At this point, my path crosses with my father again. This time, he is not suffering from heart issues/chest pain. He and his wife have returned to get his car from Tucumcari and he has driven himself to Los Cruces. So, we meet for breakfast before both going our separate ways, planning to meet up again later. A road trip is never complete without a trip to Cracker Barrel, so that’s where we met for breakfast. Another great stop before continuing into what could be the more dangerous part of the trip for this yankee northerner.
I toured around Las Cruces before heading further west along the border. There are a lot of pretty cool places I didn’t know about in the Las Cruces area. I’m going to need to return and explore some more.
From the town center, I ventured out to find some curiosities and oddities, but found so much more. There was a whole area to explore related to dinosaur tracks. I walked a little along the path, but then decided I needed to get going, if I was going to make another spot I had planned, plus I was planning on the backroads across as much as possible.
As I traversed the back roads of New Mexico, I saw many metal art stands and one junction even had a ton of metal statues that of course I needed to stop and take photos. From aliens to Ronald McDonald there were so many different statues. I loved it.
After the metal statues, I continued to venture into the back country of southern New Mexico. I wandered upon a ghost town, where it was expensive and long to tour it. They had a campground and tons of “stuff” all over the place. I think it would be a very interesting tour, but did not have the time for it all. So, it will hopefully be revisited in the future. One ghost town I did get to visit along the Geronimo byway was pretty neat.
With the back country exploration complete, I once again headed west. This time I figured I would head south to Tombstone. Cutting off all these other stops gave me extra time, thus allowing me to hit Tombstone.
It was an interesting trip towards the southern border and tombstone. I guess I didn’t realize how close to the Mexico border Tombstone lies. As I headed south, there were signs warning of the border patrol checkpoint. That seemed weird to a northerner like me. We don’t have border patrol check points 40 miles south of the northern border. So, why would I have them that far away from the border in the south? Well, guess what…they do exist that far north of the southern border. I passed through my first checkpoint of the trip. I slow down, roll down my window, and am prepared with my passport, drivers license, and possibly anything else they might need. The border patrol person asks, “are you American?” I reply, “yes.” He waves me through. I’m flabbergasted. The northern border when I cross it asks way more questions than that. I know this is just a check point, but still…
Another 10 miles, and I’m in Tombstone. What an interesting little town. Definitely there for the tourism. I knew I had to go to a bar and have a whiskey. So, that was the first part, after parking. After 1 shot of whiskey, I wandered town finding myself in the Bird Cage learning about the history of the brothel. I toured the place hoping to find spirits. Unfortunately, I did not find any. After the bird cage, I hit another bar drinking spirits and hoping to maybe see some spirits. When nothing turned up, I headed back to my car and back north for the night.
Crossing back through the check point, I was concerned I would be stopped for the smell of alcohol on my breath. Again, they simply waved me through. I didn’t even have to slow down, roll down my window, or answer any questions. Again, I was absolutely floored. Could I not be bringing illegals into the US in the back of my car? WOW! Such a weird experience. It made me feel a little cocky at the same time.
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