We drove the 30 miles from City of Rocks to Dream Catcher RV in Deming to clear our holding tanks, get warm and decide where to got next.  First order of business was to make plans for service at Lazy Days in Tucson to take care of the rest of the warranty stuff that has accumulated.  After the call to service we were in a bit of a quandary  the soonest we could get in is March 6.  We know once they get to work there will be hold ups and we cannot plan our departure until we see the schedule.  When to go to LA?  We decided to see if an immediate run there would work for Yechiel and Miriam and for us as well.  Mapping software shows a hard two day trip and we have three days to arrive Friday afternoon. We tried to get into Malibu Beach RV, but all they had was a partial hookup site that is 42′ by 16′ barely room to open our slides.  Called Dockweiler RV under the LAX departure lanes and found a spot on the back row way down from the runway so we may be able to sleep.

We decided that there was no point on rolling today and we did want to drive down to Palomas just over the border from Columbus NM.  Palomas is a very quiet border town best known for the Pink Store.  We had been told to eat there.  We walked on by and found San Jose a couple of blocks from the border, they displayed an Escapee Badge by the door so we decided to give it a try.  We were the only customers when we entered and no one came while we were there.  The food was quite good and  I was embarrassed when the bill for two nice lunches came to $8.00 so I over tipped in compensation and we were out on the street for $11 total and quite satisfied.  We stopped by Pink Store and checked out the restaurant.  The prices were about double and the menu did not seem any different.   I did buy a liter of Tequila and a small bottle of vanilla.

We walked back over the border with no wait, no one was in front of us so figuring out where to walk was a bit of an issue.  We decided to stop in Columbus at the museum, every small town has a museum.  It had railroad tracks and a caboose and a lot of railroad memorabilia on the outside.  The docent (didn’t get his name) greeted us and offered to show us a video of the towns history.  We agreed.  We were mesmerized, who knew we had landed in the one place in the United States where Pancho Villa had invaded and been driven off in 1909.  The first Army Air Corp base was built there and the entire fleet, eight planes were based there.  There were also 10,000 men staged there in the event of an attack.  I will not regale you with the entire story, needless to say Pancho Villa’s troops managed to cross the border unnoticed, between two guard posts and start attacking Columbus.  Two US officers got there troops engaged and managed to set up a cross fire that devastated Villa’s soldiers and drove them back across the border.  The story doesn’t end there, but for Columbus it does.

We will be rolling in the morning