SouthWestSlide: _{Spring 2004}

Phase Four_(a)
Finally Heading Into New Mexico

Finally we're done with Bisbee and Arizona (for now) and we go exploring old and new areas in New Mexico (for now) but we don't see everything we planned (for now).

New Mexico is sorta like California, without the ocean or population. Without New Mexico there would be no Texas. New Mexico actually IS within the US, despite what some customer representatives think. What do YOU think?

Day 41: Arizona to New Mexico
(Sunday 9 May 2004)

MORNING: Sunny Flat Campground, Cave Creek area, Chiricahua National Forest, near Portal Arizona. This Cave Creek Valley is really gorgeous, this is the desert Yosemite, a real birding hotspot. The Chiricahuas, the Huachucas, various other mountains down here are Desert Islands sticking up into the sky, beloved by astronomers and birders and hikers.

We're getting some nice cloud cover, it's midmorning but it promises to be hot here so we are going to sightsee around this valley a little bit and then head on towards Lordsburg and Silver City. Silver City is 1000 feet higher, we're at 5000 here and hopefully we can stay cooler up there.

EARLY AFTERNOON just outside Portal Arizona. We just had a wonderful reasonable lunch at the Portal Store-Cafe. Cave Creek Canyon is gorgeous, this part of the Chiricahuas is gorgeous, I won't try to describe it now because we'll be coming back and exploring after we relocate to Bisbee. We found some good spots and we're not going to tell you where they are, you'll have to come and firnd them yourselves. Suffice to say that there are guest lodgings here; so when we return we won't have the RV with us, and if we come thru during monsoon season we won't have to pitch a tent.

Not exactly monsoon today but the sky still is cloud-covered and we did have a little sprinkle of moisture an hour ago. Oh, did I mention that this place is infested with birders? It is.

And then we looked at the county events calendar and there's a Birder's Festival over by Fort Huachuca in a couple months. Those not interested in birds should go somewhere else.

MID-AFTERNOON, Roadforks New Mexico: coming north from Rodeo, we almost might think, if we didn't know better, that we were back on the Mohave Desert at 1700 feet instead of 4700. The desert as far as we can see is covered with Creosote Bush, in bloom. A bit denser than the lower Mohave tho, like it's been getting a pretty good rain out here, in comparison.

On the InterState: CAUTION - Dust Storms May Exist - Zero Visibility Possible - Do Not Stop In Travel Lanes - USE EXTREME CAUTION! I think we're crossing a big playa here [, a dry lake bed,] and we can see some dust-devils whipping along as I speak.

LATE AFTERNOON, we roll into Lordsburg New Mexico which on the map looks like it's something. And it isn't. There's a real nice state Welcome Center at the edge of town, where we stopped and pulled out the cellphone and it actually works here, and we called our Mums to wish them happy Mums Day.

We tried to do the... well, we WILL we WILL finish the cruise of historic downtown Lordsburg which is like a Route 66 town except it's not on Route 66. The main street, the railroad terminal, everything on one side of the tracks. All the poorer housing on the other side. We took a spin out south to look at Shakespeare Ghost Town, however it's even deader than usual, it's closed, here at 4:30 on a Sunday afternoon.

Once we get out of Lordsburg heading up here into the hills a little bit the scenery is really beautiful - the mesquite and lotsa creosote bush as I mentioned before, and various cacti and agaves and yuccas, all very beautiful. The ya get back down to the flats and it gets ugly again. Grim. Stinkin' desert.

IN LORDSBURG the structures are old clapboard and older adobe and newer modulars, some brick [and stone] masonry. However the town does not appear to have anything like an air of prosperity. And the old downtown looks to be all old masonry and older adobe, but an awful lot of these downtown buildings are boarded up. Having the InterState bypass the downtown probably didn't help any. Being the county seat probably helped keep it alive in this state of living death, a staggering vampire in the high desert.

