Still Cracked. Still Rollin'. | Roswell, Truth or Consequences & Friendsgiving in Tombstone
When a cracked fifth wheel, a shattered and lost window, and a shredded slide wire stand between you and Friendsgiving in Tombstone...you pivot and smile. A full-time RV life dispatch from Roswell, Truth or Consequences, and the best dirt lot in Arizona.
STORIES
Anna Sharp
6/1/20265 min read
We rolled out of Illinois on a timeline. Tombstone for Friendsgiving. Brinkley had assured us the crack in our fifth wheel was cosmetic, Idaho was on the calendar for March, and we had a show to play. What were we gonna do? Say no?
So we pointed the truck west and rolled.
Roswell, New Mexico
We stopped in Roswell because of course we did. Found the UFO sign… pro tip, don't attempt it in an RV
But the real surprise was Bottomless Lakes State Park, about fifteen miles outside of town. Nine sinkholes filled with water, sitting in the middle of the New Mexico desert. The name comes from the cowboys who tried to measure the depth by tying their lariats together and dropping a rock in. The rope never went taut; not because the lakes are actually bottomless, but because the springs pushing up from below kept it drifting sideways. But the name “bottomless” stuck, and we’ve been calling them as such, ever since.
Lea Lake is the only one you're allowed to paddle on, which you'd think, on a warm, pleasant, sunny day, would make it the busy one. I had it completely to myself. Ninety feet deep, crystal clear…except you couldn’t see the bottom… and so silent it felt like the water was listening. I paddled over the drop-off and felt like “something” wasn’t overly thrilled with my presence. Thankfully, I was tolerated and had a great time. Mostly.
Ben, meanwhile, was on the Skidmarks mountain bike trail having an entirely different kind of afternoon. We met back at the lake at last light and agreed that Bottomless Lakes State Park was a genuinely good time.
We didn't find out until after I got off the water that rumors and legends about monsters in the depths here, have been whispered about for centuries…ever since they were discovered.
Truth or Consequences, New Mexico
Truth or Consequences named itself after a radio game show in 1950 and has been living up to the name ever since. Ours included.
We lost a window somewhere on the Billy the Kid Trail. We're still not entirely sure when. The road through Lincoln is beautiful and rough in equal measure, and somewhere between the speed bumps and the lava fields, the back window shattered and didn’t even bother to notify us. We found out upon our arrival...while untangling ourselves from an overgrown tree
Then, after getting ourselves safely parked and just starting to wonder how we were going to fix the back window, we discovered the bedroom slide had shredded its power wire in the slide track, while trying to extend the bed out…which meant we couldn't access the bedroom until Ben fixed it. Which he did, because he's thankfully good at that sort of thing.
Plexiglass went in where the window used to be. Silicone, gorilla tape, and hope.
It was, by any reasonable measure, a rough travel day.
The next morning we biked into town, sat at Passion Pie Cafe with crepes, and discovered that Truth or Consequences is actually a really wonderful little town. Artsy, quirky, full of small town southwest desert charm.
Our evenings were spent at Riverbend Hot Springs, soaking in a private thermal pool overlooking the Rio Grande while the mountains turned pink. We sat in that water until the window was just a funny story and the crack was just a thing that would get fixed in March.
Nine months shakedown trip. That's what this has been. If we ever sell this rig, it will be well repaired.
Tombstone, Arizona
Tombstone was supposed to be the easy part.
But then Harvest Host cancelled the Friendsgiving event three days before we were supposed to arrive. Plans, once again out the window, and on a holiday weekend no less. Sixty-ish nomads already en-route. So we did what nomads do. We showed up anyway.
We found a bar literally in a pile of junk. Ben, Adam, Rachael, and I dragged it out, strung café lights between our campers, and suddenly we had a party space. Drinks appeared. Doc Holiday shots were mixed. The Status Crowes played. We played. We all pitched in on Thanksgiving dinner and it was...so delicious.
We spent a week in that dirt lot with some of the best people. Wandered Tombstone's main streets at night, watched a gunfight or two, met a cat named Fritz who lives in the museum. Found the world's largest rose tree.
The rig is still cracked. The window is still plexiglass. Idaho is on the calendar.
We're still rollin'.
Watch the full episode here:
