Saturday, March 7, 2009 - Pancho Villa State Park, Columbus NM
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Grumpy, City of Rocks State Park, Faywood NM, February 19, 2009
Sixth Annual Camp Furlong Day Celebrates Cross-Border History March 7 at Pancho Villa State Park
From the New Mexico State Parks Press Release [pdf]:
COLUMBUS, N.M. – Folklorico dancers, mariachi music and a parade led by 100 Mexican Cabalgata horseback riders highlight Pancho Villa State Park’s 6th Annual Camp Furlong Day, scheduled from 9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 7. The annual event promotes friendship and goodwill between both countries.
“Camp Furlong Day honors the strong ties between Mexico and New Mexico in this historic commemoration,” said State Park Director Dave Simon.
The multicultural festival commemorates the March 9, 1916 attack by troops of Mexican General Francisco “Pancho” Villa on the village of Columbus and adjacent U.S. military camp, and the United States' response with the Punitive Expedition into Mexico by General Pershing and his soldiers.
“Camp Furlong Day unites New Mexico residents, visitors and citizens of Mexico in commemorating this significant historic event,” said Victor Trujillo, Pancho Villa State Park manager.
Nearly 100 horseback riders from the Cabalgata Binacional Villista will join the celebration – the culmination of a 14- day ride from Guerrero, Chihuahua to Columbus, N.M. At Palomas, the Cabalgata will be joined by American horse riders.
Night camp
Site 29 - Pancho Villa State Park, Columbus NM
- Verizon cell phone service - good signal
- Verizon EVDO service - good signal
- Go to the Pancho Villa State Park website
- Locate Pancho Villa State Park on my Night Camps map
- Check the weather here
Writing From the Inside Out
A young writer, if he is unknown, can be at a party and watch what everyone is doing. If he has a marveluos ear for dialog, he can wake up the next morning and remember all that was said and how it was said. He is a bird on a branch. Sees like a bird and writes books that are extraordinarily well observed. But once he is successful, especially if that happens quickly, it's as if the bird were now an emu. It cannot fly. It grows haunches and foreshoulders and a mane: lo and behold, it is a lion. And everyone is looking at the lion, including the birds. But it is a lion with the heart of a bird and the mind of a bird. So there is a terrible period when the transmogrified emu is trying to live like a lion and has little talent for it. Then the beast begins to experiment. When it runs, it now sees other animals scamper. It takes a while - often years - for the writer to get to appreaciate his effect on others, and even longer to begin to understand human beings again. In the old days, he could write about friends, enemies, and strangers by intuition, by induction; now he puts it together by deduction. Of course, he does have more material on which to work his deductions.