Going north out of Lordsburg we cross a very alien landscape. Low bunchgrasses, no mesquites or creosote bush, but a lot of yuccas with long stalks extending up. Some of the yuccas are on the ground, some are arborescent, but they mostly have six-foot stalks. And then there are the small clumpy opuntia, but not much else. This countryside has a strange aspect. The surrounding rocky hills are at great distances. As we get further north and gain a little elevation they get closer, the bunchgrasses get greener. Most of those yuccas have lost their blossoms; on some a few dried flowers still remain.

We cross the Continental Divide in the Gila National Forest, it's 6355? 6455? feet, pretty low for a major pass. And on the far side we find ourselves in a mile-high oak woodland, with the inevitable yuccas and opuntias et al. This is ranch country here, even the National Forest is ranch country. Land Of Many Uses but don't try to camp in it.

EARLY EVENING, we pull into Silver City, cruise around yet another historic downtown; and this looks very interesting, lots of old adobes and masonry, fine old structures. And tomorrow we have some business in Silver City so we come to our second RV Park. It's a parking lot but shaded, not nearly as quaint as the Queen RV Park on the lip of the Lavender Pit in Bisbee but it'll do, it's better than driving 15 miles out to a forest campground and then back. And yes, we CAN use the showers. Boy can we use'em!

Day 42: Silver City, New Mexico
(Monday 10 May 2004)

MidAfterNoon: We pulled in last night to our second-ever RV park, not nearly as picturesque as our first. We complained about an adjacent barking dog, the dog was quieted and this morning we were offered a refund of our night's money for the bother. Instead we'll stay for another night, and that pays for it. We're now getting some work done on the RV, just minor stuff.

Silver City sure is beautiful, wonderful little arts community. Old Town with, did I say this already? masonry and bricks and adobe and old frame places, stone. The air is good, there's lots of it and it keeps moving by. And fantastic puffy clouds in the sky with incredible shapes, so different from the dull California atmosphere.

We had a fabulous lunch at Vickie's Eatery, 107 W. Yankie, a 'locals favorite' says the guide. My chicken salad wrap with potato salad, Maureen's turkey salad sandwich with guacamole salad, our shared strawberry shortcake, MMMMM! All handmade. Both thumbs are sticking straight up.

(We cheated last night. We were tired. Domino's Pizza delivers. Heh heh heh.)

We strolled down a bit of the old main street, Bullard Street, poking our noses into shops. Some are well worthy of repeat visits and yeah, lotsa good galleries, interesting [artsy] stuff. (Note: the first Main Street washed away, now it's the Big Ditch.)

We drove up to a ridge overlooking most of town and here's the newer part of town being built aout along the ridges, sorta like San Diego without the ocean and rain. Places hanging out over the canyons and arroyos. Old adobe houses. New adobe houses. A new adobe house with lotsa computer motherboards stuck into the wall along with the straw and mud.

Brochures call this The City Of Four Mild Seasons. And we just missed the town celebration of spring, that was Saturday, 2 days ago. And up the road a bit in Reserve, the San Francisco Plazas, Elfego Baca country, was the Cinco de Mayo festival. We missed it. Oh well, maybe next year.

Day 43: Silver City to Roberts Lake
(Tuesday 11 May 2004)

Escaped: Upper End Campground, Roberts Lake, New Mexico. Two nights at the Silver City RV Park were quite enough so this morning we did a high-speed InterNet connect to handle mail and business, then we headed into town. We wandered around thru more shops and galleries, had a nice chat with Ree at the Gallery Urbane, I guess that's on Yankie Street right across from what a passerby said was "the best gallery in town," the pottery shop, but it was closed.

We talked with Ree about San Diego, Bisbee, Silver City and other points, and agreed that Bisbee is full of tschotskes while Silver City actually has art, artists and galleries. I suggested that Bisbee has maybe 1.3 actual serious galleries. But Silver City downtown is so flat, one could skateboard here without being killed. How dull...

For lunch we found ourselves at the, I believe it's the Other World Bake Shop And Cafe - *wonderful* sandwiches, very... between cheap and reasonable. Very flavorful, great atmosphere - open, light. Both thumbs sticking up.

