Monday Nov 20, 2023 - Bisbee to Columbus NM

The van was lonely and wanted to go somewhere. I have been reading about Columbus NM and Pancho Villa, and a couple of people have told us about “the Pink Store” across the border in Palomas Mexico. We will be out for two nights so pretty easy packing. A couple days of clothes, passports, and some food in the pantry box. The van is ready to go so we do the usual pull up to the end of the driveway and shuffle stuff in. Our driveway is a little too small to pull the van into, so this is the usual routine.

There is a southern route and a northern route, both about the same time, so we’ll take the northern route to Columbus and return via Rt 9, the southern route. And I had researched Deming, NM which is on the way and they have a good sized museum we’ll visit.

Already full of gas we saw gas prices of $3.19 which is much less than in Bisbee. We’ll fill up on the way home.

The usual Rt 80 trip through Douglas, across the NM border at Rodeo, and on up to the interstate (I-10) at Road Forks, NM. Lunch in Lordsburg and then another hour to Deming.

Deming has a population of about 12,000 people and it was created when the Southern Pacific railroad drove the silver spike to connect the east with the west in 1881. This created the second transcontinental railroad. The was the “southern route” and it is also one of the reasons the United States obtained the Gadsden Purchase of land from Mexico in 1858.

Deming is pretty sleepy and is like a lot of old western towns, trying to find its next purpose. I had read that the Border Patrol created a training center in the early 2000’s that gave it a boost.

We found the museum, which is housed in the Armory that the military built in 1916. This period of time was very active in the southwest because the Mexican Revolution was going on and we were about to enter World War 1. The museum’s free but they have a donation box, and a volunteer couple were running the front desk and gift shop.

So this museum is huge, spotlessly clean, and the exhibits they have are very well put together with wood and glass cases. We got there around 2pm and it’s open until 4pm. Deb noted that we were around 5 people into the guest register, so not many people visit the museum.

They have lots of Pacho Villa stuff, Old vehicles, each war has its own room with lots of uniforms and bullets and kits. They have a whole room of dolls, a whole room of railroad stuff, old banking equipment, farm equipment (outdoors), various paintings, and quilts. And again, all beautifully displayed and not a dusty spot in the place. Even the bathrooms were spotless. Great stop.

Then south on Rt 11 to Columbus. Some (what I presume were) volunteer fire vehicles passed us on the way, but disappeared and we never figured out where they were going. There’s a little crop stuff going on with some irrigation rigs here and there, but not much.

We pulled into Columbus and found the Pancho Villa State Park and found our site. They have about 60 sites, with ramadas at each site since there’s not much shade. Our spot did have some shade but this time of year it’s nice to have the sun to warm us up.

We walked into town which is only ¼ mile at most and walked up 1 of the maybe 2 streets with any business going on. I had seen some YouTube videos of the town and it matched what I saw. Nice new sidewalks but almost no cars (somebody got some federal money).

We climbed Cootes Hill, which is a big pile of dirt with a flag and some benches, and watched the sun set.

Then a walk back to town to eat dinner at the Borderlands Cafe, which was surprisingly nice. Only one man there when we walked in, and a few more when we left, with some locals wandering in and out to pick up food. Staff was very nice and younger than I would have expected. Pizza and a chicken burger. Then we wandered back to the state park in the dark, found our rig, read for a bit and went to bed. Tomorrow we will go to Mexico.