February 3, 2009
The original plan was just to just stay in Truth or Consequences for the night, soak in the hot springs before check out at 11am and head to the White Sands National Monument for the day. After which we would then drive five hours to Tucson, Arizona. One dip in the hot springs and all thoughts of moving on melted away. We were so sick of driving and just wanted to a day to collect our thoughts and have to ourselves. Well this was the perfect spot for it.
We soaked all day long at the Riverbend Hot Springs. In fact one of the women asked us at the end of the day "Did they not let you into your room?" To which we happily replied "Not today!" We loved it. There are five hot springs overlooking the Rio Grande. Three of them (107, 106 and 105 degrees) are all under a shade on a platform. The last two (103 and 100 degrees) are outside right over the Rio Grande. Throughout the day we pool hopped and then we would sit around the many comfortable chairs soaking up that New Mexican sun. We got caught up on journals, wrote some postcards and sat around to talk with some of the locals. 
The only non-relaxing thing about the springs was our roommate. She was an older lady who obviously didn't like the fact we had moved into her space. She also cooked the stinkiest dishes I have ever smelled in my life and did not ventilate the area. The stench just hung in the air and permeated every surface the minute you walked in to the living room. We finally had to air out the room all the next day if we wanted to sit in there at all. Dave said he caught her giving him the evil eye more than once so let's hope there was no malicious voodoo in her stare.
We did get out for lunch around 1pm and made our way into "town." I expected with a name like Truth or Consequences that they would have a pretty big gift shop selection. After we ate our lunch at the Pacific Grill we headed to Broadway, their main stretch. It was a ghost town, I swear I saw a tumbleweed. Most of the shops consisted of crystals, brightly patterned skirts and thrift shops. There was one lone souvenir shop called "Loretta's Gift Emporium." You can just imagine what we found in there. We perused dusty shelves piled high with items people hadn't bought since 1964. I bought some more postcards from their meager selection and decided on a pin that boasted the name of the town and the symbol for the sun. Good Enough.
But my disappointment wasn't long lived. I jumped back into the springs and forgot all about it. We soaked again until dinner and got out again to head into town. This time we were headed to an old favorite, Pizza Hut. This is one with a red roof and hasn't been tainted by the new promotion of Wing Street. The pizza was phenomenal but the service could have used some help. We used our coupons and had leftovers for breakfast the next morning (my favorite) and headed back to the hot springs for the last dip of the evening. 
The next morning we got up early again to soak before checking out and moving on like our plan had been to begin with. We were so happy we made the side trip and took time to stay in a place with a name as cool as it was. It was also a perfect place to end after our very long journey.
Emily