Then we went to the Silver City Museum, a nice little place. Mimbres pottery, local history. A stereoscopist had come to Silver City in the early days and produced many stereo images of the town. There was a display, DOUBLE VISION, showing his and a few other stereoscopes. What we know as the stereoscope was invented by Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, a much more straightforward device than earlier stereo vision inventions.

We climbed to the cupola. This is a three-story building. These are very high-ceiling rooms. And these are very steep and narrow staircases. We started off at 6000 feet, somewhere around there, and went UP - dizzy by the time we got to the top. Ah, but there was a view of town. And off to west was Western New Mexico University, which was our next stop because they have the world's largest collection of Mimbres pottery and it is... astounding. We overloaded sensorially; we must return.

Escaped: We then headed out of town; first stop, Pinos Altos, which used to be the county seat before the gold ran out. A really wild'n'woolly wild west town. Now it's a number of new adobe and old adobe buildings, one of which was the town museum, 2/3 gift shop, 1/3 museum. Very quaint and musty inside. We talked to the proprietor and Granny and the two little dogs she rescued from the street. As for the museum, it was mostly a haphazard pile of well-worn old stuff, but worth looking at.

And then north again looking for a campground. We ended up here at Roberts Lake. On the way we were talking about ways to decorate the new Bisbee house and procuring the decorations for it, which somehow involves driving across Mexico to Guatemala. We may hopefully get around to that before too long.

Now we're out here at Lake Roberts in the off-season and it is SO QUIET, and the sky is sky is so good, and the lake is so good, and everything is good here. Yes, good good, good night. Maureen says we had a Maxfield Parrish sky at sunset, except no naked nymphs leaning around. Otherwise pretty good. Just me and the old lady in the RV. I doubt that he would have painted us. And if he had, the paint probably never would have come off.

Day 44: New Mexico to Texas
(Wednesday 12 May 2004)

MORNING: Lake Roberts New Mexico. Elevation 6000 feet, It's a jack pine forest with oaks, bunch-grasses, lupines and lotus - oh, a big old stinkbug here, black beetle - columbine, poison oak, willows since we're near the lake - I guess those are mule ears. hairy-leafed plantains aren't they? And scads of eensy teensy little bugs flying in the air, this is swift or swallow paradise. Something very resembling dandelions. And intense sunshine, even here at nine in the morning, local time.

From the looks of the trash recepticles, I'd say this is bear country. Ah, as we drove over here we say signs saying WOLF COUNTRY - this is the area where Mexican gray wolves have been released. (Maybe those weren't columbines, maybe they were shooting stars - I didn't look close enough.)

Well we skipped the hot springs outside of Silver City, figured this wasn't really hot-springs weather. Now we have to drive someplace within telephone contact range, call the realtor in Bisbee, find out what the latest is on termite removal. And then we'll probably head on towards Las Cruces, maybe El Paso and Big Bend - maybe not, Big Bend seems kinda far now. Maybe Carlsbad Caverns, maybe not. White Sands, Roswell, Lincoln County - that might be the limit for this trip. We have just about four weeks left, it's probably about time to start winding our way back westward.

A few miles beyond Lake Roberts we pass a poodle hoodoo! Whoo-hoo! I haven't seen one of quite that shape before. Meanwhile, remembering a conversation yesterday in Pinos Altos, a conversation with a local woman who was talking about the animals around her, the squirrels and the skunks and the gray foxes. She said the squirrels drove her nuts, I didn't exactly hear why - oh, they hop around and eat all her flowers. And she could trap them but she doesn't have the heart to do anything with'em. And she builds platforms four feet off the ground for the gray foxes 'cause the skunks bother'em. Some people just have many problems.

MAUREEN: I wanted to tell that lady that if that's all she had to worry about, she's got a *goooood* life.

In the general neighborhood of Lake Roberts are some moderately spectacular rock formations. Then we go rolling thru the historic or prehistoric Mimbres valley, we get down to Mimbres ifself - lots of yuccas and cattles and stuff like that.

