Finally Underway

Either on Time or a Day Early Depending on How You Look at It.

Greetings from the beautiful Hotel Gadsden in downtown Douglas Arizona. More about the hotel in a minute.

OK, I got the days mixed up and thought we were not leaving until Friday until I checked all the hotel reservations late last night and realized that we needed to leave today! Not too much a problem except that the Tahoe (still no name selected) went back in the shop this morning because that pesky check engine light came back on again. Fortunately, it was just a loose wire and we got it back before noon.

After some frantic packing, laundry washing, last minute shopping and a very long computer update of the GPS system, we threw everything but the kitchen sink in the back of the Tahoe (still no name) and off we went. Mary Lou was alternating between shaking her head at my “senior moment” and just snickering when she thought I wasn’t looking. (I’ll get even as soon as I have something to report about her.)

In any event, here we are at the historic Hotel Gadsden. The place was built in 1907 as a Grand Hotel. It was the finest hotel between El Paso and the West Coast and attracted a very high level clientele. Pictured below is the hotel today looking much as it looked when it was rebuilt after a huge fire in 1928 that destroyed all the upper floors.

The lobby is very ornate with lots of marble and granite. The supports columns have 24 Karat gold gilding at the tops. The grand staircase is pictured below. In 1917, during one of his raids into the US, Pancho Villa rode his horse up the grand staircase, around the mezzanine and back down again before departing. 

At the divide on the grand staircase is a stuffed mountain lion shot by the daughter of the hotel owner. Can anyone guess from the picture below which one I’d rather have after me?

Across the border and into Mexico first thing in the morning. On to Chihuahua!

Hasta Manaña,

Ken