Page 75 - Ninety Miles From Nowhere

debris, and used our cardboard boxes on their sides for storing clothing, pots and pans, and tableware. We used a wooden box, left there by some previous camper, for our table.
Since it was the dry season, we had no tent but slept out under the stars. We had a couple of small tarps with us, and used one on the bed, and the other we strung up between two trees for shade.
Although we didn’t do any fishing, we were kept supplied with fish by everyone who came by our camp with a good catch. Doc came by one day to invite us to the Lodge for a fish fry. We walked down later that afternoon, and together with Doc’s family and the other guests, gorged ourselves on delicious rainbow trout, just large enough so they didn’t have to be thrown back, and tender and juicy. Altogether we ate 85 fish that night - with nothing else except bread if we wanted it. No forks! For desert we had canned pineapple - a feast fit for a king!
Doc’s place at the Hot Springs had some rooms in the big house, and cottages scattered around outside. What fascinated me was the fact the hot water from the springs was piped into the house and cabins. Since the water was constantly running and was steaming, a faucet in the sink had to be left open at all times - to prevent an explosion, I suppose. Where the water hit the sink there was a build-up of mineral deposits.
One of our most delightful walks was up the river to the Gila Cliff Dwelling National Monument. In those days, of course, there was no paved road as there is today, and certainly no visitor’s center kept manned at
all times to greet the visitor. The cliff dwellings were about three miles from our camp and we walked it easily. We climbed all over the caves and enjoyed the view from each doorway, imagining ourselves back in the days when they were inhabited.
One room had many small corn cobs in it, about the size of a popcorn cob today.
On the way back to camp, I found a large turquoise pendant, about one inch in length, and about half an inch wide at the smaller end, as it was pear-shaped. A small hole was at the small end. Two strips of matrix had crossed it diagonally at one time but had been completely eroded away.
Later I had it examined by an expert in El Paso and he assured me it was a stone surviving from the time the Dwellers had lived there - not something dropped by a tourist.
One night I was awakened rudely by
Imogene’s shouting, “Get away from here!” I sat straight up in bed, calling out, “What’s the matter? What happened?”
“Oh,” she said, “one of those pesky old hounds was licking me in the face.”
Then I remembered how worried she had been that afternoon when a couple of men from the XSX ranch down the river came by with their hounds. I couldn’t understand why they worried her so, but she told me hounds would eat anything. I had never had any experience with them, so I guess I didn’t know enough to worry. That night we made sure the hound had left our camp and went back to sleep. The next morning there was utter confusion.