Pancho Villa State Park, NM

Rolling out of Portal at 9ish on a gorgeous morning, & a few miles down the road it becomes 10ish am: as we cross over into New Mexico. We wave adios to a peaceful & amazing 11 days relaxing in Sunny Flat Campground in the splendid Cave Creek area of the AZ Coronado National Forest. We head east on NM HWY 9 going through Animas, fueling the truck at Valley Mercantile.  The gigantic store was closed for the “Day of Rest”, Sunday. After getting petrol we head about 75 miles due east to Pancho Villa.

HWY 9 passes through some of the most deserted landscape in all of NM. As the wind blows us further down the road, most ‘groupings’ of buildings are desolate and decaying, a relic of times gone by. There are ‘town names’ written on highway sign posts but, all the life we saw was one Ancient old farmer sitting with his hands resting on his cane. (He must have been pushing 90).  He sat alone out in a field, with the wind roaring around him, topping out at 35 – 40 mph – He just stared out into empty space, don’t know if he even saw our truck and camper.

Moseying along HWY 9, we finally come to Columbus, NM. Pancho Villa St. Park is right at the intersection of HWY 9 and HWY 11. The only business open on this Sunday morning was the gas station. Due to losing an hour just minutes into our sojourn out of Portal, it is now lunch time. We inquire about a place to have lunch: “Good Luck” the guy replies with a laugh. Then he adds, “If anyone is open, it’s Irma’s Kitchen”, which is close by, just the next block. I assume it is closed, but when we pass by, we see the sign flashing ‘o-p-e-n’. We pull Gypsy and Rosalita around to the back and circle up the wagon for chow. We commandeer a table by the window although there is not much to look at besides a couple of dogs wandering the streets.

I order the ‘special’ of the day, (tacos) and Patti orders enchiladas. Being this close to the border Patti should know to order the sauce ‘on-the-side’: it was at the extreme max for Patti’s taste and tolerance level.

When we walked into Irma’s the first thing she hollered  was, “I love your truck!”  Instantly, Patti responded with a BIG grin, “Well, you can’t have it, Irma!” Gales of laughter erupted! Irma and us two Gypsy ladies traded stories, information and laughs. She was very quick with repartee and had a great sense of humor. The food was terrific also. One of our questions involved queries about crossing the border into Palomas, Mexico. She said, “If you are followed by a man and he asks you to dance, don’t do it!” she then laughed wildly, adding “I’m just kidding…”.

After our delightful lunch and repartee with Irma, we proceeded to Pancho Villa State Park. We drove 2 blocks to the entrance and choose our space with care. The camping spots were basically all the same, yet we managed to find one place with a couple of trees, although only young trees with not much shade to be had anywhere in the park. The wind was blowing quite hard howling, actually, and the gravel and dirt was flying everywhere, nothing to break the gusts. We had a lot of places to choose from – after all who would want to come here for R and R? We decided people come to PV to go into Mexico to get glasses, prescriptions, or shop at the Pink Store, they don’t come for the scenery! We separated Gypsy from Rosalita, leveled and stabilized our home for the next few days.

We were meeting friends at Pancho Villa (PV) the following day and they wanted to go to the Pink Store in Palomas. We had never heard of the Pink Store but were willing to cross over the border to again experience the flavor and culture of marvelous Mexico. It was ironic that months before Patti had read about Palomas being a great place to get prescription eye glasses at a very decent price. Patti was in need of another pair of prescription glasses, since she misplaced her other, more expensive pair, a year ago. We decided we would go to Palomas a day before our friends joined up with us in PV, to check out getting spectacles for Patti. We did not know what the turn around time was for getting them ‘in hand’; an hour, half a day, or 2 days??? After all, it takes 2 weeks to get glasses once you’ve ordered them – state side.

We were told there was a parking lot at the NM/Mexico border, where you can safely leave your vehicle and walk over to Palomas. Then walk back (the short 2 blocks) with your passport, of course. Heading south on HWY 11 it is only four short miles to the border – and we spent the time wondering if… all would be well with the truck and us getting back across to our homeland.