MIDDAY: From Emory Pass, somewhere over 8000 feet, we drop down out of the Mimbres Mountains and the Black Range into the Rio Bravo Graven or the Rio Grande Valley. Flatter. Mesquite. Dunes. Little bunchgrasses. Yuccas. I know there's opuntias hiding out there somewhere. Ah, there they are, in bloom. Midday but still a very pleasant temperature outside. Unless you're staked out over an anthill or something. (Maureen laughs.) Or buried in sand up to your chin with only chopsticks to dig your way out.

Cruising along thru the mountains this morning, we've been discussing more about exploring the SouthWest and Mexico - in a downsized vehicle, nothing as big as the RV we're currently driving. Maybe either a real small RV, one of those 16-foot ones, or a camper-van conversion. We definitely don't want to take this 24-foot beast to Guatemala. So, something smaller, diesel, fuel-efficient. We'd have to carry less crap around with us. Imagine that.

Ah, coming down out of the mountains we went thru rocky foothills somewhat reminiscent of southern San Diego County. Now we're down here on the flats. Low elevation, only 5200 feet. Nothing but stinkin' desert, miles and miles of stinkin' desert with huge mountains on either side of the graben. According to the sign at Emory Pass, vertical displacement in the graben is four miles. Ooo-wee.

And now we're coming down to the Rio Grande - it's dammed. There's Lake Caballo with the Caballo Mountains rising *very* steeply on the other side, a sharp escarpment. And the InterState, but we don't need no steenkin' InterState! We're taking the old state highway.

See TRUCK-WRECK.COM - Accident Attorneys. If they have a billboard here they must be needed.

We had a tasty inexpensive Mexican lunch back in Hatch New Mexico, the hot chile pepper capitol of the world, or at least of the Western world. Cruising on down the state highway here, when we're running thru the irrigated areas alongside the Rio Grande, everything seems pretty luch. As soon as we get just beyond the limit of the irrigation, it's just more steenkin' desert again!

A few miles further we pass Radium Springs - I wonder if the place glows at night? Off in the distance we've been seeing for awhile the Organ Mountains, great gnarly needles and spires. And we cross the Rio Grande again, the Rio not-so Grande, it's a bare trickle right here. I guess all the water impounded upstream hasn't quite made it down here yet.

LATE AFTERNOON, just south of Las Cruces. Well, following recommendations, at Las Cruces we went to the La Mesilla district or village. Very quaint old... I'm saying 'quaint' too much, gotta be more descriptive. A plastered-adobe village reminiscent of further south. La Mesilla has a history: Mexicans who didn't want to live in the States moved there after the Mexican-American war and then got sold down the river with the Gadsen Purchase, became Americanos anyway. They kept the culture but apparently have been gentrified out of the picture; this is now a quality shopping district with very reasonable prices.

So after blowing time and dinero there we crawled back into the RV, fueled up and headed on down the road. So we're going down the InterState now and the dotted down the road is not straight. It is wavering all over. It is a linea del borrocho. It looks likes somebody got real drunk and painted the line. And if I were to follow it rigorously I would probably be pulled over for being drunk too..

Las Cruces was surprisingly temperate, La Mesilla, our strolling around there, all the shops around the old square, very pleasant as long as we stayed in the shade. We were expecting hot stinkin' desert around here but didn't get it. But come back in a month and we might have something... (Maureen laughs.)

So we're going thru El Paso heading for Carlsbad Caverns. We passed a drive-thru liquor barn; and SECOND-CHANCE ARMOR which I guess is where you buy used tanks; and a young woman formally dressed in black and white, walking into the wind, carrying a viola case, looking like she's going someplace serious, wind-blown.

Driving a bit further we climb thru some really rocky strata - sandstone or limestone or what? - and we're coming into Hueco Village now; and we're listening to some Mexican cowboy music - yippie-tie yippie-tie yippie-tie-kay-yah! (music sounds) Oh it looks like maybe our first roadside inspection. Yup! Border Control Station...

Yah we slid right thru that checkpoint, we assured the Border Patrol officer that we had nobody in here besides us except the cat. Of course she's pretty alien but that's beside the point. He looked in the window tho, made sure the cat wasn't hiding anybody.

The gauge says we're back at around 5500 feet and we're seeing terrain that looks like that first bit out of Lordsburg towards Silver City, of yuccas with tall stalks scattered fairly commonly amongst very low grass and some bunchgrass and not much else.

