Thursday, May 31st, we left the coach about 10:15 to go out and do some caching. We knew the afternoon temperatures were going to be in the high 90's, so we wanted to get out early. We had a great morning and by noon we had found a dozen new caches with no DNFs. After caching we went to a little Mexican restaurant in “downtown” Deming called Irma’s. We have been to Deming twice before in our travels and both times we ate at Irma’s. The food is great, the prices reasonable, and the service is good. I ate most of mine lunch, Jackie ended up taking some leftovers home.
After lunch we stopped at the Deming Elks Lodge. The lodge is a very tiny place with a bar and a couple of tables. The bartender, who is also an Elk in the Lodge, was very friendly and talked to us the whole time we were there. She told us that they own another building in town that they hope to one day remodel and use as a Lodge building. Right now it no bar facility, so they only use it for meetings and meals. The last time we were here, about a year ago, we got a lodge pin with the Lodge number 2799 on it. They recently merged with another Elks lodge that went under and they acquired that lodge’s number, 2750. So we have two of what appear to be the same lodge pin on our banner, but they have different numbers.
The bartender explained to us that this was important because Grand Lodge, the national headquarters for the Order of the Elks, made a decree that any lodges chartered after January 1, 1997 would not be allowed to have gaming in the lodge. In New Mexico, as in Oregon, non-profits like the Elks and other civic organizations are allowed by State law to have slot machines This is a big money maker. The original Deming lodge was chartered in February 1997 and would not have been allowed to have gaming machines. The lodge they merged with, number 2750, was charted just before the decree date, so if they use that number they are eligible to have gaming machines. They don’t have any machines yet because they don’t have room, but she said once they remodel the new building they will have a casino room. After our visit to the Elks we headed back to the coach and got out of the heat for the rest of the day.
Friday, June 1st, we again got out of the coach early, about 10:00, this time headed 30 miles south of the RV park to the border town of Columbus, New Mexico and, on the other of the Mexican border, Palomas, Chihuahua, Mexico. We have heard that Palomas is a small, quiet town much like Algadones, Mexico, near Yuma, where we go for glasses and dental work. Columbus is a small town with a population of about 1,700 people that actually sits about three miles above the international border. The main claim to fame for Columbus is that it was the site of the raid into the U.S. by Mexican General Francisco “Pancho” Villa and his troops. On March 9, 1916 Villa and several other commanders led more than 500 troops across the border into Columbus where they attacked the U.S. 13th Calvary headquarters. The raid resulted in the burning of part of the town and the garrison as well as the deaths of 8 soldiers and 10 U.S. citizens. President Woodrow Wilson responded by ordering General John “Black Jack” Pershing to invade Northern Mexico with a force of nearly 12,000 U.S. troops, along with tanks and aircraft, the first use of aviation in a military expedition. Pershing’s troops crossed into Mexico in March 1916 and fought a number of battles in Northern Mexico against Villa’s troops. Their main goal was to capture or kill Pancho Villa, however, he managed to evade capture. By January 1917 all of the troops were withdrawn back to the U.S. and the border war was over. World War I in Europe was close on the horizon and the U.S. needed all it’s military to focus on preparing for that conflict.
We parked in a large parking lot on the U.S. side of the border and walked into Palomas. The town appears to be somewhat larger than Algodones, but it seems to be an allusion as Palomas has a population of about 4,600 and Algodones has about 5,600. Palomas has wider streets and is more spread out, while Algodones is really tight. The streets of Palomas were nearly deserted, but I would imagine that, like Algodones, it is busy in the winter. It was about 97 degrees, so there were almost no vendors on the street. There is a big statue of Pancho Villa right by the border. The birds showed him no respect and camped out on his head and had a nest in his hat. We spent a half hour or so checking out a couple of shops before going to the Pink Store, which is the main attraction in town. It is a big pink building with a very large trinket shop, a pharmacy and a big restaurant. A couple of people told us that they had the best food in town. There was also a geocache in the Pink Store, the only one in Palomas. We poked around the store looking at merchandise before finally finding the geocache, an ammo box, painted pink of course, hiding under a table. We found that they will bring you free margaritas if you are shopping around the store. Yea! After shopping for a little bit we had lunch in the restaurant and found that the food was indeed excellent. I had fajitas which were very good and Jackie had fish tacos, which she also said were very good. The restaurant overlooked a large square and there was a statue of General Pershing meeting with the Pancho Villa and shaking hands. This meeting took place in 1913, three years before the Border War began. After lunch we bought a couple of things in the store and the pharmacy and then walked back across the border. There was no wait to get back in the States and the agent didn’t even ask us what we had bought. He just scanned our passports and waved us through. We did a couple more geocaches along the way back to the RV park, ending up with a total of four new finds for the day. Once we got back to the coach we stayed in out of the heat for the rest of the day.
