ANOTHER RELAXING DAY BUT WE’RE GETTING OUT OF HERE SUNDAY BEFORE THE ‘SHOOTIN’ STARTS

A temperature range of 40 degrees in one day is not unusual for the Southwest in winter and we are experiencing that now.  A few degrees below freezing on our morning walks and up into the 70’s plus by noon.  We always have to pack both winter and summer clothes for traveling in the Southwest.  My favorite time of course is that oh so enjoyable place right in between the too cold mornings and too hot afternoons.

A COUPLE OF LOCAL NEIGHBORHOOD SCRUFFIANS

A FEW THINGS SEEN IN DOWNTOWN COLUMBUS THIS MORNING

THESE ART PIECES ARE MADE OUT OF OLD RUBBER TIRES

Cranked up the Jeep about mid morning and off into downtown Columbus about half a mile or so south of us.  Hard to imagine Columbus as a town although they do have a modern Post Office.  Columbus is a place time has left behind and it shows.  To the eye there is basically not much here.  Main street consists of one block with a library on one side and maybe half a dozen business’s on the other side with half of those closed.  In fact the Patio Restaurant on the Southside is about all that’s open and it’s only open a few days a week with limited hours.  Main Street is probably wide enough to land a small airplane on but you would run out of runway pretty quick.  There is a grocery store at the town’s southeast corner and we did see a more modern looking bank.   No cars there but then again it was Saturday.  Most prominent architectural feature in town and always has been  is the big black water tank which can be seen for miles around.  It’s been there a long time.

 

I REMEMBER WE HAD BREAKFAST HERE ONE MORNING YEARS AGO AND CHECKED OUR EMAILS WITH THEIR WIFI

THIS IS THE LIBRARY ON MAIN STREET AND ABOUT WHERE YOU SEE THAT BLUE CAR IS THE SPOT A DOZEN YEARS AGO I WOULD SIT IN OUR HYUNDAI SANTA FE AT NIGHT AND POST MY BLOG USING THE LIBRARIES WIFI

WE ALSO USED THE LIBRARIES COMPUTERS INSIDE AS WELL

WHAT COLUMBUS LOOKED LIKE AT ONE TIME

WHAT YOU SEE HERE IS BASICALY DOWNTOWN COLUMBUS AND NOTE HOW WIDE THE MAIN STREET IS

KELLY STOPS FOR A REST

Columbus New Mexico which actually was named after Christopher Columbus has a historic and violent past based on an incident which happened here on March 9th, 1916.  Rather than me tell you about it just click the above link.  When we were here back in late 2006 and early 2007 I took a lot of photos around Columbus as well as the Pink Store 3 miles south in Palomas Mexico but unfortunately I’m unable to locate those photos at the moment.  Must be on one of my external hard drives I left at home.   I especially took a lot of photos at the Pancho Villa State Park which now stands on the site of historic Camp Furlong where U.S. Troops were based after Pancho Villa raided the town.

A PROTECTIVE ROOF PROTECTS THE LAST REMAINING MILITARY BUILDING FROM THE CAMP FURLONG DAYS

BEEN QUITE AWHILE SINCE IT HAS RAINED HERE IN COLUMBUS AND THE STATE PARK DID NOT LOOK AS FRESH AND GREEN AS I HAD REMEMBERED IT 11 YEARS AGO AT THIS TIME

DURING PANCHO VILLA’S RAID THIS WAS THE HOOVER HOTEL WHERE 2 PEOPLE WERE KILLED….THE PHOTO BELOW TELLS WHAT HAPPENED

Picked ourselves up a couple of great tasting breakfast Burritos at Irma's Kitchen  and scurried the short distance back up the highway to where our rig is located in the dusty old tumble down RV Park we like.  Why do we like it you ask?? Aside from half a dozen permanent residents (characters) there is nobody here so it’s just us.   A perfect place for the Bunch to spend a few quiet days and catch our breath.  Tipped back in the shade of a couple tall Juniper trees this afternoon I marvelled at the never ending deep blue sky above.  It was 73 gorgeous degrees:))

COLUMBUS NEW MEXICO’S ORIGINAL TRAIN STATION AND NOW TOWN MUSEUM

KELLY PICKS UP A COUPLE YUMMY BREAKFAST AT IRMA’S KITCHEN

KELLY RE-CALIBRATING OUR ‘TIREMINDER TIRE PRESSURE MONITORING SYSTEM

A nice lady came around and  collected money for our stay and advised us that we may be jarred out of our sleep New Year’s Eve at midnight by a lot of gun fire.  She said the locals really go at it firing their guns in the air.  I think it’s probably a big warning for Pancho Villa not to attack this quiet ittle American town again!!  Needless to say we do not intend to be here when all the gunfire starts so we’re getting out of Dodge Sunday morning.  Back in late December of 06 when we rolled out of Columbus we headed off on a quiet scenic road which follows the Mexican border in the direction of Southeastern Arizona.  This road will take us through Hachita and on to another favorite area of ours, Portal Arizona in the Chiricahua Mountains.   We’ve stayed at Rusty's RV Ranch a couple times over the years but it’s already filled with RV’ers due to the long week-end.  We liked Rusty’s and I’d give it a big two thumbs up.  And that’s coming from a guy who doesn’t much care for RV Campgrounds.  The campground we really wished we could get in is in Portal’s Cave Creek area but our Motorhome is too big.  To bad because this campground is a real scenic gem.  Sunny Flat Campground.  So where we will end up Sunday night is anyone’s guess again, especially ours.

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Children were called upon a classroom to make sentences with words chosen by the teacher. The teacher smiled when Jack, a slow learner, raised his hand to participate during the challenge of making a sentence with the words "Defeat," "Defense," "Deduct," and "Detail."  Jack stood thinking for a while, all eyes focused on him while his classmates awaited his reply. Smiling, he then proudly shouted out, "Defeat of deduct went over defense before detail."