Pobre Nuevo Mejico, Tan Lejos del Cielo y Tan Cerca de Tejas.

"Pobre Nuevo Mejico, Tan Lejos del Cielo y Tan Cerca de Tejas."

Poor New Mexico, so far from heaven and so close to Texas. Manuel Armijo, the Last New Mexican Governor prior to the American occupation hit the nail on the head when he uttered this pearl of wisdom.

In New Mexico today Texans escape from the heat and the dreariness of the Llano Estacado and come to the mountains of New Mexico by the tens of thousands every weekend. If you travel between Raton and Clayton over 90 % of the traffic is from Texas. The same goes on the road between Roswell and Tularosa. A good portion of the Texans also head into the mountains of Southern Colorado. Any place really, any place other than Texas.

The towns of Eagle Nest, Angel Fire and Red River in Northern New Mexico and also Ruidoso and Cloudcroft in Southern New Mexico are populated by about 95% Texans. Texans catering to other Texans. Sort of odd to spend time in these towns, islands of Texans in New Mexico. And the extreme eastern part of New Mexico is called little Texas as in some cases there are more Texans there than New Mexicans or folks from anywhere else.

New Mexicans have had a distrust of Texans since the Americans settled there (Texas) swore allegiance to the Mexican Republic then turned on Mexico, declared their own republic and tried to invade New Mexico from there several times after their "independence". Sort of hard to trust them after the scheme that they pulled off with the support of the Americans.

We have been going into the Texas Panhandle, especially Amarillo since we used to travel I-40 when coming home from points north and east. I Like Amarillo, easy to get around in and lots of antique shops on old Route 66. I also like to travel the panhandle as this is the part of the llano our New Mexican ancestors used for several hundred years before modern Texas came into being. Sort of gives a person perspective of what life used to be like in New Mexico.