Deming, Tombstone, Mexico, and the Tornado!

Once we left the Tucson area we went over to Quail Ridge RV Park north of Huachuca City, AZ.  It's a nice campground with big sites and pretty views.  Our main reason for going there was to be close to Tombstone.  If good pizza comes to mind before Wyatt Earp, then you've got problems. : )  We went there for almost a full day.  Gabriel locked Mom, Hanna, and Tytus in the Tombstone jail (pic on left).  It's a great place to go, but Tombstone has become a tourist trap.  They won't even let you see the OK Corral without paying an entrance fee.  We had a fun day, though.  One of the most interesting things there is the big courthouse museum.  We really enjoyed that.

After leaving Huachuca City we finally left Arizona and got into Deming, NM.  We stayed at the Low-Hi RV Ranch south of town.  It's the headquarters for the LoW (Loners on Wheels) singles club, but they welcome anyone.  The "Ranch" is great, with a labyrinth (pic on right) , gameroom, library, and little "landmarks" such as the famous Log Henge.  The kids really liked running through the labyrinth (which is 1/3 mile long).

One day we went to Rock Hound State Park.  They actually allow you to take out up to 15 lbs of the many amazing rocks in the park.  Hanna and I went on the hiking trail and found some really cool chunks of Jasper.  We only took a pound or so.  We also went to the Luna Mimbres Museum in town.  The museum is amazing.  It doesn't look that big from the outside, but looks can be deceiving!  Inside is an Indian exhibit, rocks and geodes exhibit, ranching exhibit (pic on left), early 1900's walk-through "town", military exhibit, and a lot more!  We actually went there twice because the first time we got there right before they closed.

We also went to Columbus and the Pancho Villa/ Columbus Raid museums at the historic Camp Furlong (pic on right).  The two museums there are great and the people were real friendly.  The story is very interesting but with a lot of questions left unanswered.  This was one of the first places armored vehicles (pic below) and airplanes were used in battle.

While down there we went to the Mexico border (pic below).  We drove until we got the the sign that said "Last Turn Around Before Border Checkpoint", or something like that.  On our way back we stopped at a really nice playground a couple miles from the border.

While we were in Deming I also saw the most amazing "weather thing" I've ever seen, a real tornado.  It was a clear sunny day, but the wind was gusting up to 35 mph.  We were out by the labyrinth when suddenly Mom said "Is that a tornado?!?!?".  I looked up and sure enough, it was a real dust tornado.  Now I'm not talking about one of those little dust devils that can get up to 50 feet tall or so.  This thing was probably 400+ feet tall and even had a cloud of dust and garbage around the bottom of it like I've always seen on Twister or Storm Chasers.  It was headed our way, but before I got to see what it's like to be in a real dust tornado it broke apart (I've been in a small dust devil before, it's like being in a sand storm).  There was so much dust in that tornado that it took about five minutes for all of it to settle to the ground.  I'm still excited just writing about it!! It was cool.