Another bad camping night.  My sleeping bag clearly isn’t cut out for cold nights.  36 degrees.  But I am sure that once the stars align I’ll have some great camping experiences.  Sunrise this morning almost made up for the night.  Well, no, not really.

Got to Columbus, NM without really remembering why it was on my list.  Did know that I wanted to go 3 miles south and walk into Palomas, Mexico to visit The Pink Store, which I did.  After all the hubbub at international airports, walking across was certainly anticlimactic.  Mostly, I just walked across.  The Pink Store was all it could be.  Full of colorful stuff that you’d buy, take home, then ask “Why did I buy this?”  I had Heuvos Rancheros and two cokes for $10.00.  There were dentist ads everywhere.

I returned to to discover why it was on my list.  On March 9th, 1916, Pancho Villa raided the town.    Note the date.  I missed the centennial anniversary by one day!  Though actually, they’re celebrating it on Saturday.  So if you’re somewhere in southern New Mexico, you now have somewhere to go.  Apparently, some riders will come up from Mexico to reenact the event.  That’s a border crossing I’d like to see.  The town has a beautiful State Park and Museum commemorating the event.

The ride, though, was getting to me.  Frankly, southern AZ and NM are boring.  So I changed course and headed to I10 for a fast getaway.  From there I decided to skip along to White Sands (a quick visit) and finish up in Artesia, NM.  (The ride through Lincoln National Forest was fun.) I’m about a day ahead of schedule.  I should get to Fort Davis tomorrow (Friday) after seeing Carlsbad Caverns.  The observatory there has a thing every Friday evening.