Went on a teeny tiny holiday...

[mistressjinx]

By teeny tiny I mean, 1 day. My dad hijacked me for a day of old man site-seeing in New Mexico. We took the 10 to Deming, NM then went on to Truth or Consequences, NM, on to Silver City, NM then back home to Tucson, AZ. Originally we were going to go to Roswell, but I got sidetracked walking all the shops in T or C and before I knew it, hours had passed. It was a cute little town. Population 6k-ish. Lots of artsy shops, a movie theatre showing one dinosaur documentary, shops selling chilis by the bundles. The only other time I'd heard of the town was because there was a movie called Truth or Consequences starting Kierfer Sutherland, but I'm not sure if it was shot there. For Arizonan's T or C reminds me a lot of Prescott, AZ. I dug it hard.

On our way back, we got stuck going a back way through some mountains/camping trails where the speed limit was 10mph. I saw snow. It was weird. I don't think i've seen the white stuff in over a decade. Took some pics, probably my favorite was this abandoned gas station at the side of some small little almost non-existent town. The picture didn't do it justice, because it looked like it was straight from a horror flick.

Over all, my father subjected me to 12 hours of 80s music on his XM radio station, tons of stupid roadside attractions, food from a few greasy spoons, lots of dumb jokes and an awfully fun day.

Here's a few pics:

a. start of the trip. :)
b. sunrise next to a power plant.
c. wind turbines. (I'm a bit obsessed with these beasts)
d. abandoned horror film gas station.
e. welcome to t or c.
f. idek why i took this pic. reminded me of the rock monster from the neverending story.
g. burnt out mountain side with snow.

Comments

[akamine_chan]

Hee. Glad you had a good time. NM is a beautiful state.

Also, minor-former-resident-nitpick: chiles. Not chilis. And the bundles are ristras. :D

T or C is a cute little town; it's name was originally Hot Springs, but as part of a advertising gimmick, they changed their name for a 50's game show.

/homesick

[chemm80]

Hey! I know this is a really old post now, but I've been really out of it lately and I missed this. New Mexico has been my home since I was 4, so I have a lot of feelings about the place.

And Truth or Consequences... well, that really brings back some memories. Previous commenter is right, about the chiles :) and the origin of the town's name. But it also used to be home to a children's orthopedic hospital named Carrie Tingley, after the former governor's wife who founded it, and it was placed there IIRC because of the hot springs in the area. I spend some time there when I was 12-13 for treatment of scoliosis and I do remember the hospital had a pool that was naturally heated by the hot springs. We could only use it early in the mornings because it would get unpleasantly warm after a few hours of (the very intense) sunshine.

T or C was also home to my great Aunt Daisy, whom I remember quite fondly because she came to visit me in the hospital when I was scared and alone, brought me little gifts and such, and was quite the character. When she was 82 she left her husband, Monroe, to live with her daughter in Texas, declaring, "I've put up with his abuse for 60 years and I'm not going to tolerate another minute of it!" *shrugs* As far as I knew, he spent all of his time fishing.

Ah, man... sorry for the ramble, but thanks for that walk down old Memory Lane!