The Deming Gathering

Every Veterans Day weekend Don and his understanding wife Mary Lou host a BBQ at their home just outside of Deming, New Mexico. Don is the former owner of Deming Cycle Sales, and the current owner, Jeff, continues to generously support the Gathering. However, the real driving force behind the gathering is Steve Aikens.

The idea behind it is to have a Veterans Day Gathering. Don is a past master at smoking meat on his trailer mounted smoker, and with an expected 175 mouths, he borrowed his friend's smoker as well.

I left Santa Cruz on Thursday and took a direct route down to Deming: CA-1 to Castroville, CA-183 to Salinas, US-101 to Santa Margarita, CA-58 to Barstow, I-40 to Needles, US-95 to Blythe, and then I-10 through Arizona to Deming, arriving Friday afternoon. I stayed over Thursday night on the western outskirts of Phoenix. CA-58 is quite nice between US-101 and I-5, and not too bad going up to Tehachapi and down towards Mojave. The new bypass is open so it's no longer necessary to dodge semi trucks in downtown Mojave. US-95 isn't bad, either, with some nice curves and lots of fun whoop-de-doos. I-10, of course, is deadly dull.

I went to bed early on Friday, after setting an alarm for 4am. I had volunteered to help Don with the cooking by taking over command of the smokers at 5, allowing Don to catch some sleep. This is because he started the ten 12-15lb. sirloin butts at midnight. I made it out to Don's place at the appointed hour, was greeted with a hot mug of coffee, and after a bit of briefing, took my sentry position.

The night was gorgeous, a nearly-full moon setting just before the dawn. Deming doesn't throw up a lot of light pollution, and the stars and the milky way were brilliant.

Across the dirt road from Don's house was a planted field, and I wandered over to investigate the progress of the crops. Deming is only about 25 miles away from famous Hatch, NM. These beauties were just drying on their plants. I surrepticiously made off with one and tried it out; it was sweet and not at all hot, with a good chili flavor.

For a while, mine was the only bike in Don's yard. But as morning changed to afternoon, the first of the riders arrived. Pretty soon the yard filled with bikes. A number of people were camping out behind Don's shop, and the path back there became choked with bikes, too.

About 4pm the meat came off the smokers and Don and I trimmed it and sliced it. Since the day before a small army of folks had gotten the garage cleaned and set up, tables and chairs put up, potato salad, bread, bbq sauce, corn, beans, drinks and dessert arrayed. A slew of door prizes had been donated and given away. Now the line formed and people started coming through, filling plates with food and wandering off to enjoy it.

Just as the last people were making their way through the line, and the sun had set, the full moon rose in the east with a bite taken out of it. Tonight was not only a full moon, but also a total lunar eclipse! The viewing weather was fine indeed. The bonfire in the ring was set, and people enjoyed dinner, dessert and the darkened moon.

Then Steve called everyone in to thank them for coming and to present the last few door prizes, culminated by a $450 gift certificate donated by Deming Cycle. By now the moon was bright once again and high in the sky. A huge fireworks extravaganza soon began, and although there were a surprising number of misfires, it was still quite impressive.

Before leaving for home the next day, I dropped by for some coffee, and helped to get the chairs and tables returned to Don's church. Then I got on the road and mostly retraced my steps, varying only to exit I-10 a bit early to take the Vicksburg Rd. to AZ-72, crossing to California at Parker, AZ, and taking CA-62 to US-95. This created the hypotenuse to the two sides I had taken coming down. I stopped in Barstow, before getting home midday on Monday. In Barstow I found a great steakhouse, off the beaten path, called The Idle Spurs.