Las Cruces

Las Cruces

Leaving Lordsburg heading for Las Cruces –

Driving along New Mexico’s highways can be so educational and gives one a sense of safety.
There are signs such as WARNING – DUST STORMS AHEAD and another foretelling with ZERO VISIBILITY POSSIBLE.

Another sign makes a claim I Am not sure is a boast or suggestion - GATEWAY TO MEXICO.

We arrived in Las Cruces late in the afternoon after taking a leisurely drive around the city to see if there was anything interesting to see and then had a late lunch.

We were happy to find that the RVP did not have any party planned – so we settled in with cable TV and home cooking and Peter and I had our own New Year’s Eve party.

We were asleep before midnight.

We were only a couple of blocks from an “OLD TOWN” historical park, but being Jan 1st, it was closed. However the day was a beautiful warm, sunny day so we enjoyed the great weather.

That evening, just after sunset, as I was preparing to take Peter on his constitutional, I lost my balance along side the beast and leaned on a railing that I forgot was hinged –
I fell backwards – square on my tailbone and then supine.

It was dark, and there was no one to be seen. As I lay there, Peter sat beside me, I tried to do a quick diagnostic program on myself.
I was conscious, I did not bang my head, and although there was great pain in my low back, I did not sense any pains radiating up or down or in any other part of my body.

I managed to roll over and get on my hands and knees and then pulled myself upright and climbed back into the beast. I chug-a-lugged some Aleve, grabbed a frozen bag of peas fro the freezer and hit the bed.

I knew that how I felt in the morning would be an important part of my prognosis, and we were planning on driving that day.

I used some self-hypnosis to try to relieve some of the pain as well as try to get some sleep. It seemed to work for a few hours at a time.

I awoke early, before any alarms, made an assessment and decided that I had not broken or dislocated any vertebra or disc, nor did I sense any nerve damage – so I carefully unhooked our lifelines and prepared the beast fort travel.

I was worried about climbing over the doghouse (the large hump between the front seated where the engine is located) to get to the cockpit. It was actually easier than I expected, and once I settled into the captain’s chair I really felt comfortable.

We drove to Van Horn, and even managed a rest area for Peter to take care of business.

Arriving at the Eagle’s Nest, a park we had been to before, we were assigned a space right near the pet exercise yard, which was a fenced in area. It was a blessing because now I did not have walk Peter – just open the gate and set him loose.

Since this was just an overnight stay, I only hooked up our electric line – the less schlepping the better. Our fresh water tank was half full and so were our gray and black water tanks.

The pain was still rough, but manageable, and we got to bed early.