We rode out of that Bandera Volcano area and headed to the SkyCity casino on I-40. When we got to the casino we found it did not have a buffet but it was late so we stayed there anyways just to soak up the AC. Adjacent to it was one of the biggest truck stops I have ever seen and any trucker with a CDL license could get a free pull (once every 24 hours) on the $5 slot. We picked up an area newspaper and one of the headlines said the Indians had earned $119million on slot machines last year in NM. Next year, about $200 of that income will have came out of my pocket. There was a really nice Harley, fully loaded, being raffled, but you had to be present to win and we would be gone before memorial day. Another Harley was perched on top of a couple of slot machine but we had no interest. Here are some picture of the SkyCity casino (you can see me trying to figure out what when wrong with the GPS)  and also of the SkyCity pueblo (real name Acuna Pueblo).

  We checked out of the casino and rode out to the Acuna Pueblo as it was recommended by the desk clerk. The casino was named after it. The Indians have a real tourist trap here. You got to pay $10 for a camera permit, the "guide" cost $10 per person. The guide turned out to be a strident, partisan, catholic-spanish-hating 1/2-Indian. He told all these stories about what the Spanish & catholic conquistadors had done that were all half truth or stretched out ones. Clearly, the Indians moved onto that high mesa to get away from other Indians, not just the Spanish who came later. Supposedly one of the bells from the cathedral was paid for by 4 male and 4 female children sent to the pope for the bell. That could well be, but since back in 16xx a bronze bell was equivalent in value to a bronze cannon, the "pope" got the short end of the deal.  Anyway, the Spanish have no patent of causing suffering: the Indians are perfectly capable of wiping out and entire tribe of male population and taking the children and females long before the Spanish showed up and "converted" them.

   At the beginning of the tour the guide was always saying about how the Indians (the males) never gave up, NEVER GAVE UP, N E V E R G A V E U P. Later he said that the males 16+ years old had one foot cut off after the revolt was crushed. Somebody had to give up to get their foot cut off. He did point out that Hillary Clinton donated $75,000 for construction work in the cathedral. I felt like taking a picture to show that nothing had been done except a scaffold built, but he would not let me take a picture of the inside. He originally said the pueblo revolt started when the priest at the cathedral killed an alter boy with the chalice during service and got thrown off the mesa. Later we were told that an Indian from Taos NM started the revolt against the Spanish up there and it spread down to the acuna pueblo on the mesa. On item I did find interesting is when he mentioned that pure blood Indians have no facial hair. Indians with Spanish blood (like our guide) have facial hair. The mesa seems to be all commercialized, port-a-potties are everywhere, Indians live there from 9-5 and pack up their pottery and jewelry and head back into town and get the A/C. Only about 18 families still have there according to the guide. He was also pissed off IMHO because some of them are still catholic and hold services in the cathedral whereas he and some other Indians hold their own native services that are non-catholic in the same place. When we left, another tourist who had been there several months before mentioned that his stories had changed since the last time and a guide in the Taos pueblo had warned her that the acuna pueblo guide was known to tell tall tales about the acunas. There appears to be a disagreement over who started the Indian revolt that the Spanish crushed.

   We left the acuna reservation and rode out to Truth or Consequences New Mexico I-25 as we figured we would get there about sunset and wanted to try one of those geo-thermal hot springs they are famous for. It was hot all along the way but we used helmets and Terri passed water and ice to me and that is how we kept ourselves cool. In the process of doing this repeatedly, I have proved that if you pour a small amount of water down your back, just below the base of the helmet, the water touches your neck (you can fell it is hot water from being in the back pack) and then it is immediately sucked out of the back of the shirt, moves around your arms & body, some of it hits the back of the windshield, and the rest of it freezes the very front of your shirt. Eventually the cold water works it way to the back where you originally wanted it. It is amazing how none of it actually pours down the back of the shirt directly where you are trying to put it. Got to have something to do with the big aftermarket windshield I put on and the 75mph we were traveling at. I also discovered that if you use cold water that you just bought, the wind makes it about 4x times as cold to where you start shaking from the cold on your chest. I think Terri spilled about 1/2 a fresh ice cold bottle that way on me all at once in an accident when she opened the lid and it all squirted out because she was squeezing it at the same time.

   Truth or Consequences NM has got to be where all the 1960 hippies went. Old peace signs everywhere, old hippies and lots of homeless people for the size of the town. The first thing (and last thing) we noticed was the female cop writing speeding tickets near where the main road splits to divided in the center of the town. Even locals like pizza delivery were getting tickets. On half the speed is 40 and drops to 20 for a turn then back up to 25. The other side is all 25 even where the adjacent road in the other direction is 40. An easy gotcha for unwary motorists. We stayed at the Charles Motel and Spa, possibly the oldest and unchanged of all geo-thermal bathhouse. We rented the Jacuzzi at the top of the roof for 9pm and since it is not available after 10 then we got it as long was we want. There is a huge 4" or so PVC pipe with valve to turn on the water. The water comes from only 4 feet underground as they are locate directly on top of the geo-thermal activity. Charles bath house is run by "Rev Janet Perrrone" and according to her resume she is famous for the following: "Ayurvedic Healing", "Touch for health", "Marma Point Release", "Magnetic Therapy", "Shamanism from Tibet" and spiritually channeled hands-on-healing. Terri would not let me try any of those with Janet and most of the rooms there seem to rent by the hour. We stayed in the "suite" for $45 and the Jacuzzi was $9 more per hour per person. The suite was like all the other rooms except it had refrigerated A/C and the others had swamp coolers which take longer to cool.

  We ate at the "Hot Springs Bakery" shown in the above photos where we ran across the first homeless. He came in, helped himself to a paper cup, asked to have water put in the cup that he had "brought with him" and then proceeded to help himself to the coffee refill. He looked at the tip we had left on the table but I covered it up before he could get to it. He noticed I had the exact Texas A&M type baseball cap that he had on and he stated that he got his hat when he was released from jail and asked where I got mine. We left and rode off to return back to Texas, stopping first to get some water bottles at the last market before I-25 in T or C. That is where I got propositioned by the second homeless. I parked the R1100RT by the market while Terri when inside and got the water bottle. A homeless came up and introduced himself to me as "Chief Horsefeathers" and stuck out his hand. He would not let go once I started shaking it and wanted to know where I was going. When I told him San Antonio, said that was exactly where he was hitchhiking. He then said he had some really good "stuff" and wanted me and him to crash out a motel nearby. I told him this was the wrong time of the year to hitchhike to San Antonio and I already had a rider on my motorcycle. He had not seen the motorcycle. Then he wanted $5 and I told him my wife keeps all the money. "Do you think your wife will give me $5?" "No, she wont even give my kids .25c" and he left after that. Sorry I don't have a pic of "Chief Horsefeathers" but he was real. About as real as "Rev Janet Perrone", the bath house keeper.