Lordsburg, NM
8,000 miles in seventy-seven days and I have finally found it. I have found the asshole of the world. This is it, man. This is the epicenter. It’s not hell. I’ve been in places far more hellish – many on this voyage alone (I’m thinking of you, Caen) – but this is definitely the asshole.
If you live in the northeast and have ever been to Breezewood, PA I can give you a mental image of this place. Imagine Breezewood without the charm. Or the restaurants. Or the gas stations. Or nice hotels. Now add eleventy-hundred pounds of dust, the constant threat of tripping over a rattlesnake, scorpions and tarantulas crawling across the driveway and nothing but Mexican food. Now you have a small idea of what it’s like here.
In other news, I spent most of the day cruising. Out to the White Sands Missile Museum. Up to Fort Selden’s adobe ruins to see where Douglas MacArthur lived as a wee lad. Down to Columbus and what’s left of the dusty crossroads that Pancho Villa invaded in 1916. Then miles along the border past Border Patrol checkpoints, lookout towers and more official vehicles than I’ve seen even in Washington, DC. I think all that money they’re throwing at the border is having some effect. But there’s a hell of a lot of miles of nothing down here. And Christ, after spending many days near Mexico and about ten minutes in Mexico, I can’t blame them for wanting to come to the United States. Just so long as they leave their cuisine behind.