It's deep twilight but looking across the landscape it's almost park-like, with yuccas. Almost. I'm sure the aspect during daylight is not quite as verdant.

And now it's later, it's darker, we're rolling across this high desert heading for the Guadelupe Mountains. Got a radio station that's been playing RADAR LOVE and HIGHWAY TO HELL. Hell yeah, we're rolling, we're rolling... (Maureen laughs)

Day 45: Carlsbad Caverns I
(Thursday 13 May 2004)

The next morning: Guadelupe Mountains National Park (GMNP). We stayed at an RV park or whatever in Cornudas Texas, the less said about that the better. (wind noises) We're rolling across the Chihuahuan Desert, the sun in our eyes, the Guadelupe Mountains just below the sun.

As we roll, after a ways we get to Sand City and the road officially becomes Scenic, and the sand turns white. We're just south of White Sands National Monument and some megatons must have drifted down this way. In the white sands are the columnar yuccas, not much else. And a little ways further on we pass the white sands, back into brown sands, and we're back into mesquite, saltbush, et cetera. We're in clumpgrass country.

Going further we rise into the Guadelupes, cutting thru gnarly rock layers, fractured sandstone sediments. And up here into the Guadelupes, as I was driving along I was thinking of El Capitan and the mountains looking like an organ-pipe reef, and I was just about right! This is an ancient sea-reef, a quarter of a billion years old.

Up here at elevation the ground becomes more covered with wildflowers - purple of verbenas, yellow of buttercups and little sunflower, then those big blood-hearted sunflowers. We get up here to the GMNP] visitors center there's pencil cholla (mumble) and redberry juniper and more of the yuccas with the basal leafs and the tall candle-flame spikes. And jojobas?

Riding along at the foot of the Guadelupe escarpment, what they call the Frijoles Ridge, we drive across Texas, it's dead boring; we cross back into New Mexico, it's dead-boring but this is the Texas part of New Mexico. I've been thinking, I look at the map and I locate us and say, "AH! We are HERE on the map!" and I think, "Y'know, what we need is every here'n'there along the roadside there should be a big X on the ground and above it a sign with an arrow pointing down and the words YOU ARE HERE! That's just to give everybody a chance to be spatially-oriented.

CARLSBAD CAVERNS: And down into Carlsbad Caverns, the Natural Entrance trail. Birds flying around now, the day shift; the bats come out later, the night shift. The place smells like a well-ventilated outhouse.

And we go deeper, the smell isn't as pronounced. We get to what we think is the bottom of the big room and off to one end is the bat cave, the other here is the entrance. Maureen hears the bats rustling and we can hear the swallow chirping. And we think that's the end of it but no, we go down and down and down and down and down, 75 flights. We get to the bottom of the Natural Entrance Trail, to the intersection of trails to the rest area and elevators and The Big Room. Maureen calls it a trogdolyte train station.

The lunchroom down here at 750 feet below the surface is truly bizarre, a swiss-cheeze cavern with a few brightly-lit kiosks, and tables extending off into the shadows.

LATE AFTERNOON: we drag ourselves out, the caverns are stupendous, SUBLIME, sublime in the technical sense that I've discused earlier. Now we're back up top, outside at the visitors center, looking out across the vast hazy immensity of Texas, flatter than a pancake as proved scientifically. Of course if it wasn't for New Mexico there wouldn't be any Texas. If it wasn't for all the sediments washed down from the mountains of New Mexico, Texas would all be under water. And what water Texas has mostly comes from New Mexico anyway.

Day 46: Carlsbad, New Mexico
(Friday 14 May 2004)

Morning, just outside Brantly Lake State Park, New Mexico, which is where we stayed last night and we'll be staying tonight and tomorrow night. The Carlsbad Cavern experince was so exhilirating that we HAVE to go back. But we'll do that tomorrow. Because today in Carlsbad there's an Apache mescal festival, feasting and war-dances and the like. So we're doing an Apache dinner-dance tonight. Take care of some chores around Carlsbad city today, take it easy. Tormorrow, go back down to the Caverns, see the portions that we feel comfortable going thru that we haven't seen yet, and then hang around for the evening for the Bat Flight.

