Tue, Jun 7, 2011

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

After hearing from friends about the high temperatures and humidity at home I began sending short daily video clips of the beautiful cool creeks and rivers where we have rested and picnicked. After leaving the mountains today I reminded Charles I had not done our “cool water video today”.  Charles looked at me in total seriousness and said, “I think we are going to have to get a hose and some ice”.  Love that man! – Donna Downey

After a really good hot breakfast in the motel we were ready to hit the road this morning to continue our meandering toward Mississippi.  All four of us were a little “down in the mouth” as none of us were looking forward to a day of driving with the windows up due to the heat.  The high deserts of New Mexico are at least very pleasant in the early morning hours with somewhat comfortable temperatures and very little humidity we were able to drive for a while with the windows down.  We enjoyed the warm dry air knowing that as the day wore on it would necessitate windows up and air conditioning on. 

We picked a very convoluted route thru the mountains around Ruidoso, NM and it was there that we found our only extended stop for the day.  We first came across the hospital cemetery for Fort Stanton.  It was located on top of a high hill with a wonderful view of the mountains and each grave was marked with a white wooden cross.  The Fort itself is located just down from this hill and has a long history which I won’t include here but in 1899 it was established as a Marine Hospital exclusively for the treatment of tuberculosis.  The climate here in the dry mountains of New Mexico was considered excellent for these patients.  With the availability of drugs to treat tuberculosis in 1953 the hospital was transferred to the state of New Mexico where it continued in use until 1966 with the decline of tuberculosis patients.   Still the records show that more than 10,000 Marine patients from all over the US were treated there.  The hospital continued to serve mentally disadvantaged patients until 1995.

Fort Stanton was originally built in 1855 to protect settlers in the area from native American invasions.  It also served as the home of the renowned unit of the black soldiers of the 8^th Calvary, nicknamed the “Buffalo Soldiers”.  I believe I remember these soldiers were at least partially responsible for the capture of Geronimo. There are a number of buildings remaining at the Fort, however the museum was closed today so we had to settle for driving around.

Back at Capitan, a small town nearby we found a grove of huge cottonwoods where we could park the jeep and leave the dogs long enough to have lunch at a nearby Mexican restaurant.  With the beginnings of a very breezy afternoon the Jeep was quite comfortable and we found it cooler than the restaurant when we returned.

After lunch it was pretty much driving for the rest of the afternoon.  The temperatures while we were in the mountains and still in the high desert plains were tolerable and in the eighties, however as we began to descend from the 7,000 and above elevations we had enjoyed to more about the 3,500 foot level the temperatures began to climb and the highest we noticed on our car thermometer was 104! Nobody in our Jeep was excited to see that.

We knew New Mexico has been suffering from an extreme drought and it was visibly obvious as we drove the entire day thru numerous fire danger warning signs, and all of the national forest areas were closed completely.  There was no sign of moisture to be found anywhere and we were very careful not to pull off in any grassy areas for puppy stops. 

Just outside of Hobbs, NM we picked out several places we might stay if we decided to drive further than Hobbs but they were small towns in Texas with limited facilities and when we finally arrived in Hobbs we decided to stop.  We were very lucky to get a room!  While Charles was at the front desk, there were two cancellations and we got one of those rooms.  The desk clerk said as far as she knew they were the last rooms in town (where you would want to stay she did add).  Hobbs is a bustling oil field town and she said most of the motels now stay fully booked seven days a week with all of the drilling going on along with putting a number of older wells back in production.

The only cool water we found was at a beautiful rock pool in front of the motel!  As I sat in the Jeep waiting the water looked very refreshing.  Then two Common Grackles came in for a cool invigorating bath.  They were quite entertaining and not at all intimidated by my close proximity so I took the opportunity to photograph their fun.

We are well tonight and hope that y’all are too! 

Peace, Hope & Love,

Donna, Charles, Paris & Dodger