Wanderers in Wonder

As dawn broke over Columbus, New Mexico (NM) on 9 March 1916, gunfire also broke the silence of the new day. Pancho Villa, born Doroteo Arango, and his Revolutionary Army of Northern Mexico were attacking this little NM town. They were seeking weapons to continue their fight for control of Mexico during the Mexican Revolution 1910…

Hachita (Hatchet) Mountains of Southwestern NM. Miners came for gold and silver in 1875. By 1900 there were 300 people living and working in the village of Hachita. St. Catherine of Siena church in Hachita. The mines eventually played out and Hachita was no more. ‘Off the Gridders’ have slowly begun to re-occupy Hachita. They…

A nice sunset on the Little Florida Mountains of Southwestern N.M. greeted us at Rockhound State Park. Beautiful hikes to be had…Thunder Egg Trail. Interesting creatures to entertain one along the way, Eighteen inch rattler trying to down a meal to help make it through the dormancy of winter. Lover’s Leap Trail in Spring Canyon.…

After some apples, cheese and tea we went for a stroll in our desert demesne and came across a neighbor having lunch. He was a little rattler and eventually gave up trying to swallow lunch…see videos attached. Peace…Wanderers in Wonder.  IMG_7846.MOV  IMG_7847.MOV 2 Attachments • Scanned by Gmail

The day after we returned to El Paso from Durango we picked up our youngest son, Andy, at the airport. He had flown in from Seattle to spend some time with us. We took him on tour… Hueco Tanks State Historic Park A Tlaloc, usually found near sites with reliable water. A Jornada Mogollon Mask.…

Valentine Diner in Hutchinson, Kansas…one of the first to open. Arthur Valentine was born in 1891 in Elliot, Illinois. He knocked around until he landed in Wichita Kansas in the early 1930’s where he got a job as a salesman for the Ablah Hotel Supply Company. The Ablah company made prefabricated lunchrooms. Arthur came up with the idea of making…

Landed in Durango for a week or so, Visited with our oldest boy Charlie and his girlfriend, Monique. A couple of dinners, hiking and visiting the Aztec Arches with the two of them. Anasazi (Cox Canyon or Aztec) Arch. Alien Arch…ET Come Home. Fall colors on the Durango River trail. Took our “Granddaughter” (our little…

We camped at Spavinaw State Park in Oklahoma for a few days last week. It was a short walk from camp to town. It was in Spavinaw, OK that the ‘Commerce Comet’ was born in 1931. His dad, Mutt, moved the family to Commerce, OK in 1934 where he became a lead and zinc miner. Almost every…

Alton Illinois was once a booming town on the Mississippi. Alton is just below where the Illinois River emptied into the Mississippi and just above where the Missouri joined the Mississippi. The Illinois and Mississippi Canal system connected the City of Broad Shoulders, Chicago, with the ‘Big Easy’, New Orleans making Alton a hub of…

No Castro in Cuba During a lovely dinner prepared by our St. Louis friends, Kevin and Julie, the other night Kevin commented that back in the early ‘60’s there were ‘No Castro in Cuba’ signs in Cuba, Missouri, a RTE 66 town Mary Ann and I had visited earlier in the week.  We all know the…