Blogs from New Mexico, United States, North America - page 11

We hooked up and got an early start from Davis Mountains SP. We headed down along empty roads back to US90, no traffic at all, these are the lonely roads. Back on 90 we headed west towards the sad little town of Valentine TX. Not much still moving there, mostly all wrecked cars and abandoned buildings, with a few mangy mutts staring at the traffic, this is now what the rural West looks like. Soon we approached Van Horn, down in a shallow valley before some distant blue peaks. You could see the transport trucks inching along on I10 from ten miles away. Back onto the SuperSlab, we crawled our way west again, through the smoggy sprawl of booming El Paso and on into New Mexico. It was Sunday, so the traffic was light, but we ... read more

THE PUNITIVE EXPEDITION During the early morning hours of March 9, 1916 Pancho Villa launched a surprise attack on the peacefully snoring community of Columbus, NM. Pancho was all mad because the Wilson Administration recognized Venusiano Carranza as the rightful leader of Mexico and imposed an embargo on guns and ammo sold to Pancho. There was a fellow living at the Commercial Hotel in Columbus who had been supplying Pancho with guns and ammo, but because of the embargo could no longer deliver them. He still owed Pancho money for the failed shipment. Pancho wanted a pound of flesh from that guy, and he wanted to rob the custom house, and the bank, and maybe capture a few cavalry horses too. The Commercial Hotel was the first establishment that Pancho’s men visited and the gun dealer ... read more

LOTTIE DENO Carlotta J. Thompkins came bouncing into the world on April 21, 1844 in Warsaw, KY. She was the oldest of the Thompkins children. Warsaw is a thriving little community slap on the Ohio River about halfway between Louisville and Cincinnati. Her dad was a lively farmer, sportsman, and horse breeder, but he failed to produce male progeny. As she was coming of age her dad charged her with the welfare of the family and began to teach her what he knew of the world. She accompanied him on business trips to sell hemp in Michigan, and to attend horse racing in Nawlins, He also taught her to be a riverboat gambler When the Civil War broke out her dad promptly resigned from his position in the Kentucky General Assembly, got a commission in the ... read more

New Mexico Hwy 518 runs from Taos South to Las Vegas and all my pics are from there. Coming from the Rio Grande Gorge I started on NM 518 about 15 miles South of Taos and finally made it to Las Vegas. My first visit there was in the 1980s when things were different and that highway was New Mexico Hwy 3. I included some of my old pics in the 1980s shot on my 135 mm SLR on print film. This blog is about me finding a private camp on the Rio Pueblo; virtually all my pics are shot there except the few last shot in Las Vegas. I arrived at my very old camp that is Comales Camp Ground by the confluence of the small Comales creek. These pics are from the 1980s when ... read more

From family we started on our way down I-40 west towards home, that is, we headed westward, with a side trip north to Taos. We needed to go to Santa Fe and Taos for supplies: more fresh roasted green chili, fresh ristrias, fresh ground chili powder, and fresh food from our favorite restaurants. We stopped at our favorite Santa Fe restaurant, Maria’s, for tamales, enchiladas and soul food. We had fun introducing Zaya to Sopapillas with honey, something she didn’t know about. Zaya, after trying one, then set her mind to finding the best sopapilla in New Mexico. However, she also decided that she wanted to live inside Maria’s, but unfortunately for her, we did not allow her to stay behind. From Santa Fe. we drove onto Taos where we had an RV site for that ... read more