New Mexico Adventure #8--Exploring Rudicio, On to Albuquerque and Preparing to Fly

Well, it’s that inevitable time---preparing to travel home. We are now in Albuquerque at a Marriott Fairfield, checked in and unlaxing. We checked out of Ruidoso this morning, and made the drive up (North) to Albuquerque.

Yesterday we made the 12-mile drive winding up the road, complete with old cable style guardrails, 10,000 feet up to the Ski Apache on top of the mountain above Ruidoso. The views were again incredible, but the leaves were now more to the dark yellow as opposed to the bright yellow last week. My recording on my backup brain (my little Olympus digital voice recorder I couldn’t live without) went something like this: “Here we are up on top of the mountain at The Ski Apache. It’s pretty high up here and it’s beautiful and high and we liked it and we stopped to look around and the ski lifts look really scary.” That pretty much covers the third in our magical mountain accent tours. We made three over 10,000 foot assents on this trip, one more beautiful than the other. New Mexico in Fall is a strong rival for our trip in New England last fall. On the way down we stopped at an overlook for some great pictures. From the overlook you could see The Inn of The Mountain Gods Resort and Casino on the beautiful little lake nestled in the mountains.

This was our next destination. The Mescalero Apache tribe runs both Ski Apache and The Resort. The Resort cannot be too old. On the road leading up to it, you pass what appears to be an abandoned restaurant and inn that was probably the predecessor of the current Inn/Casino complex. The new complex rivals anything in the area. The casino is very large, and they have table games. The lobby of the Inn overlooks the beautiful lake through a wall of glass, and fountains abound. All of the floors are highly polished terrazzo, and the common areas are resplendent in Native American art. The usually ubiquitous MUZAK is replaced by non-stop Indian flute music. At first it is a little annoying, but after a while it becomes soothing and very haunting. We had a nice time visiting, and my other companions spent some time donating some money to the Apache tribe before we left.

We wandered down from the Mountain of The Gods back to Ruidoso on the lookout for some dinner. We wanted to try the barbeque place that had fed us when we were at the Cowboy Symposium, but they were closed for the week. (they probably take a week off to rest up after feeding the mega crowds at the Symposium) So we settled for heading back down the street to the Circle J, also barbeque. They had a great deal on senior plates with a meat, home made yeast roll, and two sides for $6.50 so we were all over that. Vickie and Jerry went for ribs, Brenda had a stew they were offering, and I signed in with brisket. It was good hearty barbeque, but lacked the polished presentation of the “Can’t Stop Smokin” food we had at the Symposium. After dinner it was back to the condo for packing and an evening split between CSI and political BS. (plenty of political BS with the emphasis on the S)

This morning we headed out of town and ironically we passed a stand with a sign, “Last chance for green chilies”, so goodbye to Ruidoso, Santa Fe, and the hanging chilies. We were headed for Albuquerque route to be determined. We took Rt. 37 back out of town to NM 380 and 380 across to Carrizozo NM. We stayed on 380 across the Valley Of The Fires till we crossed the Rio Grande (which was running in high flood with very brown water) and got on NM 1 headed north. It turned out NM 1 ran pretty much alongside I-25, so we jumped on the Interstate. Our first surprise was the 75 MPH speed limit on I-25. Jerry set the cruise on about 79.8 and we boogied. (I knew because I have a speedometer on my GPS navigation console, also the altitude) The quite reasonable and distance eating speed limit on I-25 made me wonder: do you think the fine political servants from NM will be supporting the ludicrous agenda in Congress to reinstate the National 55 MPH speed limit? I don’t think so! One thing I noted to myself; if you really want to see the back country in NM, be sure to rent an SUV cause there are a lot of dirt and two rut roads. Then as we were riding along at our designated 79.8, a New Mexico State Trooper came by us in a black and white Crown Vic like we were stopped. He then proceeded to vanish into the distance. He didn’t even have his blinky lights on—I had no idea a Crown Vic would run that fast.

