Trip Update – Deming To Phoenix

Here is the last installment of our trip from Florida to Arizona.

As I wrote in yesterday’s blog, we were looking forward to spending time with our friends Tom and Diane Owens while we were in Deming, New Mexico. However, I suspect that after two days, they were more than ready to see us hit the road again. The morning we left Ozona, Texas headed to Deming, my bad back went really bad and I was in a tremendous amount of pain. So they were subjected to me doing an awful lot of sniveling. Just because I’m a fat old man doesn’t mean I can’t whimper like a little girl when I am hurting.

Nevertheless, once we got settled in at the La Quinta next door to Dream Catcher RV Park, they took us to dinner at a very popular place called the Adobe Deli. We had heard about this steakhouse before on our many trips through Deming as RVers, but this was our first time dining there.

You have to want to get to this place because it’s a few miles from town down a very narrow road out in the middle of nowhere, but it was sure worth the trip. Housed in an old schoolhouse, it could pass for a museum or an antique store. This beautiful old stove and a huge collection of stuffed animals greets you at the door, and everywhere you look there are amazing old collectibles.

I would love to have this old cigar store Indian standing in my office to keep me company!

Anyone want a ride in a rickshaw?

Even the ceilings are amazing. Have you ever seen an old windmill used as a ceiling fan?

But really, it’s all about the food. They are famous for their steaks, and my ribeye was excellent and more than I could eat. But it was nothing compared to the rack of ribs Diane ordered. Grilled to perfection and served on a skewer, she gave me one, and if I wasn’t such a gentleman I would have crawled across the table and stolen the rest of them from her! Oh hell, let’s be honest, if my back wasn’t hurting so bad, I would have done it anyway. Yes, they were that good!

It is about a half hour drive from Deming to Palomas, Mexico, and the next day we drove down there to get some meds. Americans can cross the border and buy non-narcotic medicine in Mexico for pennies on the dollar compared to U.S. prices. For example, I use Voltaren Gel on my back. It is a topical pain reliever. In the U.S. my co-pay for a single tube is $90 and one tube lasts about a month. In Palomas I bought eight tubes in for $146. I have heard people say you have to beware of counterfeit meds in Mexico, but everything we have ever purchased there has been the same as what we get this side of the border.

Unfortunately, our sojourn south of the border was not without some pain. Actually, a lot of pain. On the way, we stopped to check out the Columbus Historical Museum, which has some excellent information about Pancho Villa’s raid on Columbus in the early 1900s.

As it turned out, the museum is closed for remodeling. It was a very windy day, and as we were walking to the door, only to discover it was closed, a guy was using a circular saw and a big cloud of windblown sawdust hit me in the face and I got some in my right eye. Talk about agony! Terry could not get it out, the urgent care in Deming was closed and I was damn near crying from it. At least it took my mind off the terrible back pain I was dealing with. After hours of flushing it, two hydrocodone pills, a full bottle of Visine, and a good night’s sleep (my first in days), by morning it had worked itself out, though the eye was still tender and red for the next day or two.

After another great dinner with Tom and Diane at an Italian restaurant that evening, we said our goodbyes, ready to hit the road again the next day.

We left Deming on Saturday morning, traveling west on Interstate 10 toward Arizona. Along the way we passed the Old West ghost town of Steins, just three miles before the Arizona state line. We have some history with Steins, and in an upcoming blog post I will tell you about a modern-day murder mystery in the old ghost town.

About 35 miles into Arizona we left the interstate and took U.S. Highway 191 north to Safford, where we picked up U.S. 70 and drove west to Globe and U.S. 60. Another 90 minutes or so brought us to Phoenix, were we met up with Terry’s parents, sisters, and nieces at her niece Andrea’s beautiful high-rise condo with stunning views of the city, for an early celebration of her dad’s birthday.

Here is a picture of (left to right), Terry’s sister Dani, Terry, her mom Bess, her dad Pete, and sister Lisa. Bess turned 88 on February 2nd and her dad’s 90th birthday was February 11th. It has been wonderful to get together with everybody and we will be here for a few more days yet before we go up to our old hometown of Show Low, in the White Mountains, to visit with my daughter Tiffany and her family.

It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an RV camping journal donated by Barbara House. Barbara makes several variations of these, and they all have pages where you can list the date, weather, where you traveled to and from that day, beginning and ending mileage, campground information including amenities at RV sites, a place for a campground rating, room to record activities, people met along the way, reminders of places to see and things to do the next time you’re in the area, and a page for notes for each day. To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn Sunday evening.

Thought For The Day – The older you get, the uglier you’re willing to go out in public.