Saturday, August 30, 2008

Saturday, August 30, 2008 -- Home Again, Home Again, Jiggidy Jig

Well, we're on our way home now and finally have brought this blog up to date.

We are currently at the Corral RV Park in Dalhart, Texas, north of Amarillo. We'll make it back to our little house on the prairie tomorrow.

Today was mainly driving, but we did stop twice in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, to visit the Billy the Kid Museum and Billy the Kid's gravesite. There seems to be some dispute about whether this is the actual site. (Not counting the continual speculation about whether that was REALLY Billy that Pat Garrett shot!)

The Museum contains information about Billy and some of the other influential folk of the area and involved in his legend, but much of the collection is a lot of donated "old stuff" that doesn't really have anything to do with the whole legend of Billy the Kid.

It is nice that future generations can see these kinds of items (everything from old cars and ice boxes to pottery and toys), but we felt it shouldn't be billed as the Billy the Kid Museum and then have all the other stuff. It would be much better if it was in a historical society museum or something.

The grave is several miles from town behind the Old Fort Sumner Museum.

We arrived here in Dalhart, got our site, and went to supper at Hodie's, a barbeque café. We like the food. When we were leaving, Kathy noticed a young girl whose T-shirt said "Schlesener" on the back. Since this was one of her best friends' name at Northern Heights High, Allen, Kansas, she decided to mention it. When we walked up to the family we noticed that the front of her T-shirt said "Herington" on it! I asked if they were from Kansas and sure enough they were! What a small world it is.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I was delighted to see the Rippel name pop up - AND to see that the visiting is occurring in New Mexico.

I, too, am a Rippel by birth and was wondering if we're somehow related (there really aren't THAT many of us). I was born and raised in Whitestone, NY but now live in Socorro, NM.

Would love to hear more from you!

Ellen Rippel