Lost and Found

Hillsboro, New Mexico, seemed like the perfect town for a holiday RV getaway – small, quiet, and photogenic.  And, as I was to learn, its best quality may be its people.

Hillsboro RV Park is a charming park along Percha Creek.  I ended up staying three days.  On our first morning walk Cassie, my rescue mutt, and I went by the Post Office and I read the notes on the bulletin board: upcoming concert, lost keys in the cemetery, help wanted, accordion for sale, free cow manure, and other important topics.  Then past the cafe and up to the courthouse ruins.

 

I like taking photos in cemeteries, so we headed up the hill – the cemetery overlooks the valley.  The heavy gate was closed so I climbed through and Cassie went under.  The plots are dry and overgrown with grasses and a few mesquite bushes.  We meandered through all sections of the cemetery.  Most photos I took with my ‘real’ camera and a few with the phone camera.  Spent over an hour there.  Came back down the hill and took a few more photos at the museum yard.  And took the creek trail to the RV park.

After I was back 10 minutes I couldn’t find my phone.  Looked everywhere in the RV.  Thought maybe I had used it last at the museum so I retraced my path and found nothing.  I was going to have to climb back up the hill to the cemetery.  Cassie was delighted with this prospect; me, not so much.  The most likely place to have lost it was at the main gate when I clambered through.  But no, it wasn’t there.

I tried to reconstruct my wanderings through the graves to look at every path I took.  Finally, I got back to the one place I knew I had taken a phone camera shot.  Still no sighting. Then turned around and walked back.  Suddenly I saw some shiny flash of color – not phone, but keys!  Probably the keys that the bulletin board alerted me to.  I pocketed the keys and headed back down the hill.  In this holiday season, the only place in town that was open was the post office.  I handed the clerk the keys and the notice taken from the board.  She said she would call.  I left a note with her about my phone saying I was staying at the RV park.

Hillsboro on a quiet day. The Post Office in the building on the left.

Walked back to the RV.  My neighbor, Charles, asked if I found the phone.  No, but I found someone’s keys.  He said to see Kristen, the park owner, because she knows the woman who lost them.  Turns out the woman had stayed at the park over Thanksgiving.

I went to the post office to get the keys – Kristen would return them.  When I got back, she was talking to a man in a car and called out to me.  “He found your phone.”  He left before I could do anything except shout ‘thank you.’  He found the phone at the gate and took it to the post office – the only place in town that was open.

I love Hillsboro.