Heading East toward Texas

We were planning to leave Tucson on Sunday morning but we looked at the weather map and it was supposed to be raining pretty hard Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

We were pretty much ready to go after spending the whole month in Tucson, so we decided to leave in nice weather and make our way slowly to Galveston where we are scheduled to volunteer next week.

We were up before the sun came up and finished getting ready to head out.

After dumping the tanks, we left Tucson and got onto I-10.

Our first stop though is Deming NM. It is right along our route on I-10. We planned on making the 4 hour trip one day, then taking a 'tourist day' to see Silver City, NM. Back in the mid 1960's, my dad took a US Forest Service assignment there. We lived in 'Silver' for three plus years.

For my twin brother and me, it was during grades 4, 5 and 1/2 of the 6th grade. I don't think I have been back there since we left in Dec 1965. We plan to visit tomorrow.

We arrived in Deming about noon, just like we planned. The drive was fine and uneventful. After no driving the Roadrunner for a whole month, it felt good to hit the open road again. Man, I love driving that machine! It really goes smoothly. I usually keep it around 62 mph on the speedometer. In California, the signs state something like "55 mph for towed vehicles" so in California, I drive a little slower.

The route on I-10 from Tucson is a pretty good stretch of road. And pretty scenery. A different kind of pretty. Some would say 'desolate' but it is interesting. Not interesting enough to want to live out in the middle of nowhere, but interesting.

We took a few minutes and saw that new friends Jerry & Jenny were still in the Escapees campground where we are staying. We just met them in Tucson at the Agave Gulch campground at Davis-Monthan AFB. We went over and said 'hi' and 'goodbye' for a few minutes.

Then we took off for Columbus, NM and Palomas, Mexico. They are border towns and about 32 miles from Deming. When we lived in Silver City a long time ago, we made a couple of trips to the Palomas stores. Cigarettes and liquor were cheaper across the border back then too.

This is the third border Mexican town we have seen since we started full-timing in May 2009. We have been to Nuevo Progresso and Algodones Mexico. All had striking similarities but Palomos is definitely the smallest and most impoverished. And it does not have as many stores and shops as the other two.

We though it was really pretty empty for a Saturday afternoon.

We did a little shopping at the Pink Store and went back through Customs before we walked to the car.

On the way back to Deming we stopped by Pancho Villa State Park. It has a number of nice looking RV campsites. It also has a lot of history associated with it.

Francisco 'Pancho' Villa led a raid into US territory at Columbus in 1916. 18 Americans died and Gen John J. Pershing was dispatched by President Woodrow Wilson along with 10,000 troops to bring Pancho Villa to justice. He escaped into Mexico and was never caught.

We went back to the Escapees Rainbow Park in Deming and spent the rest of the evening reading and watching the Olympics.

Thanks for viewing the Roadrunner Chronicles today.