Having never been to New Mexico before, I was shocked by how empty (and boring) it was. Granted, I only saw the what you can see from the left window of a Greyhound bus so I'm probably not giving it the credit it deserves, but based on what I have seen of every state that I have been to, New Mexico seems to be the most boring of the 50. But while in New Mexico, the bus stopped in the small town of Lordsburg so the passengers could get out and walk around and get something to eat at the local McDonald's, which was surprisingly reassuring to see. While the other greyhound people ate, my friend Beard and I decided to explore New Mexico a little bit. Here is a glimpse of what we found.
This is basically what Lordsburg looks like. Also try to imagine that its windy.
This is what I look like in Lordsburg. I don't always walk looking straight down (or at least I like to think that) but it was really windy which I think explains my awkward posture.
This is what Beard looks like in Lordsburg. Pay special attention to the hat. The wind also can be blamed for Beard's squinting eyes.
According to Wikipedia, Lordsburg has a population of 3,379 (bigger than I expected), is the county seat of Hidalgo county and was founded in 1880 on the Southern Pacific Railroad. The per capita income is $10,877, as opposed $42,166 in my hometown of Lake Oswego, Oregon. 28.6 % of families and 32.7 % of the population of Lordsburg is under the poverty line, including 47.5% of children.
I can never quite wrap my head around the fact that real people live here, not just statistics I read about on Wikipedia. They take their job just as seriously as I do, have families and pets and hobbies and everything else that I do, except that their lives happen to take place in a town in new Mexico of which a kid like me comes along and takes some pictures of their town and unsuccessfully tries to get high behind some random shed while on a twenty minute break from a daylong greyhound bus ride. And then I post the pictures online and feel a little bit better about myself for doing something a little bit intellectual.
I can't decide whether or not I recommend going to Lordsburg, you will either find it tremendously boring or tremendously fascinating but most likely probably somewhere in between these two extremes. Its been several months since I was there so I can't really remember how I felt about it at the time.
Bonus Picture
Beard with a border patrol agent in El Paso. You would never guess it by the smile on his face, but these guys actually don't like having their pictures taken. As far as I know, there is nothing more comforting than looking about like Beard and I when these dudes come onto your bus.
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