Had my normal breakfast after taking a shower. Did some computer work, then tilted the solar-electric panels. I would have done it earlier, but we had been thinking about moving to a site with electric hookups because it's supposed to rain for two days beginning tomorrow. Because there was broken bright overcast, we decided to stay in the "primitive" site without electric hookups today because we'd have enough battery power to last the day with just a little help from the sun. I worked up a blog entry. We left at 11:34 in the Jeep.

Mexico

We drove to the US-Mexico border, and parked the Jeep in a lot right there. Then we walked right over into Palomas, Mexico, at 11:45, and we didn't have to go through any sort of customs — very odd. It was my first time to Mexico that I can remember, and Palomas reminded me of the towns I had been to in Ecuador. There were brightly-colored buildings and ornately-carved wooden doors.

We went to the Farmacia Express, about 100 yds from the border, and J picked up some antibiotics. It was the same stuff she'd gotten by prescription before, but she could pick it up there just by asking — gotta love Mexico!

Then we went to The Pink Store at 11:55. It's a neat shop definitely geared to the US tourists, but they had an interesting collection of dishes, candles, clothing, rugs, and objects d'art in various styles, including knock-offs of Aztec artifacts. I must say I enjoyed looking through the store, even before I had a complimentary lemonade and J had a bottle of Coke. I passed on a margarita, and wish I had had one.

After we picked up a few items to give as gifts, we went to the restaurant in the shop to have lunch accompanied by a mariachi band. I got a margarita to go with the Enchiladas Nortenas (chicken), and J got another bottle of Coke to go with General Scott Rellenos. The chips and salsa were tasty, as were my enchiladas. J didn't like her rellenos very much — maybe she should have had a margarita too. :) She did like the rice and re-fried beans, which was unusual. We left at 1:26 and ...

Explored the nearby part of town so J could take some pictures of the statues.

We walked through US Customs and returned to the US at 1:40.

We returned to the RV at 1:47. I made a batch of trail mix, then read through the October Outdoor Photographer. A rain shower passed by. I looked up some things online that I read about in OP, then started to research Pancho Villa.

Pancho Villa

Gen. Francisco "Pancho" Villa, for whom this state park is named, was a leader in the Mexican Revolution. The US supported him for a while, then withdrew its support after the revolution. On March 9, 1916, Pancho Villa led a raid on Camp Furlong, the US military base here in Columbus, New Mexico, where the 13th Cavalry Regiment was stationed. (The state park is located on the grounds of the former Camp Furlong.) In response, the Mexican Expedition was launched, under the command of Gen. John J. "Black Jack" Pershing. He led 10,000 troops on an 11-month, 500-mile pursuit of Villa into Mexico. Pancho Villa was never captured. Does it remind you of Osama bin Laden?

Stream of Consciousness

While researching Pancho Villa, I followed links to Gen. John J. Pershing who was the only officer to hold the rank of General of the Armies, the highest rank ever held by an officer during his lifetime. (George Washington was posthumously awarded the same rank in 1976, but at a never-to-be-outdone grade.) That led to reading about the Quasi War (Think "pirates.") and the XYZ Affair. Going back to the Quasi War article prompted me to read about the USS Enterprise (1799) and then the more famous USS Enterprise (CV-6) (the Yorktown class WW II era aircraft carrier) and USS Enterprise (CVN-65) (the first nuclear-powered aircraft carrier).

There was a really interesting sunset while I was "doing research." The clouds from the rain shower had moved on, but there was still a solid layer of high clouds overhead and scattered clouds to the west. However, there was a perfectly-positioned gap in the clouds to the west because a band of wonderfully warm light illuminated the campground for a few minutes. Later, the high thin clouds developed some patches of orange light, then later almost the whole sky was red. There's a line of telephone poles to the west of the campground, so it wouldn't have been easy to make a good image from right here, and by the time the spectacular color developed, it was too late to look for a better location. :(

We had dinner around 6:15 of lunch stuff (ham and Swiss for me). We sat and talked for a while.

Stream of Consciousness Continued

After doing the tiny amount of dishes, I had some Aalborg Jubilæums Akvavit while continuing my stream of consciousness. I started by looking at the links to the various USS Enterprises of the Star Trek series. That led to reading about the fictional Zefram Cochrane the first human to develop a warp drive system. That led to reading about the Borg who used transwarp conduits to travel at speeds "far beyond normal warp." That led to reading about Seven of Nine a Borg character in the Star Trek: Voyager series. She was one of my favorite characters from all of the Star Trek series because she was a "logical, matter-of-fact, extremely blunt young woman with difficulties expressing human emotion. Seven sometimes behaved condescendingly towards 'human weaknesses' and 'human inefficiency'." I could relate coming from an engineering background — I sometimes had similar difficulties. :) It also helped that Seven was played by Jeri Ryan. :)

Then I circled back (to reality) and looked into the Nimitz class aircract carrier and that got me wondering if the Grumman F-14 was still in service. (It was retired in 2006.) While reading about its development, I followed links to the General Dynamics F-111, Grumman XF10F Jaguar (swing-wing fighter prototype of the 1950s), Grumman A-6 Intruder (similar wing as the F-14 swept forward), McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle, and the McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics A-12. From the F-15 page, I visited the Quiet Spike page to learn about the sonic-boom reduction research performed with a modified F-15B. I worked on sonic boom reduction while in my former life as an aerospace engineer, so it was interesting to read about work that was done after I left the field. Then I went to a page about the Boeing 2707, a concept for the first American supersonic transport. The model that was displayed on the page bore a striking similarity to a configuration that I worked with at the beginning of my tenure at McDonnell Douglas while working on the High Speed Research (HSR) program with NASA and Boeing to develop technology for a next-generation supersonic transport, the High Speed Civil Transport (HSCT). Then I read about the Rockwell B-1 and then the Lockheed Martin/Boeing F-22 Raptor and the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II. Finally, I read about the Northrop P-61 Black Widow, the first operational US military aircraft to use radar. It entered service in 1944 and had a layout similar to a P-38 Lightening with twin engines in booms and a center gondola for the pilot, gunner, and radar operator. The P-61 was one of the first plastic model airplanes that I assembled as a child. I finally finished my "research" around 12:30!