March 2002

2 March - Tombstone, touristy, but interesting, realised Earp brothers were not goodies that we had been lead to believe from old western movies. "Shoot Out At O.K. Coral"

Bisbee just south was big open copper mine, impressive. We followed road through Douglas and Mexican border town to Lordsburg in New Mexico. Stayed on Information Centre, toilet and water 24 hrs allowed. Rang Bill and Linda arranged to meet next day.

Lo Hi Passport America this is headquarter meet of "Loners on Wheels".](http://www.lonersonwheels.com/)".) Singles traveling meet up. Pleasant people. Cards and games room, book exchange, $6 per night tho shower was $2. Still cheap site. Visited Silver City with Bill and Linda, worth visit. Billy the Kid lobed there as boy. Copper and silver mining, still going on small scale.

8 March was traveled 30 miles south, passed through sand storm, later the road was closed. March is Windy season in this state. We didn't find it too much.

Columbus on Mexican Border, where Pancho Villa raided 1916, last time U.S. has been invaded (up to Sept 11 2001). 18 people were killed. Now they have Commemoration Ceremony. We enjoyed pomp of Taps (our/out last post), parade of Mexican horses with Pancho Villa look-a-like. Mexican dancers. Now it cements friendship between border towns. Museum was good too.

11 March - We followed border road east into Texas and El Paso. A lot bigger and busier than we had expected. A spread out town populated 80% Spanish. We stayed 3 days on a camping near motorway, walking distance to Walmarts (Dusty's favourite shop). We booked trip over border to Ciudad Juarez $25 just us in a taxi. Big and dirty like most Mexican border towns, but nice to see through local's eyes. Weather was very hot, would have not enjoyed walking around, plus queue to cross border. By tour operator, no problem, just had to carry passport.

On 14 March, we headed north back into New Mexico. All together we spent 6 weeks in New Mexica, found their State Park campings great, cheap, pleasant sites. windy at times but never unbearable. Hot and dry. Forest fires were around but none near us. White Sands was miles of white sands that looked like snow, walking on sand dunes was amazing. The parks all were in a particular place of interest. The biggest lake Elephant Butte. We stayed one week, it was the nearest we had got to a sea for a long time. Holidays and weekends are very popular, but never too crowded. We were surprised how many idiots had to be towed out of soft sands. We decide to replace our leisure battery in "Truth and Consequences" yes that is the name of the town named after a game show.

We had a mail forwarding address through Good Sam Club but did not find it good, we had a problem was time we sent for mail. Magdelena was no exception. We spent 2 weeks in this one horse town, then found mail had been sent to wrong box and returned to Florida. We arranged for delivery again two weeks later to Dodge City Kansas.