Unfortunately, El Paso is a major trucking center and the Speedco was very busy. We got there just after noon and had to wait about 2 hours just to get into a bay. We were able to have lunch at a Denny’s next door and then just sat in the coach until it was our turn. We had the generator on and the A/C running, so it wasn’t uncomfortable. Once they got us in there it took about 40 minutes and we were done for another year. Fresh oil, new filters, lubed up and ready to roll!
After Speedco we stopped at the Flying J truck stop right next door and filled up the fuel tank before going to the RV park. The park we are staying at, Mission RV Park, is only three miles from where the truck stop and Speedco were. We finally got there about 4:00, got checked in and set up. It is well over 100 degrees today and very smokey from the fires in the mountains to the west, so we didn’t do much outside. Just turned on the air conditioners, set up the inside, and relaxed for the rest of the day. We will be here three days before moving on to our next stop.
Sunday, June 3rd, we decided would be a stay in day. We have been driving or running around for several straight days, so it is time to rest. I watched the NASCAR race and sat at the computer most of the day. Jackie watched Lifetime movies on TV. Very relaxing day.
Monday, June 4th, the seventh anniversary of the delivery of our traveling home! It sure doesn’t seem like seven years, but it is. Seven years ago today we took a drive to Blythe, California then across the river to the truck stop in Arizona. We signed the papers and I got to drive the coach back to California. We bought the coach in Palm Desert, but we had to take out of state delivery to avoid the taxes and registration fees for California. Since then we have put just over 60,000 miles on the coach, about 9,000 per year.
About 10:30 we left the coach to do some geocaching in the El Paso area. About noon we made a stop for lunch at a Fuddruckers hamburger place. Haven’t eaten one of those in a long time. It was way too much food, but it was good. We then did a little more caching and finally quit with seven new finds and no DNFs. We then spent another couple hours driving around El Paso just site-seeing. We finally got back to the coach about 3:30 after an afternoon around town. We just stayed in the rest of the night.
Tuesday, June 5th, we got another early start on the continuation of our eastward journey by packing up the coach and leaving the park around 9:30, this time en route to Fort Stockton, Texas, about 230 miles east on I-10. The journey was uneventful other than a little wind and the now persistent heat. The temperatures were well into the 90's, but fortunately, most of the trip was rolling hills with no long grades to cause overheating problems.
Fort Stockton, originally Camp Stockton, was established in 1859 as a base of operation for protection of settlers and travelers headed west. Since Texas was part of the Confederacy the Confederates took possession of the fort at the outbreak of the Civil War but abandoned it the next year. After the war, in 1867 the Army rebuilt the fort on a larger and more permanent basis to protect travelers and settlers from Indians. About 87 percent of all soldiers garrisoned at Fort Stockton from 1867 until 1886 were Buffalo Soldiers of the 9th and 10th Cavalry Regiments and the 41st, 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments. The fort was abandoned in 1886.
The fort had been established very close to Comanche Springs, a large natural water source which at one time was the third largest source of spring water in the State of Texas. Entrepreneurs from San Antonio, about 200 miles east, were convinced that the water from Comanche and nearby Leon springs could be used for irrigation so they purchased large tracts of land for agricultural development. In 1868 Peter Gallagher bought the land that included the now abandoned fort and Comanche Springs and laid out a townsite named Saint Gaul. By 1870, the Saint Gaul region had a population of 420. When Pecos County was organized in 1875, Saint Gaul became the county seat,.however the name was never popular and on August 13, 1881, it was changed officially to Fort Stockton. Today the town serves as a support center for local sheep and cattle ranching operations, as well as oil and gas fields in the area. The population of Fort Stockton is around 8,500. It is also the home of "Paisano Pete", the world's largest roadrunner. He is ten feet high and twenty-two feet long from beak to tail. He stands in the center of town where several highways merge.
Wednesday, June 6th, the 68th anniversary of the invasion of Normandy, or D-Day as it is better known. We left the coach after lunch to drive into Fort Stockton for laundry day. It has been well over two weeks and clean undies are getting scarce. We found a laundromat on the main street and spent a couple of hours doing our laundry, reading books while we waited. Once the laundry was done we went over to Walmart for some supplies. The Walmart store here was a little odd in that it was sort of a mini-SuperWalmart. The building was the size of a regular Walmart, but it still had a full grocery store like a super. They just stocked a lot fewer choices and the arrangement of the store was completely different. Once we had groceries we headed home and stayed in the rest of the evening. The wind was blowing very hard, but there didn’t appear to be any storms brewing on the weather radar. It was hot, about 95 degrees most of the afternoon and the humidly was up also. It was getting a little uncomfortable, especially in the un-air conditioned laundromat.
