Home, Home On The Strange

[Bob Boze Bell]

June 18, 2012

Got home yesterday afternoon after 17 days on the road. Saw some new country, met some interesting people, learned some history I didn't know and came home with some great memories. For me it doesn't get much better than that.

 

I have to say, for all the places I visited there is one region, actually a county, that is certainly the most cantankerous of all the places I visited. Here's a couple clues:

 

Home, Home On The Strange

Where the deer and the antelope are prey.

 

Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,

 

And the skies are not cloudy all day.

 

Oh, and I know this isn't part of the song, but their storms are full of ash.

 

"One of the reasons I live in this county is because there are no synagogues or mosques."

—A resident of Catron County, New Mexico who shall remain nameless

 

[Bud "Marshal" Stilwell]

Glad to know that y'all are back safe and sound.  Looking forward to hearing more stories about the trip and the people you met along the way.

[Sue Cauhape]

I agree, BBB, there's no better way to take the pulse of this country than to sit down to coffee in a local eatery and eavesdrop. Or if you're really lucky, you'll be able to strike up a great conversation with a local. We had the extreme good pleasure to talk to a young Nevada rancher north of Eureka whose family has been running cattle in the area for seven generations. (Kind of pushes the definition of Native American, doesn't it?) Hearing his side of many stories provided a good education for us about what's happening in America's Outback. Such issues may be why the folks in Catron County are so cantankerous!

[Vince Murray]

I'm surprised by the comment from Catron County. If someone were to build a synagogue or mosque, would they burn it down?

[Sue Cauhape]

Just my guess, Vince, but it's been my personal experience that when people from "back East" visit the West, they complain because there isn't a good deli, etc. I'm just sayin'. Meanwhile, I don't talk about my kibbutz experiences very much in the Great Basin, and I choose carefully who I reveal such things to, even though I was born and raised out here (in yet another bizarre religious community).