Meanwhile, Carlsbad and environs are not quite what I expected. This is the edge of the foothills, rolling country; definitely it turns to High Plains just of east of here tho. This Brantley Lake is a resevoir on the Pecos River. This is Pecos country. It is green right now.

Playing around the radio we get new Mexican and new Texican and new Cowboy music swirling around and old yuppie music. But nothing on public airwaves, those bands are silent.

Part of the Carlsbad Cavern experience is the food. The cafeteria food topside is OK and considerably less expensive than in corparable national parks further west. The food downstairs, by which I mean at the food court 759 feet below the surface, it's tolerable, the price is tolerable, but just the experience of eaing down there is so bizarre that you're not really that concerned with the taste.

And we roll into Carlsbad, see an eatery lined with pickups, the Pecos River Cafe, lotsa good food, low prices, thumbs up. Lotsa interesting people there, some with heavy tattoos, some without; all ages, colors of off-white. Did I say the food is inexpensive? Yes it is. And tasty.

Evening: We just finished the ceremonial feast at the mescal festival and we're waiting for the Apache war dances and then the Mountain Spirit dances. The Living Desert Museum is a pretty good zoo. The ringtail cat scurrying around the dark hall; javelinas paired-off, sleeping in the sun; the Mexican gray wolf, the sleeping cougar and bobcat, the bristling badger. The festival is being held in the headquarters complex here.

We're sitting next to a girl who's wearing a teeshirt that says, AGGRESSIVE BY NATURE - CAVEGIRL BY CHOICE (Cavemen and Cavegirls identify the high school sports teams). Lots of little Apache kids dressed up in finery, ready to... dance!

Eagles are soaring overhead, four of 'em, I'm not shittin' ya!

A couple women here in FEMA jackets - there were floods here last month so maybe they're part of the emergency response. But why do they have German accents?

Oh yeah, the ceremonial feast, what can I say? This is the wrong day to start being vegetarian.

That CAVEGIRL shirt is for the track team. Well, we're out here in the [low-walled] side yard of the Living Desert Museum-Zoo HQ, there are bleachers set up in a circle, there's a stack of wood in the center that will be set on fire.

The war dances are lively, energetic - sometimes just the men and boys leaping around, sometimes the women and girls moving around in an outer circle, and at the end the audience is invited to join in the circle. Then there's a break as twilight fades and night closes in.

(sounds - bells clattering - voices) The dance of the Mountain Gods around the burning pyre - four men with three-parted wooden headdresses like forks sticking into the sky, two young boys, all wearing kilts and masks, carrying long sticks. They're painted, wearing leggings and amulets and bells, lined up facing the fire in column. They're waving back and forth, calling to the fire. The boys are carrying long bells, sounds like the men all have bells in their anklets, on their belts, They're dancing in the four directions, continually circling the fire, coming in from a new direction to pray, to call to the fire. (sounds - bells clattering - voices) The effect, needless to say, is ghostly and eerie.

(sounds - drumming and chanting) And now it's the women's dance. The male Spirit Dancers are still at it, but the grand circle of dancers, just the women and girls from the crowd, Apache and others are shuffling rhythmically around and around. During the dancing and between dances the pyre in the center is replenished but by park guys, not tribal guys.

Now just the two young boys are dancing, very spiritedly. Two much younger Apache boys in plainclothes are getting up and jumping too but they're not part of the formal proceedings, they're just caught up in the mood, boogying like there's no tomorrow.

(sounds - drumming and chanting) Now the formal dancing is over and Los Guys are just jammin' and people are dancing back'n'forth in the appropriately named Apache back-and-forth dance. Folks are arm-in-arm, facing opposite directions, dancing inwards and outwards, two-three-four together. Fun!

SHE'S A COWGIRL NOW

She never learnt to ride but she's a cow girl now
She never needs to lasso or to shoot anyhow
She just sticks her finger up a cowboy's nose
And he follows her wherever she goes, she goes
And he follows her wherever she goes