Day 9
The shower felt so good last night that I took another this morning before heading down the street to Magoo’s. It was less than $10 for 2 pancakes, 2 bacon, 2 sausage patties, 2 eggs and coffee. Very good too.
I guess that highway designation just about covers us all.
I saw these extra large agave growing in a circle.
In the misty mountains. Someone should write a song. Most of the day would be riding in fog or rain, something that isn’t expected in the desert.
Just east of Van Horn I stopped at this station. I try my best not to buy gas at Exxon, but thought the price differential between gas and diesel warranted a picture to share with my long suffering diesel driving buddies. I bought gas in Van Horn for $2.199.
Typical high desert scenery along the highway between Van Horn and Carlsbad. I have been down this highway many times when I lived in Carlsbad and Loving NM.
More misty mountains
Rain and lightening greeted me in Guadalupe Mountains NP so I decided to bypass my climb up until another trip. I really have to stop postponing things on by bucket list since it keeps getting longer and my time keeps getting shorter. The rain also stopped me from riding some of the dirt roads in the area. I decided to ride past Carlsbad caverns and visit some boyhood homes. It has been 60 years since I lived in Loving, NM and 52 since I lived in Carlsbad.
One of our houses in Loving. There was a family moving in and they told me they were going to fix up the house. I believe we were going to do the same thing. My mom, dad, uncle and seven children lived here.
I believe it’s a house now, but when I lived in Loving it was a store with shelves all along the walls and a big open area in the middle. No other shelves except along the walls. Milk was kept in a refrigerator with a round top. The name of the store was Blankenship Mercantile. In the middle of the floor there were 2 chairs that were always occupied by 2 elderly women. Upon entry, all children that were alone were greeted with, “Whatta you want boy.” I guess if it were a female it may have been whatta you want girl.
This was our church. It looks pretty much like it did when I was in the second grade.
I’ll have more to say about the church later.
This was a convenience store owned by Ray’s mom. Not the Ray that went on this trip with me, the Ray that was a big brother to my brother’s best friend. Ray, at around 16 years old, was a large person. He was about 6’2” and weighed around 400 pounds. I never heard anyone except his mom call him anything except Sidewalk since he was heavy enough to crack sidewalks by walking on them. Of course that wasn’t true, but the nickname stuck. Ray saved 2 small children from sure death, but died in the process. I overheard my dad talking to my mom about it and he said that drowning and burning were two of the worst ways of dying. I don’t know which happened to Ray, but I do know that I have never heard him called Sidewalk since his death.
Higbee Hole along the Black River. This was a favorite fishing spot even though we seldom caught anything. Now they stock it with catchable trout in the winter and catchable catfish in the warm months.
On to Carlsbad and Happy Valley. A beach in the desert. This one was called Town Beach or just the beach. At one time there was a 3 story diving tower about 50 yards on the other side of the island. I don’t know why it was torn down. Liability? Silt? Age of the structure? We spent many summer days at the beach or at the Pecos river. Actually, this beach is on the Pecos.
This was the local hang out for kids in the 9th and 10th grade. Back then we went to Carlsbad Mid High School which was just across the street. My oldest brother had come home on a visit and my grandmother who lived next door to us let him use her 1952 Chevy to go here to get hamburgers for everyone. I don’t remember it being named Becky’s then. It was a car hop kind of place. I guess Sonics are the only ones left now. Anyway, he parked between 2 cars and the occupants of the 2 cars were having an argument. They started shooting at each other and my grandmothers car was shot between the rear door and the rear window. No exit wound so we know the bullet is still inside. The car is in my garage as I type this. The hole has not been repaired. More shooting later. Bunnies and my brother don’t fare any better than Grannie’s car.
I include this picture because I want to share a story that happened to me in 1970, on the same trip that I first visited Big Bend.
This house was the home of Edith and Claude, C.I., Johnson. I called just as I got to the edge of Carlsbad, about 15 miles away from their home in Happy Valley, a suburb. Edith answered and told me to come on over and spend the night. When I got there, C.I. was on the roof attempting put on a new roof. The problem was he had a cast the full length of his leg. I promised to stay long enough to roof the small house if C.I. would come down. He finally did and I spent 2 long days finishing his roof. Not the end of the story.
Two years later, I came back through Carlsbad and C.I. was off on a construction job. The roof job came up in our discussions and Edith told me that C.I. knew that I had roofed houses for two years and as soon as he found out I was coming, he got dressed and painstakingly climbed the ladder onto the roof. He knew I wouldn’t leave without his roof being finished.
One of 5 houses we lived in during our 4 years in Carlsbad and the last one. The current occupant is the nephew of our landlord and when I told him about my family, with 9 children then, living in his house, his face lit up. It seems that my mother still owes $8 in back rent. I’m assuming that would be for a month. At that time my single mother’s only source of income was doing washing and ironing for single men that worked at the potash mines. She charged $1.20 per dozen, with a minimum charge of $1.20. Starch was extra. She did all the laundry by hand in a metal tub in the back yard and hung them to dry on the clothline.
House #1 on Standpipe Road. A shooting story will be added to this house before I post day 10.
House #2 or #3, I’m not sure which. We didn’t live here long. The roof used to look like an upside down W and leaves and other debris had collected in the bottom of the V shape on the upside down W. We would climb on the roof to throw water balloons at cars and when one would stop to investigate, we would hide in the V. At night, nobody suspected that there was a hiding place behind the store front. Now for the, “We didn’t live here long,” part. My step brother and I were shooting bottle rockets and ……… The good news is a neighbor with a telephone saw the smoke of the fire just getting started and the fire station was only a couple of blocks away. The roof rebuild did not include the upside down W.
They recently remodeled the Fiesta drive-in theater. It now has 3 screens.
In 1972, when I was returning from my stint in the Marines, I stopped in Carlsbad and caught up with a childhood friend named Billy George. He was about 20 years old and his very pregnant wife was several years younger. Her younger brother was also living with them. Around sundown Billy suggested we go to the movies. We all got in his car and he drove down a dirt road behind the theater. When he stopped, his very pregnant wife and her brother jumped out of the car. Billy told me that they were going to crawl under the barbed wire fence and I should join them. He would park on the last row and as soon as we were all in the car he would move up to a better spot. I declined and was told that I would have to pay for my own ticket. When we got to the front, there was a large sign that read, “Dollar/Carload.”
Back to Carlsbad Caverns where I stayed at the Campground in White’s city. $20 per night and it includes breakfast at the motel across the street.