2003 – 04 . . . The Long Way Home

Well, we were finally on our way to New Mexico. The RV Park at Picacho Peak (between Casa Grande and Tucson) was a great relief with electricity, a pool and the like. We booked in for a week . . . time to recharge ourselves and everything else . . . vacuum out some of the desert sand . . . cleanup . . . get online . . . get the laundry done . . . etc . . . etc.

The cacti were starting to bloom!! And I must say they did great desert gardens.

Our first stop in New Mexico was at the Visitors' Center just across the state line. What a different attitude. Yes, they want to attract visitors but they really believe New Mexico is a great culture and has interesting places they want to share with others (and I agree with them) as opposed to many places in Arizona that seem to resent the Snowbirds.

I saw a bumper sticker in Yuma that said, "If this is Snowbird Season, Why can't we shoot them?" To me this explains the way they feel about winter visitors.

I got a certain sense of excitement at being back in New Mexico again . . . there were so many more places I wanted to explore . . . and the attitude and spirit is just so inviting. Even the Visitors' Center extends a sense of warmth and pride.

We got the chance to use our Passport America again and stayed at a park just outside of Deming. Our plans were to go up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and then wander down to Pancho Villa State Park, just north of the Mexico border (at Columbus), then move on further up north.

The Cliff Dwellings are absolutely fascinating and everything I expected them to be . . . mind you, I just finished reading Jeanne Auel's The Shelters of Stone so was particularly prepared to see them (interesting book, well researched but to-o-o-o long!).

Gila Cliff Dwellings

The more I read about the Ancient Peoples, petroglyphs and pictographs, the more I realize how little is actually known and how much is speculation.

The Gila Cliff Dwellings were (supposedly) built and lived in by the Mogollon peoples . . . a people known for their pottery, pit houses and agriculture . . . and occupied for only a short period of time (1270's to 1300's), maybe only one generation. The dwellings were built in natural caves and the location (Gila Wilderness) is rich in wild life, natural resources (like wood, clay for masonry and pottery, fertile soil and water) and conducive to survival. Archaeologists have no idea why these dwellings were abandoned but speculate that the intrusion of the Spanish or other peoples may have been a strong contributor.

We visited two of the sites . . . a smaller cave . . . probably was a single-family dwelling and the larger site with the larger multi-family cave-dwellings.

Smaller Cave

Multi-family Cliff Dwellings

Lynne's speculation . . . My thought are that the caves might have been used for winter shelter (yes, Auel's book influenced me) and that they found the caves did not give them the level of protection they wanted . . . or . . . the population out grew the space and resources . . . or . . . (like us) they were attracted to a warmer climate, further south!!

National Parks Link: http://www.nps.gov/gicl/

We got back to Deming and the RV park and whoosh!!! Suddenly there was an huge puddle of pinkish fluid flowing out from underneath the motor of the truck!!

Well, the time for the problem solvers to get to work. Each problem-solver had a different idea as to what was causing the leak. The most help came from the owner who told us about trustworthy mechanics in town (there went our trip down to Pancho Villa).

As usual, these things always seem to happen on a Friday (if not a Saturday, Sunday or another non-working holiday) so it was back to El Ranch Lobo (the RV park) to wait it out (again). Fortunately, the RV park was small and very comfortable, the host's wife and I had many interests in common and some fantastic conversations . . . AND . . . the folks beside us (from Wainwright, Alberta) took us along with them on some of their sight-seeing expeditions. We were able to experience a hail storm at the White Sands,  

 

 

 

 

 

 

go to the Missile museum again, have Mexican food at our favourite restaurant in Las Cruces and go to the Rockhound State Park with them.

As well as tugging at our purse strings, with this last episode we decided we were just not having fun anymore. So . . . with a new water pump, fan clutch, rebuilt alternator & repaired leaking oil line gasket . . . we were homeward bound.

Looking back at it now, the frustration and bad feelings about the truck were far more about not being able to find out what was wrong with it and finding someone we could trust to fix it than needing to get it fixed.

Not happy campers, we started retracing our steps back across Arizona. We stopped at Gila Bend our first night and then up to Laughlin. We went through a Quartzsite that now resembled an empty old mining town.

In our brief absence from the desert, spring was starting to show her colours. Yes, Virginia, the desert does have seasons! What we had seen all winter was the desert at rest . . . now there was a certain green tinge spreading out over the sand. The blossoms of the larger cacti, like the Saguaro, only come out at night, but we were able to capture the colourful blossoms of the Ocotillo and sense the coming of spring.

The rest of the trip home was rather uneventful. We spent our last night out in Great Falls trying to deal with the beef we still had. We were not sure what we could bring across the border so whatever beef/chicken we had left, we gave to some folks who were on their way down. As it turned out, all Canadian Customs wanted to know was the total amount of purchases we made and whether we had any alcohol . . . but . . . there is a certain warmth and security I feel when we get back into Canada.

We have a lot of thinking and planning to do for next year.

Are we going to continue to travel the way we have? Do we want stay in one place for a lot longer? Is the truck going to give us what we need?

I don't know whether I heard this or read it but someone said: We spend the winter following the 78 degree weather.

I do like getting away from the cold, I like seeing new and different things and meeting new and different people and always learning . . . but there are a lot of different ways to do that!!