Rockhound State Park

My original plan was to camp at City of Rocks State Park but the woman at the visitor called the park and they said that the dust storm was very bad up there and not safe, so I headed for Rockhound State Park instead. Rockhound was not my first choice because I had been there many years before and wasn’t interested in collecting rocks. If you could see my house you would know that one more rock is the last thing I need.

That night, December 19, the temperature dropped to 29 degrees and the wind didn’t let up all night. I quickly plugged the camper into the outlet at the campground and never came out until the next morning.

I was greeted with a beautiful sunrise, took a few photos and drove into Deming, NM for breakfast. Currently I don’t have the water hooked up in my camper so it became a little difficult to clean up after cooking. Oh, I know I could have done it but I really just wanted to get on my way, Christmas was approaching soon.

I stopped at the Sunrise Kitchen and had a delicious breakfast with fresh eggs the bright orange color of last night’s sunset, right there on my plate. When the order was ready the cook used the flat side of a butcher knife to ring the bell.

I do believe that Joe Leaphorm from a Tony Hillerman mystery story came in wearing a black shirt with a white patterned western shirt, clearly his day off from the police force. He had short spiky hair that was graying at the temples. Perry Como sang Christmas songs in the background as a table of woman talked of grandchildren and what they wanted for Christmas. As one of the regulars left he called out, “Merry Ho Ho!”

When I left there was a large tumble weed behind my car that I moved. I had not realized that they had thorns on them, “Ouch!”