November 2 thru December 15, 2006
We stayed in OKC for one week. We spent the weekend visiting with family and at the memorial for Gene’s brother. It didn’t leave much time for any thing else and there is nothing much to do there anyway. We stayed in Albuquerque for only one week. Our RV park was on the west side of the city. We set an appointment and drove the RV to a dealer to have some work done on it. They did not get around to working on it that day so we spent the night parked in their parking lot. The next day they did what they could and sent us on the way. One evening, while there, we went to a musical program that was a Tribute to Johnny Cash. The singer looked like a young Johnny Cash and had his physical mannerisms. He had a good Johnny Cash singing voice too. It was a very good show. Albuquerque celebrated 300 years this year and the Old Town is maintained as it was long, long ago. Most of the buildings and the people in that area are Mexican descendants. Many shops in the area carry beautiful jewelry and much of it is Indian jewelry made by the local Indians. We went through the Atomic Museum which tells the story of the atom bomb. It was quite interesting. And of course we could not leave a big city without going to the mall and spend a Saturday at flea market. Other than that we didn’t do much there in Albuquerque. We arrived in Deming NM on November 16 and plan to stay for 1 month. The Little Vineyard RV park is quite large and has many activities and amenities. We are enjoying playing Mexican Dominoes on Monday evenings, Card Bingo on Tuesday evenings and Sue goes to a water aerobics class every day during the week. We have found a walking trail not far from the RV park. We can walk there and the walk is about 2 miles total. Gene walks twice a day and Sue joins him in the afternoon. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at the Senior Citizens center on Tuesday and the Park had a potluck on Thanksgiving Day. All was good and we are glad we don’t have any leftovers to finish up. There is Rockhound State Park here and we are told we can dig for semi-precious gems better known as rocks. I would like to do that but am afraid I wouldn’t know a rock from a rock if you know what I mean. We are only about 30 miles from the Mexican border and the town of Palomas. We drove down on very nice day and walked across the border where there is a store called The Pink Store (it is painted the brightest pink you ever saw). They have a very nice Mexican food restaurant there and lots of snow bird gift merchandise. The food was very good…we did not buy anything. There were lots of locals hanging around the streets so we did not shop in the rest of the town. Many of the people here go there for dental care with prices for crowns and bridges dirt cheap. The people here in Deming believe they do very good work. Maybe I should have waited to get my teeth done down there. J One thing we have found out that we found quite interesting and in some ways sad is that the National Guard has moved in along the border there and are restricting the flow of illegals into the US there. A local paper states this area has long been known as the busiest corridor for illegal immigrants in New Mexico. Before the National Guard came the Border Patrol caught an average of 200 illegals per day. Now this has fallen to about 45, a reduction of 65% compared to last year. So we believe the Military personnel is doing a worthwhile job. It has caused a great hardship in the Mexican town of Palomas. They depended on the illegals passing through for their economy and many businesses have had to close. ie: grocery stores, restaurants and a hotel. The people who live there are hurting. They were dirt poor before and now some of them are having to move to other areas for work. We have been told there are several bus loads of children who come here to Deming each day for school. Their mother’s came over here to have their babies so they would be US citizens and now the children have the right to American schools These children live in Mexico and come here for school. There are 12 grade schools here in Deming, 1 junior high, 1 mid high and 1 high school. This is a fairly small town, about 14,000 people. There is not a lot to do here other than the activities at the camp ground. We have gone to Los Cruces a couple of times and drove up to Silver City one day. Both are about an hour away. We are glad to be leaving here. We enjoyed the people and the activities in the park but we are ready to leave.