Blow me down!

Monday, March 7, 2011

TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES, NM — Yes, that’s the name of this small town in south central New Mexico. It used to be called Hot Springs – and it still has those, where tourists and residents can soak their aches and pains away, but in the late 1940s the town wasn’t doing very well financially.

That’s when they heard that the immensely popular radio show, Truth or Consequences, was looking for a community willing to change its name to their show’s name, and Hot Springs hopped to it. The NBC host, crew and actors all flew out to New Mexico in 1950 to produce the tenth anniversary show from this brave town and put its name on the map. The free advertising helped out the town and the show broadcast its first live show, coast to coast, from the town that has borne its name ever since.

We had a good drive today from Santa Fe, almost in a straight north-to-south line across a wide expanse of gravelly prairie, spotted with low shrubs, scraggly grasses, and, as we got further south, paddle-shaped cactus plants. The land was not entirely flat the whole time; sometimes it rose into hills or flat-topped buttes, and off in the distance were blue mountains, dusted on top with snow, at least closer to Santa Fe.

Wind was our constant companion today, and several times we passed warning signs about strong gusts. They even set up orange windsocks in the highway median from time to time so drivers could gauge the speed and direction of the wind. We saw what looked like plumes of smoke in the distance every now and then, but they were actually clouds of dust.

When we pulled over at a rest stop for lunch, the wind grabbed the truck doors as we opened them, and our hair flapped in all directions. The kitchen window, as I sat eating my sandwich inside the trailer, framed a beautiful landscape of tan foreground, brownish-red foothills, purple mountains and grey peaks behind them on the horizon, with a canopy of blue sky and shredded clouds above. What a view.

Val didn’t notice the sign when we went over to the building by the rest stop to see what the view was like behind it. It said “beware” in English and Spanish, and had a picture of a coiled rattlesnake with its mouth wide open, revealing its poisonous fangs! We might not have lingered for quite so long if he had seen it.

Val spotted another, more friendly, critter shortly after lunch -- a real, live roadrunner, pelting across the oncoming lane, then the median, and full speed ahead in front of the truck and into the brush by the roadside! He checked to see if Wiley Coyote was behind him, but must have missed seeing him.

Interstate 25 took us through Albuquerque (finally learned how to spell that!), a spread-out city that looks fairly industrial but which boasts a robust arts community, according to the guide book. We also passed the Trinity Site, in the White Sands Missile Range, where the atomic bomb was first detonated on July 16, 1945. We actually saw a film clip of that explosion at one of the displays in the Museum of History in Santa Fe when we were there. It was a chilling sight.

It was a balmy 70 degrees when we reached the Cielo Vista RV park in “T or C” as this town is called for short, but the wind had not let up. Our hosts here said there were warnings of high winds overnight tonight, and as we sit here, the trailer is being rocked by another gust. From our windows there is a great view of the town, but when we decided to walk down the hill to look about, we changed our minds; the air is full of dust, almost obliterating the mountains south of the town. Our countertops and floor are already gritty with sand that has sifted in through the windows and vents. It will be major house-cleaning time when we get to Arizona tomorrow.