26/27MAR09 - Deming, NM (we've been here before)

Thursday, 26MAR, right around lunch time we made it to Deming, NM, before the winds really kicked-up. It definitely got windy, and the gusts probably hit 50mph easily. We probably could have continued driving safely, but we would have to slow down and it would have been no fun; not what we want to do as full time RV’ers. We checked into the Dream Catcher RV Park that we stayed at back in OCT07. Seems that we didn’t get any pictures of Deming last time, so we shot a few this time.

http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2007/10/2526oct07-deming-nm-happy-birthday.html

That evening in spite of the winds, we drove several miles out of town for dinner at the Adobe Deli, known for hot beer, lousy food and bad service. Dan discovered this unique restaurant during his SEP08 business trip, see our 25SEP08 BLOG. This restaurant which is an old 1955 school and is literally in the middle of nowhere, is famous for its steaks, live Maine lobster and French onion soup. Even though it was a Thursday night, reservations were recommended! Dan pointed out that the info (ie phone number) on the website was wrong; turns out the web designer took the money and ran, and no one knows the password to get in and fix it.

http://www.adobedeli.com/

The next morning we headed to the Pancho Villa State Park in Columbus, NM. This is a beautiful state park set in the high desert country of New Mexico, and has a two year old museum dedicated to the 1916 raid into the USA at the town Columbus, NM. On 09 MAR 1916 five hundred Villistas crossed the border and attacked the USA Army and civilian population of Columbus. (It is now believed the Pancho Villa was not present, but had probably ordered it.) Eighteen Americans were killed, but once the Army got the armory unlocked and figured out how to use their machine guns without jamming them, about 90 Villistas were killed and the attack was easily repulsed.

Within weeks there were thousands of USA Army troops staging in Columbus under General “Black Jack” Pershing, under Presidential orders to pursue Villa into Mexico and capture him. Eleven months later and 10,000 troops four hundred mile into Mexico the chase was given up. Villa was never captured but his Army was scattered and much of his supply infrastructure was destroyed. In addition, the USA Army quickly realized the value of the new fangled cars and trucks over the horse and mule, and the value of airplanes for scouting, carrying messages, and moving key personnel. In fact Pershing’s forces went from two vehicles at the start to over one hundred at the end; and the entire USA Air Force (aka Army Signal Corps consisting of eight planes) was located at the first dedicated USA Air Base outside Columbus to support Pershing. All of this and more proved to be extremely valuable when General Pershing led the first expeditionary forces to Europe when the USA entered WWI.

http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/prd/PanchoVilla.htm

We next visited the local Museum located in the renovated RR Station that survived the Villistas raid. As is often the case in small towns and/or counties, the museum consists of various (and sometimes odd) collections collected for decades donated by local citizens. Sometimes the collections deal with the local history and culture of the immediate area, and sometimes not. And the quality and informative nature of the museum is directly related to “enthusiasm” of the volunteer(s). This museum was okay but was spoiled by the “politics” of the volunteer on duty. She called herself a Constitutionalist, but Rush Limbaugh is a Liberal compared to this person. We hastily beat a retreat to have lunch at the Patio Café home of the famous Terry’s Burgers. We didn’t have any burgers but Dan did have the house specialty – pork tenderloin sandwich. This is 6 inch diameter piece of deep fried tenderloin on a 4 inch bun, very good.

http://www.southernnewmexico.com/Articles/Southwest/Luna/Columbus/ColumbusNewMexico-PanchoV.html

We headed back to the town of Deming – Corrie decided to walkabout and see what shops were in town, Dan decided to go to the Deming Luna Mimbres Museum. The name of museum is for the town (Deming), the county (Luna), and the Native Americans that inhabited the area (Mimbres) before the Europeans showed up. Corrie quickly discovered that aren’t many shops in Deming and soon joined Dan in the museum. This is a great museum and we needed more time to see it all, since we got there only a couple of hours before closing. There are art exhibits, cowboy exhibits, antique autos, Hispanic exhibits, military history, gem & mineral displays, an unbelievable display of Mimbres pottery, and Dan’s favorite – hundreds of ceramic whiskey bottles.

http://www.deminglunamimbresmuseum.com/

Trivia: Dan was once a “thurifer”, what is it? What is a Harvey Girl?