After a pretty cold night, we got up this morning to perform our primary function – exploring and enjoying the unique attributes of the communities and parks of the U.S.A. Today it was Deming, NM. We started the day in the very good Deming Luna Mimbres Museum.
This museum has an extraordinary array of displays including Native American ceramics and baskets, a military section, large and exotic geode displays from both the local area and other western states, some old motor vehicles in great shape, over 1000 bells, a big “Old West” section, stunning Oriental ceramic stuff, paintings, musical instruments, motion picture and still cameras, some beautiful late 19th and early 20th century furniture and a gift shop with some great stuff. There is no entry fee but we always leave a pretty good donation in the bucket because the volunteers and donors do such a good job of maintaining a stunning museum.
After a few hours, we left the museum and decided to take a spin, this time going south. We drove down NM-11 toward Columbus, NM, where there is a border crossing into Mexico. Along the road, in the middle of nowhere, we came across the Hacienda de Luna residential airpark. Here we found a long line of low residential buildings with Spanish architecture that are each supplied with a backyard aircraft hanger. Cars are pretty scarce here; everybody flies directly from their house to wherever they need to go.
We pulled off to get a few pictures and promptly ran into an elderly guy named Ed Glover who seemed to be one of the few residents. He gave us the full rundown on the place, eventually opening the gate so we could drive onto the taxiway. We trundled him into the back seat of Charlotte and he took us on a guided tour of the airpark. It was pretty neat.
We continued south on NM-11 until we got to Columbus where we found Pancho Villa State Park. I’m not sure why they named the park after a Mexican revolutionary. Possibly, it was because back in the early 20th century, Germans were fooling around in Mexico trying to get the Mexicans to attack our southern border and keep us preoccupied enough to stay out of WW1. Pancho and his irregular army crossed the border into Columbus and a few Americans were killed.
Woodrow Wilson sent General “Black Jack” Pershing to Columbus along with 10,000 troops in order to cross into Mexico and capture or kill Villa. It was a thoroughly ineffective operation that ultimately failed. Villa was finally assassinated by a pumpkin seed vendor and seven associates as he drove from Paral, Chihuahua, back to his nearby ranch in his Dodge.
On the way home, Peggy remembered that we had not had a reward for a few days so we decided to go to a very strange place called Adobe Deli. This place is located near the middle of nowhere where you turn off on a dirt road to cover the last mile or so. There is nothing else around the joint. Even after you arrive, it is a bit difficult to determine if you have actually arrived at anything. We eventually found a small sign directing us into the front door.
Inside, we found a restaurant decorated with bizarre stuff like a windmill, big exterior flame heaters, a woodstove with the most non-code-compliant chimney extant, walls of corrugated steel panels, many stuffed animals, a full suit of medieval armor and a gorgeous full bar. The tables are made durable by being covered with copper sheets.
The steaks we ordered were good and the French Onion soup they serve with dinner was fabulous. Dinners came with a baked potato and cost around $25. Still inside the building but out of the dining room is more strange stuff like stuffed animals (they even have a yak), hats, old-style game and pinball machines, stained glass panels and a myriad of pictures. Outside there are cast bronze elk and buffalo statues, an abandoned water tower and some canopy framing without covers. A very weird place but they have good food.
When we departed we thought we had about a 15 mile drive back to Rancho Lobo RV Park but Peggy found a dirt road on Google maps and we took it and saved covering 12 of the miles. We got home just after dark but the temperature had already dropped to 39 degrees so we fired up all our heaters and settled in for some digesting.
Some pix of the Deming museum exhibits can be seen by clicking here