Travel from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Marathon, Texas

We drove our coach 301 miles, about five hours of driving, from Las Cruces, New Mexico to Marathon, Texas.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:

Route

An interactive map:

Joining I-10 East:

Joining I-10 East

Recycled Roadrunner artwork at a rest stop:

Recycled Roadrunner artwork

Rio Grande with a little water due to rain (it was dry when we drove past earlier in the week):

Rio Grande with a little water

Nice mountains beyond Las Cruces:

Nice mountains beyond Las Cruces

Leaving New Mexico:

Leaving New Mexico

Welcome to Texas:

Welcome to Texas

Looking over the border into Mexico:

Looking into Mexico

Playing El Paso while leaving El Paso:

Playing El Paso while leaving El Paso

Fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Rainy drive:

Rainy drive

Immigration checkpoint:

Immigration checkpoint

Entering Central Time Zone:

Entering Central Time Zone

A long building on a trailer at stop opportunity:

A long building on a trailer at stop opportunity

Rainbow:

Rainbow

Sun rays:

Sun rays

A blimp (I think used for watching the border with Mexico), grounded probably due to the lightning storms in the area:

Blimp

Picnic area stop:

Picnic area stop

Arriving at Marathon Motel & RV Park:

Arriving at Marathon Motel & RV Park

Our site:

Our site

Towel rails

For some unknown reason, our coach came with a set of towel rails inside the shower. Which makes no sense, since you’d have to remove the towels before using it.

So one of the first modifications we did after we got our coach was to remove the bars from those rails and flip the ends upside down, so they serve as hooks, and add another set of towel rails outside the shower.

Here’s a pic from years ago of the inverted ends of the rails (and soap dispensers, but we moved those elsewhere after I knocked them off a couple of times):

Shower dispensers

Our replacement is mounted above the toilet, next to the shower:

Towel rails

Much better!

McGinn’s PistachioLand Home of the World’s Largest Pistachio

We visited McGinn’s PistachioLand Home of the World’s Largest Pistachio. A fun roadside attraction that we saw in passing a couple of years ago, but got around to visiting this time.

World's Largest Pistachio

PistachioLand:

PistachioLand

World's Largest Pistachio

Nutastic!

White Sands National Park

We re-visited White Sands National Park in New Mexico. We first visited in 2022, but enjoyed re-visiting this year. As the NPS site says, it’s like no place else on Earth, the world’s largest gypsum dunefield.

The official NPS map; click or tap for full-size (and more info):

Visitor Center with the historic sign from before it became a National Park:

Visitor Center with historic sign from before it became a National Park

Road between sand dunes:

Road between sand dunes

Picnic area:

Picnic area

Sand dunes:

Sand dunes

The Thing?

During our travel to Las Cruces, we stopped at Bowlin’s “The Thing?” Travel Center for lunch (as mentioned in the travel post), and of course we had to explore “The Thing?” museum, another fun roadside attraction. The idea being WHAT IF… aliens have manipulated human history?

What if?

Cheesetastic fun.

Las Cruces KOA Journey

We stayed at Las Cruces KOA Journey in Las Cruces, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our third visit to this RV park with a nice view.

Dates:

Check in: 2024-11-10
Check out: 2024-11-17
7 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny
High temps ranging between 68-74°F, lows around 36-45°F
Some windy days, gusts to 27 MPH

Noise:

Negligible road noise (distant freeway noise, only audible outside)
No train noise

Site:

#53, pull-through, gravel (with some concrete strips that are only useful for trailers)
Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
Fairly level; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
Site about 90 feet long by about 18 feet wide
Picnic table on gravel; no fire pit
Limited mountain view

Utilities:

50 amp power, a little inconveniently located
60 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (3 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 100-135 Mbps down, 18-21 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
AT&T: 29 Mbps down, 9 Mbps up, 150 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Seasonally closed pool
Garbage pickup from site (they didn’t used to offer this, so yay)
Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Nice place to stop in Las Cruces

This was our third time staying here and our first time not staying in one of the “view” sites, although we still had a decent view of both mountain ranges. This campground is conveniently off I-10 and has easy access to anything in Las Cruces. We camped at Las Cruces KOA Journey in a Motorhome.

An interactive map of the park:

RV park map:

Map

Our site (with empty sites on either side, making it look more spacious than it was):

Our site

Utilities weren’t super convenient; having to use three 10-foot sewer hoses wasn’t ideal (the concrete pad and utilities were clearly set up with trailers in mind):

Utilities

We enjoyed a local pizza delivery on our last night; tasty, fast, and inexpensive:

Pizza

A neighbor fiver pulling out, with an unusual hitch:

Fiver

Other sites:

Other sites

Community room:

Community room

Playground:

Playground

Nice view:

Nice view

Sun rays through dust on the way back to the campground from a day trip:

Sun rays through dust

Dust obscuring Las Cruces:

Dust obscuring Las Cruces

Still a nice RV park. No doubt we’ll stay here yet again in the future. (See our previous two stays for more photos.)

Video

Video: Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico motorhome travel timelapse

A timelapse of driving our RV, a Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome, 258 miles from Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Travel from Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico

We drove our coach 258 miles, about four hours of driving, from Tucson, Arizona to Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading east:

Map route

An interactive map:

An example of why we don’t use picnic tables at campsites, at least without a tablecloth (but usually not even then): our neighbor was working on his sewer pipe connectors on the table:

Sewer pipes on picnic table

Joining I-10 East:

Joining I-10 East

Mountains:

Mountains

Interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

The Thing? travel center (post about the attraction later this week):

The Thing?

We had DQ there for lunch:

DQ for lunch

The Thing? and other swag:

The Thing? swag

More interesting rocks:

Interesting rocks

Rest area:

Rest area

Paladin sprawled on the dash as we got underway again:

Paladin on dash

Welcome to New Mexico:

Welcome to New Mexico

“Zero visibility possible”… yes, anything’s possible:

Zero visibility possible

“Gusty winds may exist”… indeed:

Gusty winds may exist

Fun with zoom:

Fun with zoom

Instructions on what to do if caught in a dust storm (not very readable in this pic, but basically pull onto shoulder, turn off engine, foot off brake, lights off… presumably to save battery power):

Fun with zoom

Welcome to Las Cruces:

Welcome to Las Cruces

We really enjoy the mountains behind Las Cruces:

Interesting rocks

Our destination, the Las Cruces KOA Journey:

KOA

All decked out for the holidays (in early November):

KOA

Rechargeable motion lights

Inside cupboards and in the half bath we have compact motion-activated LED rechargeable lights, that are magnetically mounted to a self-adhesive patch, so they can be easily removed and recharged via USB. These lights have a switch to toggle between off, on, and auto; we leave them set to auto, so they come on via motion.

Convenient to illuminate in cupboards, and also in the half bath, so we don’t need to turn on the ceiling lights. In that bathroom, we have one mounted on the wall and one under the cabinet, above the sink.

Light

Saguaro National Park

We re-visited the two units of Saguaro National Park in Tucson, Arizona. We first visited in early 2022, but that was before Jenn was doing her National Parks passport book, so didn’t have a passport stamp for this park. Plus it’s nice to re-visit parks, especially ones we particularly enjoy like this one.

An interactive map of our route, starting with the west side (and a stop at a Subway to pick up some lunch for a picnic):

West-side entrance sign:

West-side entrance sign

West visitor center:

West visitor center

When we visited last time, they were limiting the bookstore to 10 people at a time due to COVID restrictions (but without masks by then), but this time there were of course no restrictions, though it wasn’t super busy:

West visitor center