World United States New Mexico Deming

Janet & Steve's Western Wanderings 2009

Deming, New Mexico Nov 1, 2009

Everyone has a story about daylight savings time, and some of us have been delighted that the state of Arizona does not observe it. Well, do you want to hear an idiot-who-forgot-to-change-the clock-on-hisnher-motorcycle the day after leaving Arizona and entering a new time zone? So it happened that we changed to Mountain time on the alarm (Real important, we retired 3 years ago), the microwave, and the pickup, but forgot to change the coffeepot and the motorcycle. Figuring we wouldn't take a ride on the motorcycle without having coffee first, it should not have been a big deal. Did I forget to tell you that this story is about me and Steve? After having our morning coffee (without once looking at the time on the coffeemaker), we geared up and plugged in the slow-cooker. I happened to notice that it was already 10:20 and we'd better get moving since it's a 2 hour drive to the cliff dwellings. We were happily riding up highway 11 in Deming, New Mexico, when Steve happened to notice that it was nearly 11 AM by the clock on the motorcycle. Oh, yes! It's almost 11, I said. I happened to notice the time when I plugged in the slow-cooker. (You have probably guessed by now that the slow-cooker gets plugged in next to the coffeemaker.) Two hours later, we came upon a sign that informed us that it should take another 45 minutes to get to the cliff dwellings, whereupon Steve and I separately and together deduced that we did not have enough time to get there, walk the half-mile up the hill, take some nice pictures, and get home, which was not the 2 hours we had anticipated, but nearly 3 hours. Plus, we wanted to take a longer route back to Deming so we could take in some New Mexican mountain scenery. Not wanting to ride the motorcycle in the dark on this first day in Mountain time zone after changing away from daylight savings, we turned around and agreed to return another day, making sure we left earlier than 10:20. We had ridden no more than 45 minutes when I realized that I had never changed the time on the coffeemaker or the motorcycle, and when we turned around it was actually an hour earlier than we thought. We had more than enough time to do what we had planned! That is how we happened to go to the City Of Rocks State Park today. City of Rocks is the result of a volcanic event that caused tuff to stick up in all sorts of weird ways with the result resembling a big city, lots of huge cement-looking things in all shapes sticking up from the flat surroundings. It was a beautiful day, and a nice walk around the rocks.

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