Road Trip Day 6

Day 6 was supposed to be Colorado but we took a diversion because of bad weather warnings for a mountain pass.

Rather than trying to race ahead of the snow storm in Colorado we decided to wait it out and tour around some of Mr. S 's favorite places when he lived there.

He took me to the City of Rocks between Silver City and Deming, and to see the location of the hot springs and location of
the old Faywood Hotel originally built in the late 1800's.

You can read about it on Wikipedia and some historical sites, but what they never record is the history Mr. S. And his family remembers: the hotel was ransacked and burned down by a band of renegades at the turn of the century.

Mr. S. and his family and friends and most people who lived in the area used to go out to that location and poke around the old burn sight for old relics, finding dishes, glass items, pieces of furniture and old shoes strewn across the desert. The renegades were on horseback dropped a lot of the loot as they left.

However, as interesting as it was to dig around, people just left any relics there because they didn't really want a bunch of old burned things.

As far back as the Faywood Hotel and hot springs was established, it is a wonder there are no old photographs on the web, since it was a well liked area from it's inception.

Going to the City of Rocks and tramping around the sight of the hotel, was back in the day before the City of Rocks and Faywood Hot Springs became a national park and a camping area, so the young people enjoyed the challenge of finding mysterious things. Nowadays you have to pay to get on the area unless you're only driving through.

Mr. S. revealed that he and another man had been down South in Palomas on an old cattle trail when the car had broken down. They had a hard time getting it started and crippled it to the City of Rocks.

 It was dark so they sought shelter under one of the rocks. They found a blanket in the car to cover the cold ground and tried to sleep but it was very cold.  All night long the guys kept getting poked in their backs, and when the light came, they discovered they were camped out on top of a pack rats nest full of sharp twigs mixed with cactus.

The is the rayon dress I am wearing the Time and Tru brand. I couldn't get a clear photo so this is from web:

These were on sale two weeks ago for $9 and recently for $5 so it is no wonder you can't find them anywhere. They were taken as fast as they were unloaded!

Still killing time to let the storm pass, Mr. S. said he wanted to drive around looking at other familiar places from his youth.

 I was busy blogging all this and when I looked up we were still traveling in the desert so I didn't pay much attention to where he was taking me until my phone dinged and a grandchild wrote:

 "Are you going to church in Mexico?" 

We had gotten up at 5 a.m, 6 hours before church anywhere, so I texted back "not that I know of." 

The reply said "because Papa's phone is in Mexico." Drat that tracking App! A body can't even sneak off to Mexico without being found out.

We parked the car on the US side and walked across the border, the Mexican guards totally nonchalant towards us, looking like they would rather concentrate on their cellphones.

A street vendor tried awfully hard to sell me a ladies picture hat for $20 but I didn't want it. 

In Palomas, Mr. S. wanted his picture took (don't correct my grammar. It's a colloquial term.) with the statue of Poncho Villa because he once met Poncho Villa's son. He also met Geronimo's son, but those are details for later.

In The Pink Store Mr. S. Insisted on buying embroidered dresses for all the girls in the fam,  5 of us altogether.

A sales clerk took us to another place in an alley and showed us lead free pottery and sold us a tea pot. Before she boxed up our purchases she brought us each a complimentary cup of hot tea! We sipped it while she wrapped everything and it was soooo welcome. It was chamomile.

On the way back over the narrow path from Old Mexico to New Mexico,  the street vendor recognized me and shouted out that the hat had come down to $5.00 so I gave in and bought it.

We didn't have to go to all that tedium of bargaining the price down because the salesman did it himself.

We had church on the border with communion and prayers and singing, and I told Mr. S. He could preach to me in the car to keep in practice.

We left Old Mexico at noon and drove to the next Walmart where we noted and appreciated the evenly paved parking lot and the well maintained streets of the town. By careful analysis of the Palomas street and sidewalk pictures I think you know the reason.