surrounded by 10 different kinds of cactus. Chatted
with a Dutch transplant to Montana who gave me some
good leads on places to paddle. He was at the park
and would be leaving when his dental work in Palomas,
right across the border, was done.
Columbus is famous because Pancho Villa, a
hero/villain in the Mexican Revolution came over the
border in 1916 and killed a number of people and
soldiers here because he was pissed that Woodrow
Wilson was supporting a dictator as head of Mexico.
Gen. Pershing followed him back into Mexico but never
caught up with Villa. Pershing was the first to use
airplanes in a combat operation in searching for
Pancho.
Pancho Villa State Park is 3 miles from the Mexican
border so I drove to customs, parked and walked across
to Palomas. The first shop is a very fancy optician
and there were many others, also dentists, pharmacies
and medical clinics all catering, of course, to
gringos. I walked to the end of the town, about ½
mile and NEWSFLASH: We have another candidate for the
best burrito contest. A little hole in the wall. The
woman spoke no English though I did find out through
an exchange of animal noises that the meat in the
burrito was beef. And, by the way, Mexican chickens
go "phew, phew". The filling was simple, great spices
and came with bowls of green salsa and a parsley/onion
mixture. All for 12 pesos ($1.20).
I decided to go to Chiricawa National Monument that
I'd been to a few years ago and loved. But instead of
going the longer well paved route, I rejected the
advice of a mail delivery person and a state trooper
and took the back roads. Straight up a mountain on a
rutted gravel road, crossing streams and around
hairpin turns. Halfway along as I was losing courage
there was a small group of 4 or 5 houses, the remnants
of the once thriving Paradise, AZ. A sign in front of
one said visitors welcome. A stained glass artist
lives there with her husband who works 3 hours away
and only gets home every few weeks. His great
grandfather built the house in the glory days of
Paradise. She also runs a small guest house, mostly
for birders and folk who come to the Southwest
Research Station of the Museum of Natural History in
NYC; it's an out of the way PhD mill. She looked at
the Toaster and said I shouldn't have any problem the
rest of the way. We chatted for a while and I left
and the road got worse.
I am now in a pine covered National Forest campground,
3 sites, no water or toilet. I'm the only one here
and the nearest people are probably 15 miles away.
It's very quiet, the stars are as bright as they were
at the observatory and I had my first campfire in
weeks.
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