NM & AZ October 2003 set #1

Day One, Monday, Sept 29:  El Paso, Ft. Stockton, Las Cruces, Deming, Hurley, Bayard, Gila National Forest .

Coming out of El Paso, general dirtiness, feed lots—lots of feed lots—and dirty lookin’ countryside.  Traffic not bad on I-10.  Big mountains up close to town in El Paso. Had to go through Border Patrol Checkpoint, a permanent set-up like a highway toll plaza.  No problem. “Have a good one,” said rough, professional-looking fellow in sunglasses.  Entered New Mexico without really noticing it. Las Cruces not impressive, junky and dirty looking.  Some barren but pretty mountains around L.C., in between there and Deming. Got off I-10 and onto 180 at Deming. New Mexico folks do seem friendly.  Trailer homes everywhere.  Pecan or some other kind of orchards, too.

180 up from Deming. Good scenery. Big faraway mountains, close-up prairie.  Stopped at Cook’s Peak, 8,500 feet, took a few photos. Then stopped at Hurley at Crossroads Café for dinner. Nobody there but us, at 7 p.m.  But they close at 8. Two friendly women our age were working there. Got a good chili relleno.  Hatch is near Hurley, so I wanted to try something with a green chili pepper. 

Drove to various potential campsites in the dark.  First one had some campers, looked okay to me, but we kept going.  Second one looked, Mesa, looked even better to me, but not to Wooley. He pointed out we could come back.  Third place recommended by policeman we saw at the restaurant, the Forks campground by Gila River, looked not good at all, like a maze of gravel roads. So we travelled on, right up to the Mogollon Cliff Dwellings area.  I thought this was not such a good idea, since it was late, 10 pm or so.  We found a couple of campsites, Upper and Lower Scorpion (very inviting name, right), each with a big paved parking area. Nobody was at Lower Scorpion so we parked there, set up camp, built a fire.

I didn’t like the parking lot aspect of it, but it was actually a good campground, and was secluded—only a few cars passed on the road the next morning, and nobody came and parked in the lot (lots of people showing up there was my worry) until about noon, when a couple came and looked around the campsites and the woman apparently took the only bar of soap that was in the latrine.
\

During the morning we cooked and ate breakfast then climbed the small mountain or hill behind the campground and took photos, then packed up and drove to Gila Cliff Dwellings visitor center and went to the cliff dwellings. Ohio women retirees worked there as seasonal live-in (not in the cliff dwellings!) guides/rangers. The visitor center had a different but still friendly crew of two men.  There were no trash receptacles. Signs explained why not: people are expected to “pack out” their own trash.  A good policy!  

Mogollon Cliff Dwellings, New Mexico. Photos by Jeff Wooley.

The Mogollon Indian cave dwellings are in the Gila National Forest in western New Mexico.

Sometime later in the trip, Wooley used his timer setting on his new digital camera, bought for this trip, to record us having dinner next to the pop-up camper. He wore several hats on the trip, or caps, while I only wore one. Or sometimes I just wore a shadow across my face.

Wightmans & Trulocks 45 years ago

Until recently, I thought this photo was taken by my maternal grandmother, Elner King Miller. But I found an envelope a few months ago with two other photos from this day in it, and with a note my grandmother wrote to my mother on the outside, saying that the photos were taken by our Uncle Rusty, as we called him (our grandmother's brother-in-law).  He'd sent copies of the photos for us to have. I don't know if he stamped the date on the photos himself and it's the actual date of the photo, or if the developer put the date of development on it, like they used to do. Usually it was just month and year, though.

Unfortunately, the two other photos from this day are taken in direct overhead sunlight which causes faces to look like masks. Not something I want to reproduce! This one isn't so great either (not focused) but is a record of the Wightmans visit to Pine Bluff.  They are the three girls in the photo, and the youngest boy. The other four boys are my brothers and me, except that Jeff (oldest bro) is not pictured.

The occasion for the visit was the 50th wedding anniversary of Bernie and Jewel (King) Hargis, of Warren, AR. They were married on June 16, 1920.  Jewel, Elner and Francis King were sisters. Elner's husband was Arch L. Miller (died in 1965). Francis was married to George R. "Rusty" Clarke, and they were the Wightman kids' maternal grandparents. So this photo might have been taken more than a week earlier than June 28, if the anniversary celebration was  close to the wedding date.  I also have some Super 8 home movie footage my dad took of the celebration in Warren.  He sort of scanned the crowd off and on for three or four minutes.

Columbia, South Carolina, July 1, 2000

Early 80s Barton St. Little Rock

Winfield Cemetery 10 May 2003

Winfield Cemetery is at the Winfield-Miller's Cove exit off of I-30 in East Texas. I would sometimes stop there to walk around and stretch my legs during the drive between Austin and Little Rock or Pine Bluff.

Reflections at 5th & Main

Photo by Rita Henry. Taken in February 2015 outside the Hotel Pines at the intersection of Main Street and Fifth Avenue in Pine Bluff.

Here's looking at you, Jessie