Locking our Gypsy up and leaving her at the parking lot that had lots of vehicles, it seemed safe. We proceeded through the ‘thin’ line that separates the USA from Mexico. There was a wall at this thin line about 20 feet high and stretching as far as the eye can see to the west. Ironically, no fence going east?!?!? I guess Trump lives to the west… (later I would see the wall to the east about a mile beyond the border crossing).

Crossing the ‘line’ into Mexico no one asks for ‘papers’ going in. This always shocks me and makes me nervous… although it was the same in Juarez, Mexico last July. Just try getting back into the USA without a passport however.

In Juarez, we were taken to the Washington Dental Clinic by a van directly to the clinic and back again to our hotel, it was all very safe – now we were ‘walking in’… into Palomas, for eye-sight enhancement for Patti.

Dior Optical looked like any US eye enhancement office in the States. It was very clean, neat and had eye glass frames in glass cases, on the counter cabinet and hanging on the walls, with mirrors for your discernment. A woman was cleaning the outside glass as we approached. She quit cleaning the glass and asked if she could help us… Patti walked into the store with this employee and began the conversation about frames, prescriptions and prices. Patti had taken her prescription from the optometrist in Trinidad, CO, so there was no need of an exam. Choosing the frames took the longest time; trying them on, checking the color and getting the opinions of others. Once a choice was made and the prices explained – the issue of when they would be ready was broached. Turns out, the glasses would be ready in 1 hour if they had the lenses on hand, if not it would be 2 hours, because they would have to have their lab make them up… the lab was in the same block just around the corner.

We were meeting our friends at 1pm at Pancho Villa, so Patti decided to pick the glasses up tomorrow, as we were coming to Palomas to visit the Pink Store and share lunch with them tomorrow anyway.

Patti and I perused through the Pink Store, since it was right next door to Dior Opticals. We were visually delighted as the Mexican culture leaps out in all manner of ‘happy’ colors – just like the masks we saw in Mazatlan on the hotel walls during our ‘Salsa & Salsa’. So much to take in: pottery, clothes, weavings, fountains, wall hangings, ceramic frogs climbing up the walls – everything in lively ‘clashy’ Mexican style – so ‘clashy’ it is chic.

Patti, being tired of retirement, decides to open a restaurant in Palomas. Reservations needed for dinner…

By now it is 12:45pm, so we walk toward the border check point. We walk back the way we came into the city and ask if this is where we get through to the US of A – the guard nods yes, and moves his hand and arm in a forward direction, “yes, yes”… When we get closer to the border line – the US Border Patrol start whistling and shouting and arm waving attracting our attention and we realize we are on the wrong side of the road to re-enter the USA. “In” is on one side of the road, and “out” is on the other side. When we get up to the “show me your papers” podium, we tell our custom agent that the guy with the automatic rifle said to continue on the way we were going… The custom agent said, “sometimes they like to mess with you.” Everybody’s got a sense of humor – or should.

Getting back into our beloved country was easy once we were on the ‘right side of the road’. We walked the few feet back to our truck, (which was perfectly safe), and drove back to where Rosalita awaited us at our campsite.

Although we had never been to PV State Park, Patti did look it up on NM’s State Park internet site – It was our friends who suggested this park to meet up at since we were in the area (Portal) anyway. It is a barren, gravel, wind swept “parking lot” with electricity and water at each site, with nothing to break the drying wind. The bathrooms are clean as a whistle and well supplied with 2 showers that were clean BUT you had to ‘hold’ in the water button to keep the shower water flowing. If you let up on the button, the water stopped, quite annoying. There were just a handful of campers braving the winds at PV and most left the next morning, just passing through. The wind was so inhospitable that we spent all our time in the camper when not in the bathroom – or in Mexico. It was that time of year, we learned, in NM where there is wind, wind and more wind every single day. Strangely when we were in Palomas the wind did not blow nearly as much – just 4 miles south of PV.

Our friends arrived and we clarified details for going to Palomas mañana for lunch and the Pink Store.

The next day we traveled back to Mexico, picked up Patti’s glasses, had lunch at the Pink Store, did some shopping and crossed once again into New Mexico – on the right side of the road this time.

We made plans with our friends to travel 30 miles up north to Rock Hound State Park tomorrow. Rock Hound is just 5 miles south of Deming, NM.