Friday, February 21…Teddy Bear Song (Tanya Tucker)

  While Kim took a shower this morning, I wandered out to find a geocache down the road. Lordsburg, New Mexico is an interesting town. We’ve passed it on our route to Picacho, and I never really paid much attention to it. Couldn't have told a person anything about it. 

   Last night when I looked online for a hotel, I found four or five, which indicated to me that it is a town of some size; although I don’t know why it has that many hotels.  There’s no tourism that I could see and no colleges. We stayed on the eastern side of the town.  From there, the route to the highway (I-10 Business Route) took us around the perimeter of the town, so we didn’t see whatever Lordsburg considers to be its present business district. There’s got to be a grocery store, post office, or pharmacy somewhere in town.  And other than being the county seat, I don’t know why it’s remained afloat. No visible industry.

   Lordsburg sprang up in the 1880s because of the railroad and enjoyed continued prosperity into the 1960s because it was at the junction of Highways 70 and 80, major roads in the state.  According to the city’s webpage, in 1964, Lordsburg boasted 21 motels, 20 cafes, and 31 service stations— the biggest gas-food-and-lodging stop between Arizona and Texas.  Currently, I-10, the southernmost interstate cross-country interstate highway, runs right next to Lordsburg…easy off, easy on.

    However, Lordsburg is no longer living the dream life of the 1960s.  My search for the geocache took me down what I assumed was a main street at some point in the town’s history. There are four or five blocks of storefronts, most of them vacant currently.  The Ford dealership is thriving, well stocked with trucks and tires. Apparently, the hardware store is also open though it didn’t look it; there’s a handwritten sign on the door reading “We are open. This door locked for safety, please use the rear entrance”.  All other storefronts were closed; most were empty, but one was not and its contents piqued my interest.

   It appeared to have been a furniture store as some home decor items were still visible along one wall. There were stacks and stacks of plastic wrapped mattresses throughout the interior of the space. Can’t imagine where all those mattresses were stored when the store was up and running.  A chandelier, that has seen better days, was hanging in the front window with a price tag of $1,250.00 hanging off it.  Not sure I’d pay $1.25 for it at this point. A side front window contained baby furniture that was randomly

piled in it.  Due to the fabric and style of the baby items plus the dust and grime laying on everything in the window, I’d say the window looked like this for years. But the thing that drew my attention to this window was a bright splash of red. It was a 10” red bear, wearing devil horns and a black neck ribbon, tucked into the corner of an infant seat. It seemed so out of place, which may have been its purpose.  This building and its contents have a story to tell.

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   Also, Camp Lordsburg, a Japanese American internment camp, was located about three miles from the current Lordsburg. The camp was built in 1942 to be the largest internment camp in the continental US. In 1943, the Japanese prisoners were transferred to other facilities and Camp Lordsburg then became known as the Lordsburg Prisoner of War Camp, housing Italian and German prisoners until it permanently closed in 1946. Interesting history.

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   We got the truck washed back in Topeka when it was unhitched from the camper; the camper still had Michigan salt on it when we pulled away from there. Over the last couple of days, the truck has been looking nasty again, which means the camper has also added more layers of road gunk. There’s a truck wash in Eloy, which we used before; but it’s in high demand and an hour’s wait isn’t out of the question. It’s staffed with many young men running around getting the job done.

   I looked for a truck wash in every large city we’ve encountered yesterday…no luck. Willcox, AZ, wouldn’t be considered large by any stretch of the imagination; however, when we stopped for gas, I noticed a sign for a truck/RV wash.  It looked closed despite the sign saying it was open, but as we drove past it to the entrance, we could see water on the floor, so Kim pulled in. It was a three-man operation: two men washing the vehicles and one man safely tucked away in the office, only coming out when the water was off so he could collect the money. Whatever their system, it worked to our benefit; both truck and trailer are clean and shiny with no chance of getting salty again before our arrival at the KOA.

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   It was 73^o when we pulled into the campground just before 2 o’clock.  By 3:30, I was a sweating fool as we were setting up camp.  My black sweatshirt and jeans felt good while riding in the truck, but they were a little too much in the hustle and bustle of setting up camp. I was, quite literally, a hot mess by the time the camper was set-up as our home away from home for the next 37 days.  About dusk, a hummingbird came into our feeders.  I hope the word goes out and we get more tomorrow. 

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   Made our first trip to Coolidge tonight to get another coffee pot for the camper.  For some reason, the one that’s been in here for a couple of years started spitting steam out and brewing a fairly horrible cup of coffee, according to Kim.  That’s unacceptable in the Bakker world, so a new coffee pot was in order.  Now all is well.

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   We finished the Harry Bosch audiobook and the chicken survived the trip in its frozen state.