PONCHO VILLA STATE PARK, COLUMBUS, NM

(24 to 25 March, 2004) Be prepared to be bored! As far as historical entertainment, plan on about 20 minutes, maybe. This is where Poncho Villa crossed the Mexican border with about 1000 bandits and ran amok, killing a few amercans and getting a couple hundred of his own men killed. There is a visitors center, some restored relics and some remaining buildings from Camp Furlong. The Campground is on the site of Camp Furlong just accross the street from town. You could walk accross the town in less than 5 minutes. When we arrived, the main well for the town was down, and they were on their secondary pump. We were able to get a shower and some water the first day. The second day there was no water in the bathrooms, no shower, but the spigots worked. When the shower worked, it was awesome- it's handicapped accessible, you can sit down in the shower! We stopped and talked to the campground host who suggested that if we didn't need electric, to stay in the primitive tent area and save the 2 bucks for the developed sites, which come with their very own picnic table. So we spent $8 a day. Well worth it for the shower alone. The second day, we met a German couple biking there way from Florida to LA. They gave us a lot of good info on where to go in Texas, and we gave them a lot of good info on Arizona (and several maps). We had planned to stay longer, but without a shower, it was time to move on. We got a good phone and wireless internet signal here.