Deming & Columbus, New Mexico – Nov. '09

After I left Socorro, I traveled 3 hours south to Deming, New Mexico. I planned on staying at a LoW campground. LoW=Loners on Wheels. I expected this to be a laid back, live and let live kind of park with the expectation of some fun meeting people enjoying the same life style I had chosen. I’d checked out the club online several times over the years so thought I knew what was up with them. Well, my expectations were 180 degrees out of sync. The park was one of the most up tight parks I’d been to in 5 years. They even had the laundry room locked up! Wow, very unusual in my experience. Oh, and they had this rule that you could only use certain kinds (which meant certain brands) of liquid detergent. Then there were 20 other rules, and then more rules. So, next morning I got out of there. Park was nice enough, but really, if I’d wanted to be imprisoned, I wouldn’t be an RV’er. When I walked into the office the next morning asking for a refund for the prepaid second night, it took them several minutes to figure out how to do a refund. Even asking me if I could just forget about it. (NO!). But they did have some pretty ‘cactus’ in little gardens here and there in the park so I got some pictures before I left.

At the LoW RV Park in Deming, NM

And some of the cactii all around the park.

Weird looking stuff.

Interesting color.

This one had fruit.

Eventually, this will be 20' in height.

Looks neat, but packs a bite.

Some of them had these tall central spires.

Someone put a lot of work into this miniture, so I thought I'd show it to the world.

And the cactus garden. Started and maintained by the guests of the park. Some of them are here for months at a time.

It’s a half hour drive from Deming, NM south to Columbus. Right on the border with Mexico, Columbus was my chosen spot to hang out while I got some dental work done. I had picked this place because I had never been there and wanted to visit a new area, it was only 3 miles from the border, and there were two RV parks in town. Here’s a shot of some of the hills around this very wide and dry valley on the way down from Deming. After I parked on the side of the road, I walked to the other side to get this shot. When I made that walk to and from the RV, I was forced to walk in the scrub land right next to the road. When I stepped up the stairs, I noticed that I had maybe 10 cacti spines in my shoes. Took me 10 minutes to get them all out. Including the 2 that had penetrated the soles of my shoes and into my foot. A little blood, nothing to worry about. What I was very worried about though, was that some of those spines were long enough to flatten my new tires. So as I drove away, I turned sharply onto the roadway trying to reduce my tires exposure to the spines. A week later, I hadn’t lost any air from the tires so I got lucky.

A few miles outside of Columbus, NM.

When I arrive, a half hour later, in Columbus, I drove around this little town and soon found a museum. Since it was still so early in the day, I stopped in there and got a look at the local history. The history of Columbus includes an attack by Poncho Villa, the Mexican bandit, back in 1916 or so. Several people killed and many buildings burned to the ground. That attack set off a series of counter attacks so the town of Columbus, which had at the time of the attack maybe 300 soldiers stationed there, eventually had thousands. The counter attack was not hampered by the Mexican government, since Villa was a rebel and they were trying to get rid of him anyway. The US military was never able to capture or kill him and the campaign into Mexico faded away over time. But the US army was able to test out several new implements of war like a prototype tank, and the use of airplanes in supporting roles. It was also a campaign where motorized vehicles were used more then horse or mule. The tank wasn’t very successful but the planes and trucks were. And then WWI started up so the US moved on to other things. Villa was later assassinated in his home town by one of his rivals in Mexico. I’d guess you could call it a successful attack on the USofA.

The Columbus Museum.

Pretty good condition, considering it's age. That's my RV behind.

A fire truck used during the campaign.

Looks fun to drive.

If you like to look at old cameras, the museum has plenty.

The hotel where two died. Shot as they tried to escape from the front door. Man and pregnant woman.

After browsing around town and the museum for a couple hours, I went back to the ‘Columbus Best RV Park’ and set up in a spot where I was suppose to be able to receive WiFi. That turned out to be true and within the hour I was back on-line. Then after some more Internet research on the town and Palomas, Mexico, I jumped on my new bike and headed back to town. Since the park was  only around 2 miles from downtown, and the place is flat as a skillet, and by the looks of it, as hot as one in the summer, it wasn’t long before I’d literally seen the entire town. A library downtown had internet computers, a nice cafe across the street, a newer post office, a museum, a grocery store…everything I could want for a few weeks stay, while I had dental work done. Then there was a grocery store, cafe, & bar in a big, newer building. Funny thing was the hours of the cafe and bar. Not even open until 11:30am and closed at 9pm. When I came back late in the day the following afternoon, I found that the bar, inside the same building but with different hours, brand new, was only open Thursday, Friday, & Saturday from 5:30pm to 9pm. So, as a result of that, I only went there twice while they were open in my two months in Columbus.

Went into Mexico for dental work about a week after getting to Columbus, I’ll show you that next time.