Merry Christmas from near the Mexican Border

Merry Christmas to you and yours!

My family and I celebrated Christmas Day earlier this month as I would be on the road during the actual Christmas Day.  It was a good time, Miles brought Becca, his girlfriend home and Martha cooked up a great family dinner.

Afterwards, gifts were exchanged, a pretty low key affair these days as the boys are all grown up.

Today's sunrise was pretty good:

I displaced from the Aguirre Spring Loop Campground shortly after sunrise and by 10:30 AM I was setting up camp in the Pancho Villa State Park campground near Columbus, NM.

The state park is four miles from the border with Mexico.  After setting up camp, I geared up, grabbed my passport and headed down to Mexico's border town: Puerto Palomas.

Crossing into Mexico was painless, just show one's passport and answer simple questions like where was I going.  The Mexican Border Agent checked inside Fiona's tub but that was the extent of the searching.

The town itself is very much the picture of a dirt poor border town.  No pictures as I didn't think there was a need to broadcast their conditions.  I did find the main square while wandering around and got Fiona posed by the church:

The town isn't very big, and after some wandering down several streets I finally ended up parking Fiona at the little strip mall next to The Pink Store.  A lot of Anericans apparently come down from the US to get dental and optical treatments at a lower cost than in the US.

Before going into the store, I walked across the street to check out this statue of whom I assumed was Pancho Villa.

 Pancho Villa

 Columbus refers to the Battle of Columbus

see here for more info:  LINK

The Pink Store

The whole store, with the exception of a restaurant and bar inside, is dedicated to selling you Mexican Knick-Knacks.....

No figurines depicting a sidecar motorcycle so no purchases made by me.  I'll ask Martha if she sees anything she likes from the above photos.

 Strip Mall next to The Pink Store

Coming back across the border into the US took longer as expected.  The border patrol agent asked me some questions but didn't bother to search the rig.  Less than five minutes and she waved me through.

I am planning on spending two nights at this campground.  The weather turned wet and cloudy after lunch but cleared up nicely just before sunset.

Hopefully tomorrow, Christmas Day, will be warmer and drier.