Thursday, June 7th, we had lunch at the coach and then went out to do some geocaching in Fort Stockton. The last time we were on this particular route was in 2005, well before we got interested in caching, so everywhere we go for the next couple months is virgin territory caching-wise. We got ten caches inside of an hour and a half because all of them were in the city limits, fairly close together and not too difficult to find. After we got our caches Jackie decided that she wanted to visit the local urgent care, so we went to the Pecos County Community Hospital, which, in addition to it’s emergency room, had an urgent care facility. Jackie has been feeling out of sorts for the last couple weeks and wanted to make sure that it wasn’t something serious. They did some blood tests and gave her an EKG and thankfully the results were pretty good. The doctor thinks she might be a little stressed, given the situation with her Godson that is not surprising. She got some new meds and we headed back to the coach for the rest of the evening.
This is about the third time that we have gone to small, community hospitals at various places during our travels over the last seven years, and we have never been disappointed. The hospitals are always nice, the staff pleasant, and the service good. Big city hospitals could do well to look to their smaller cousins for some hints on how to do medicine right.
Friday, June 8th, a big happy birthday to my brother Dennis. He is the one who lives in Cottonwood, Arizona. He is eight years younger than me. We packed up the coach and got out of the Parkview RV park right at 9:30. We are continuing east on I-10, traveling about 200 miles today to Junction, Texas. We arrived at the North Llano River RV Park in Junction about 1:30 and quickly got set up. We are only going to be here for two nights, so we only did the basics. The park is very nice, and it was clear from it’s appearance that it used to be a KOA. When I asked the lady who parked us about it she said it only stopped being a KOA last October. It was not a Passport America Park so it was pricier, but the only Passport park in town only had 30 amp service and it’s way too hot not to have 50 amp to run both A/Cs.
Once we got the coach settled in and unpacked we got into the car and headed out for some caching. Normally we wouldn’t cache on a travel day, but we had to have a cache on this date for our days of the year challenge, and their were no easy caches en route. We got in early, so it was really no big deal. We managed to get six caches in about an hour or so and saw a little bit of the town in the process.
Saturday, June 9th, my granddaughter Brandy’s birthday. Happy Birthday! We decided we needed a stay in and do chores day. I got a few things done that I have been putting off for a while. I recaulked the kitchen sink and did some cleaning. I also added some transmission fluid, which turned out to be a bigger job than I thought. The filler tube is located inside a small access area in the back of the coach, next to the engine. I didn’t have a long skinny funnel, and the hardware store across the street didn’t either. I ended up making my own from a couple of plastic cups. I only needed to add two quarts, but it took almost an hour to get it done.
Sunday, June 10, was another travel day. We got the coach all packed up and ready to travel by about 9:00. We needed to get at least one cache today for our days of the year challenge, we had no caches on this date, so before we hooked the car up to the coach we made a quick trip out about a half mile from the RV park and picked up one geocache. Now we have this date covered.
After our cache we came back, hooked up the car and departed Junction en route to San Antonio, Texas, about 140 miles southeast. We cruised through the hill country of Texas, which really is a lot of ups and downs, and finally made the Braunig Lake RV Resort about 12:30. Braunig Lake is a fairly big lake in Elmendorf, Texas, which is a suburb of San Antonio, about 15 miles southeast of the main part of the city. It was very hot, in the high 90's and the humidity was right up there in the 80's too. I am not used to that kind of wet heat and I was soaked through after finally getting everything done outside. Good thing we have 50 amp service so we can run both A/Cs to keep things cool.
About two hours after we got in our friends Ray and Suzie Babcock arrived and parked right next to us. Five days ago they were home in Southern California, not too far from San Diego, and they made it out here, over 1,000 miles, in those five stops. They had some stuff they had to do and couldn’t leave earlier and they wanted to be with us as we work our way up to Indiana for the rallies. They will probably be with us for the next couple months as we tour along.
We are going to be here in San Antonio for a week, our longest stay in a couple weeks, so it seems like a good place to close this chapter out. We will publish again in a couple weeks. Until the next time, remember the words of John Lennon: “Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans.” Learn to roll with it and enjoy every possible moment. Bye for now!
