Deming, NM is a small, quaint southwestern town, it is neat and the towns people are laid back. Our first outing was to explore the town itself and we found there was not much to see or do here. No matter, we were tired from the trip from El Paso so we made it an early evening.
Early the next morning we left Guinness and Rosco in the RV and drove to Silver City, NM to walk around. It lies about 50 miles to the north of Deming and is an easy drive through the desert into the hill country. The town is on the southeast edge of the Gila National Forest and is an artsy town. There was a lot to see and many studios to visit.
Spending several hours here was sufficient, anyway, we were an hour away from our boys so we started back to the RV. We traveled a few miles out of town when we hit a police road block. We waited for 15-20 minutes then decided to ask why the road was blocked. We were told it was due to high winds and a dust storm reducing visibility to zero. Asking how long would it be closed he responded, "probably the rest of the day." Not a good answer.
We studied a map and found there was another route back to Deming, but it was twice as long (106 miles). No matter, we had no choice. We had been away for 3 hours now and we had to get back to our boys soon. We started back via this route.
All was going well as we approached I-10 in Lordsburg, NM until we went to get on the Interstate. Another road block. The State Police told us the entire Interstate-10 was closed down from here to Las Cruces, NM. Now what. Map out again we looked for an alternative route, but found nothing direct. Our only choice at this time was to head south towards Mexico then turn east at Animas, NM to Hachita, NM then back to the Interstate and try to get on it again. This would take us 170 miles out of our way.
The wind had been blowing in excess of 50 MPH with gusts close to 70 MPH. This high wind caused dust storms anywhere there was a desert environment. As we moved farther south, the winds, somewhat, decreased and the environment changed to grassy lands. No dust storms here. We were hopeful the Interstate had re-opened. We turned north at Hachita and arrived at the Interstate to find no road blocks at the interchange. We hopped onto the Interstate and sped towards Deming. We had been gone over 9 hours by now and we knew the boys would be in distress.
Shortly after regaining access to I-10 we noticed there wasn't any traffic in either direction. We surmised t was still closed. It would be a matter of time before we were stopped, and we were, but now only 15 miles from the boys. Thankfully, the interchange where we were forced off of I-10 had a side road that led straight to Deming. This was open so we continued on, but at a slower pace (60 MPH instead of 85 MPH).
Back in Deming we started towards the RV park and within a half mile of our boys. But, alas, our bad luck still was still in charge. Another road block. We turned around and took a back way into the park. We had been gone close to 10 hours.
Jumping out of the truck we quickly opened the RV door. Rosco was the first out and went straight to the park road and commenced with a bad bout of extremely loose bowels. Guinness relieved himself and commenced jumping on us in joy. Finished, Rosco joined in and we spent the next few minutes hugging each other. Somewhat calmed, we went inside. Rosco had had his first accident.
The wind had been blowing hard here all day gusting over 70 MPH at times. Winds that hard are very noisy and rock the RV a lot. This, coupled with us being gone so long, led to some overly nervous Doodles. This, in turn, led to Rosco's bad intestinal bout. We would never let this happen again, ever. From now on we will never leave them alone again unless we are less than 20 miles away. EVER. Sorry boys.
The rest of our stay in Deming was inconsequential.
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