Goodbye Dust, Hello Snow!

Friday, February 8, 2013

The day dawned with a beautiful sunrise. We took quick showers, since we didn't know where we might land for the night, and left. The weather forecasters were calling for a massive windstorm that was going to drop snow on northern New Mexico and strong winds through the rest of the state. Elephant Butte sits in the desert with extremely fine dusty sand. There is nothing to block the blowing sand, as we had at Fort Davis for the last windstorm. After looking at the maps and predictions we thought we could head south and then southwest into Arizona and slip around the system.

We started out on I 25 heading south for 45 minutes and exited at Hatch, which is the chile capital. Nothing was growing this time of year, but the Rio Grande provides the irrigation for the chiles. Big long stands of dried chiles were for sale at roadside stands. It was a little early for lunch, but we didn't want to miss the opportunity to try the chile cheeseburgers at Sparky's. Recommended by the gentleman at the Chamber, and the tourist guide, we arrived to find a sign in the window that stated they had been voted the second best chile cheeseburger. We don't know who is first! The outside was decorated in mascots from defunct fast food restaurants. (See photos)

We ordered at the counter, and waited for our burgers and fries. Greg was happy! My burger was spicier than planned. I mistook the bottle on the table for ketchup. It was spicy barbeque sauce! Oh, well. I'm not a burger person anyway. We debated buying the 5 pound bag of roasted, skinned and frozen peppers, but didn't have room in our tiny freezer.

Next leg of our trip took us southwest to Deming, NM and I 10. As we headed down the 50 miles to Deming, the wind started to kick up. The dust began to blow and a few tumbleweeds crossed the road. We had wind across the westbound stretch of I 10, with signs warning us of dust and winds. We exited 5 miles before Arizona and took 80 south along the border and then into Arizona. Eventually we left the wind behind. We could see the haze and dust north of us. The scenery was beautiful as we skirted the Chiricahua National Monument and the Coronado National Forest. The only vehicles we passed were border patrol SUVs. Lots and lots of them! We came into Douglas on the border and they have a huge facility there set off the road.

From Douglas we headed west to Bisbee. On the outskirts of town we stopped to view the huge, now defunct copper mines. We didn't dally in Bisbee, as it was getting late and we needed to settle for the night. Bisbee is a funky arts community. Almost all the buildings have been restored and it has hotels, galleries, shops and restaurants. It is on our list for a future visit.

Thirty miles further we hit Sierra Vista at rush hour. On the map it looks like there are a few small sleepy towns near Mexico. We passed lots of new subdivisons and every big box store and chain restaurant you can think of! There is a small military base here, but we think this must be a huge retirees/snowbird area. We traveled a short distance north to Huachuca City and finally found the Mountain View RV Park just as there was a quickly fading spectacular desert sunset. The wind was picking up, we thought we had escaped it! When we walked into the office/recreation hall of this 55+ park, a woman asked us, “Are you here to play?”. ????? “No we want to get a spot for the night”. They were gathering to play domino trains or train dominoes, ...huh?

Okay, a quick digression! Every time we go to an over 55 park, and we avoid them, everyone wants to involve us in “activities”. The park is filled with snowbirds who spend their winter there, usually year, after year, after year... They have their seasonal friends and they have their activities. Don't get me wrong. Every one is always very nice and friendly. Greg and I are just not at that point in our lives where we want to just stay in the same trailer park for months on end. We may never be. Greg says it always feels like “The Hotel California”. You can check in, but you can never leave!

So, we got checked in and found our spot after again being invited to come back over for dominoes. They asked us to stay more than one night, and invited us to some local cowboy poetry fest in town. Then, they checked the calendar and discovered that there was to be an ice cream social the next day. They almost got Greg on that one!

I finally got to fix a late dinner. After the heavy burgers earlier we had what I like to call Kitchen Sink Salad. I make up a big dinner salad and then we throw in any odds and ends out of the fridge that need to get eaten up. The only really odd thing was the cold, leftover chirozo sausage that Greg sliced into his salad. Anyway, hence the name, meaning everything but the kitchen sink winds up in our bowls!

We rocked and rolled all night. The wind howled and the campers are lined up with the broadsides to the wind in this park, so we felt we were on a ship. Before we went to sleep we determined to get up early and check the weather. The forecasters were calling for snow!