican food I have ever had and I have eaten a lot of Mexican food over the years. Plus the atmosphere at this restaurant was amazing. In the center of the restaurant it has an open roof so trees, plants and sunshine can thrive. There is also a hallway with little rooms that represent stores where they sell jewelry, clothes, pottery, food, etc. And at the end of your meal the family comes to your table to see how your meal was (grandma, grandpa, aunts, uncles, children, etc.). I showed off my Spanish skills at that point and talked to the grandma about the delicious tortilla soup. Of course the recipe is a family secret! A place we will return to during our business trips.

And even more sad news...

Mr. Vern Morrow past away today from a massive heart attack. Mr. Morrow was a great family friend and I will miss all of his knowledge, stories and history conversations we had especially about Detroit. I will always remember going to the theatre, symphony, Tigers and Lions games, and eating at many restaurants with him. If he rode with us to an event, we never drove directly to or from our destination as he had to educate us on something that day. He will be deeply missed.

My Grandpa Popp

past away late last night at the age of 90. He was a generous, caring and funny man. There are so many great memories I have of him and so many sayings and stories that I will never forget. Grandpa, thanks for the Lions tickets.

Alamogordo, New Mexico

While in Juarez, Mexico last week, I actually took some time to venture out and see more of the southwest. I usually don't have time to do such travel since I am extremely busy with work, but managed to get done with meetings early on this particular day. I spent a few hours in Alamogordo, New Mexico visiting the White Sands National Park and the nearby mountain range. What an amazing area and views. The white sand dunes cover about 275 square miles with wildlife and vegetation and is the largest such area of dunes in the world. Of course, I didn't have a camera to take any pictures. The change in temperature was also weird to experience. At ground level it was around 102 degrees, but up in the mountains was 72. Check out the below links to see some on-line pictures of the white sands and the mountains in the background.
http://www.sacredsites.com/americas/united_states/white_sands.html
http://www.nps.gov/whsa/

Happy Birthday America!

I spent the 4th of July in El Paso, TX and Juarez, Mexico. Needless to say I was not happy to be working on a holiday and to spend most of the day in a foreign country.

I have been blessed to meet and become friends with so many people from different cultures. It makes me appreciate where I was born and what I have. We must remember that we share a border with a third world country and every time I am in Mexico I understand why they want to come to America. For what they lack in wealth, they make up for in compassion for family and friends.

I spent the evening of July 4th in El Paso, TX with some of my Mexican friends. They did not want me to be alone on such an important day for Americans so they came across the border to spend the evening with me. We started the evening with the most important 'Ds' - drinks, dinner, dessert! After we stuffed ourselves silly, we went and watched the West El Paso fireworks in the mountains. I have always been very patriotic, but never felt so proud to be an American as I did watching the fireworks with hundreds of thousands of Mexican-Americans, who call themselves Americans. I am sure many of these people are not American born citizens and this is why they are so proud to now be Americans and live in this country. I have never seen such enthusiasm, pride, tears, and joy all at once each and every time a firework was launched. There was so much shouting, laughing, dancing, and partying. I couldn't even tell you if it was a good fireworks display or not. I spent most of the evening people watching and listening to my Mexican friends tell me how lucky I am to be an American. I ended up enjoying being in El Paso for the 4th.

I learned on this 4th of July that it is truly awesome to be an American. It doesn't matter how you received your US citizenship; the important thing is that you have it.