Truth or Consequences

 
If you like turquoise, peach and orange, this is the town for you. Even the trailer houses are brightly painted. It looks like a town from the 50's along route 66, except it's not on route 66, but about a third of the buildings have been colorized in the ochre pallete, or tiled, or mosaic'd, or all of the above. T or C must have been a queen in its heyday, but most of the retail shops are second hand treasure outlets now. The town still has about 6 hot springs establishments, and we have been to two, both wonderful.

Firewater Lodge has private tubs. You turn on the spigot and out comes a burst of hot mineral water. Daisy hated it. She was welcome to be in every part of the establishment, including hotel rooms with private tubs, but she thought all that hot stuff was less than special. I, on the other hand, loved it. Crawled out of the tub, lay down on the couch to cool off, and did it again. $5. Rooms come with unlimited soaks. A piece of heaven.

So is Happy Belly Deli, where we had humus and palenta sandwiches prepared by the husband wife team from Cleveland and Chicago. Sports fans in the desert, they are closed on Sundays to watch their NFL TV channel. She said everyone here waves, whether they know you or not. If you don't wave back, it's an insult. I experienced this in my one day here. I've been called out to by strangers who just want to be sure I have a great time, know where to mail my letter, suggest I go to the swimming pool, and tell me I can take my dog on the patio of the Happy Belly Deli.

We moved to Riverbend Hotsprings and Lodging, where we had our RV reservation for the night, complete with unlimited soaks in their several pools cascading down to the Rio Grande and looking at Elephant Butte (which looks like, you got it, an elephant). The hottest tubs are called the Hot Minnow Bath, and they do indeed look like those tanks where you net a mess of bait minnows. The cooler tubs are a level below. You can finish off in the Rio Grande if you like, or under a cold shower with a Gecko mosaic.

Later we had a private pool booked for an hour....$10 a person. It was paradise. A hot pool you could dip in and come out of several times, chaise lounges to cool off on, blue twinkly lights, on the edge of the Rio Grande, with misters overhead if you got too hot. No stars....it was raining slightly. Next time maybe there will be stars, or the moon, or not, if the weather prefers otherwise. I'm happy either way.

That makes three soaks today. I think I am detoxed. Just in case, I am finishing the night off with detox peach tea...can't leave anything to chance. Carl has put detox pads on his feet. That might be overkill.....but why risk it? I'll do it too.

Carl has been here 24 hours now, and he's catching up on deferred maintenance. A bulb I couldn't figure out how to remove, the 12 volt plug that we destroyed by pulling it out of the wall, the fraying electric plug for the main unit, and the fuse for the computer 12 volt charger. It's funny to watch him systematically go down the list.

It's not all work. We had a great visit with his buddy John Rebstock last night, and today he got a massage at Firewater. Life's pretty wonderful.

Elsewhere, Hurricane Gustav is bearing down on the gulf coast. I don't want to wish it on others, but I sure hope it misses my hometown.

PS Even better than a three soak day is soaking the next morning, watching the mist rise over the river. I also met the establishment cat, named Minnow. Hmmm. Minnow sought higher ground when she saw Daisy. Smart cat.