The Van Blog

I had no real reason for wanting to see Truth or Consequences, New Mexico beyond the fact that it had a funny name.  Sometimes it’s fun to flip open a map, pick the most ridiculous name, and then go check it out.  At least it’s fun to me …  Who would name a town Truth or Consequences!?  That’s ri-donk-ulous!  But upon arriving in TorC I discovered there’s actually a story behind the name.

TorC used to be called Hot Springs, NM until 1950.  During that year, the game show Truth or Consequences had some sort of contest across America to see if any towns would change their name to the name of the show in exchange for the producers promising to film an anniversary episode from that town every year.

Copy of the 1950 Newspaper about the Hot Springs name-change.

Hot Springs soon became Truth or Consequences, NM, and the show’s host Ralph Edwards visited every year until he died.  I suppose that story is more cute than odd, but there are some other weird things about TorC that I noticed as well.

There are little rocket stickers on some of the road signs, and when I inquired what that was all about I was told that TorC is the closest town to the spot where Sir Richard Branson is building one of his fancy space ports to launch other uber-rich people into orbit.  Before you even get excited, let me tell you that the site is indeed 30 miles outside of town, but visitors are totally unwelcome there, townsfolk are very tight-lipped about it, and consequently I have no pictures and only tall tales to tell.  Sorry about that, but I can tell you about some other weird things involving TorC that I did get to behold with my own eyes…

For instance, I left the van parked and unattended downtown for an hour whilst I went in search of coffee.  When I came back there were two evenly spaced cassette tapes resting on my windshield wiper with a note written on one of them in black sharpie.  It said “Alert more than 50 others!  Spread the word!  Begin!”  One tape had classic rock tunes and was called ‘Road Trip Volume II’, and the other was some tacky version of Jingle Bells…  I’ve thought a lot about this, and I still don’t get the joke.

The Mystery Tapes

Secondly, I woke up the morning after the tape drop to J.T. handing me a dirty sheaf of papers that she had found outside the van’s door.  They are conspiracy theory articles, and they are also emblazoned with black letters saying I have to spread the word and alert people.  Wtf?  Who sends the Canadian in the van these messages?  I don’t know, but the papers said it’s my duty to spread the word… and the tapes said so, too.  Perhaps I can just combine the messages?  Here goes:

There’s a lot of crookedness to be exposed in Russia today!  Wake up, Americans!  Tell 200 people!  I’m doing my share and telling you that I believe!  JETHRO TULL IS AWESOME!