Cold Day means Museum Day - Geronimo Springs Museum in TorC

I woke to an outside temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit and about 38 degrees inside the VRRV.  I quickly turned on the Catalytic Propane Heater and warmed things up eventually.

The day was forecasted with a high of only 51 degrees and windy so no outdoors activities for me!  Instead, I drove to TorC and checked out the Geronimo Springs Museum.  It's put together by the Sierra County Historical Society so it's got a bit of a variety of things; not just stuff about Geronimo for instance.

Before I went into the museum, I posed the Sammy by a mural I'd seen before, heck I think I'd photographed before; but just in case....

I liked this one of a Native American woman:

OK, like I said, there was a bit of variety in the museum's offerings.  This mastodon skull was apparently dug up in Sierra County:

Among the many historical photographs of people, buildings; there were also pictures of the construction of the Elephant Butte Dam which would eventually create Elephant Butte Lake and the State Park that exists today.

I liked this picture because it shows Elephant Butte before the dam was completed and the water covered the ground around the butte:

Here's a picture of Elephant Butte, and while the water levels are low, you can see how the dam's construction isolated it into an island of sorts

photo from February 3, 2021 posting

Let's see, if you like seeing Native American pottery, there was a lot of it at this museum!

There were several shelves of these and other large pottery jugs/containers lining up one wall:

Below is just one section of four I believe chock full of pottery samples from different eras:

These caught my eye because they reminded me of napkin holders, not sure what their actual purpose was but the size was right to hold rolled up napkins

One of about 5-6 framed collectiions of arrowheads and other implements and such:

Of course, with Geronimo in the museum's name, there was a small room dedicated to the man's story, imagery and photos of him and assorted items attributed to him.  The figure is made of wax by the way.

As you probably know, Truth or Consequences was a radio shot from the 1950s.  A couple of photographs of the show were strange or unusual enough to catch my attention:

If you look closely, the "or else" guy is holding a gun....I know it is

in jest but imagine trying that on a live audience today.

A short blurb on how Hot Springs, New Mexico became Truth or Consequences, New Mexico:

Only in America....

The sharp-eyed amongst you might have noticed the left rear wheel on the Sammy seemed a bit shiny in the mural photo at the start of this post.

At first I thought it was a leaking brake cylinder again but closer examination by myself and Mike W. (the sammy guru) discovered it was a leaking shock absorber.  Sigh.

Ironically, it may have started leaking since yesterday evening but the ride performance and comfort hasn't changed one bit!  I'll be ordering replacements soon, and changing the rear shock absorbers out once I'm home.

Speaking of home:

I'll be home for Christmas

You can plan on me

Please have snow and mistletoe

And presents by the tree

Christmas eve will find me

Where the love light gleams

I'll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams

I'll be home for Christmas

You can plan on me

Please have some snow and mistletoe

And presents by the tree

Christmas eve will find me

Where the love light gleams

I'll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams

I'll be home for Christmas

If only in my dreams

Not in my dreams, however, I will be driving home soon after I wake tomorrow morning.  I've got the VRRV and Sammy all connected and I just have to put away the inside items and move out.  Google maps says its about 8 hrs, so figure 10 hours.

I was going to stop about midway, near the town of Springer, NM but the weather forecast puts the overnight temperatures in the single digits, so no sense stopping!