We were needing some lunch, so we dropped off the second exit for Belen NM. Instinct took us to the older section of town, and we landed at the Circle-T Burger. The Circle-T was established in 1958 and was a Belen staple. We went in and ordered (after Vickie had a discussion with the counter girl about the relative heat of their “chilie”-which has nothing in common with what Wendy’s serves in a cup). The girl told her in no uncertain terms all their Chilie was hot, but they were out of the red they only had green, oh and that’s why they had “The Tortilla Burger”, with no more explanation. Vickie had some Nacho’s with green chilie on the side. Brenda and I got hot dogs (and I just had to try the fried bean burrito). Jerry got a burger with fries. The food was excellent, and unique. The hotdogs were split and grilled, served on toasted buns. The burrito was deep fried and very crispy. Jerry commented, that the fries tasted like they were fried in “real grease” not that stuff with the trans-fats removed. We highly enjoyed our visit to Belen, and while I was contemplating how to pronounce Belen, a nice local resident came by, and I asked him. He proudly told us it was pronounced BaLin, which means Bethlehem in Spanish. Once more we found the real NM by being open to the adventure at hand.

We continued uneventfully to Albuquerque and checked into the Fairfield Inn with the Brigham Young University Women’s Soccer Team (cougars). They are here to play the University of NM Lobo’s. Jerry spent some quality time riding up and down the elevator with them to socialize. (might have taken a few rides) We had great hors d’oeuvres from all the cheese, dip, veggies, fruit, and chips we brought from the condo in Vickie’ little cooler which ended up being dinner. We had a big time looking up crazy stuff on the Internet, and adjourned for bed early. We figured our timing, and we can load the car at 06:20, and be at the breakfast at 06:25. It really starts at 06:30 but they will have all the stuff out by then. We leave here by 06:45 or 50, and make our plane at 08:35 no sweat. The airport and rental car return are 7 minutes down the road from here. I'll be sleeping with my flying anexiety tonight, but atleast it's in a nice king bead. Wish us luck.
More later,

Wes

New Mexico Adventure #7--White Sands and Shopping

Well it’s Thursday morning, and we’re taking another less demanding day. Tomorrow we have to drive back up to Albuquerque, and yesterday we drove down and visited in the Alamogordo and White Sands area. Today we may take a run up and see what the Ruidoso ski area is like.

Yesterday, we got an early start, had a great breakfast at Denny’s, and headed South. Our first stop was a combination winery and pistachio nut farm. McGinn’s Pistachio Tree Ranch, Country Store and Arena Blanco Winery. They are famous for several of their wine varieties, and in the National Fiery Foods Scovie Awards, their Atomic Pistachio Brittle has won its category several years running. There we met a fellow who was an ex Phillip Morris employee, and we had a lot in common. (as he was with PM during the time it owned Miller) He appeared to be the owner of the wine and nut enterprise, and told us that the majority of pistachios in the US are owned by Sunkist and are grown in California. We sampled many of his nut flavors and several of the wine flavors. We ended up with a good supply of the best pistachios you have ever tasted and two great bottles of wine. Outside the store, we observed a stucco 50 foot pistachio nut under construction, and actual rows and rows of pistachio trees. Oh and by the way, the Atomic Pistachio Brittle lived up to its name. It didn’t blow you away all at first, it just kept getting hotter and hotter the more you chewed it. Like a good atomic device should.

Soon we were in Alamogordo, and observed $2.95 regular gas, go figure it was $3.95 not a month or so ago. Driving on we were passing through White Sands Missile Range, and the sign said that the road was prone to periodic closure for missile tests. It listed a phone number for info, so I called. Turned out the information was given at a blinding pace in broken English with a Spanish accent. Proved to be useless to me as I was without my Bat-translator-and time warp decelerator. Reminded me of one of those disclaimers they read at the end of commercials, but in broken English. As we proceeded further, we were riding along side Holloman Air Force Base that once was home to the FA117 Stealth Fighter. Now it is home to the new FA22 Raptor Fighter. According to a guy at the visitor’s center, all the FA117’s have been moved back to Nevada, have had their wings removed and are being scrapped. I find that very hard to believe.

Driving further South, we crossed the Government Land border and entered the White Sands Missile Range. We switched our Charger over to stealth mode, and kept a sharp lookout for incoming missiles. We arrived at the White Sands National Monument, and entered the Visitors Center. It was very nice, and gave us a great explanation of how the White Sands got to be there. They also had the compulsory gift shop and we all availed ourselves to that ubiquitous operation. One really cool thing the gift shop had was a plastic saucer that you could buy to go sliding down the sand dunes. The lovely young girl that checked me out said it was really fun, and the sand should be especially fast today since we had received a little rain in the last couple days. I looked at the plastic saucer and kidded her—it would take two for me, one for my feet and one for my big a__. Decided gimp sand sliding at high velocities was probably not conducive to my continuing health.

We went on the 8-mile drive back into the White Sands Dunes, to see what we could see. We stopped at a couple points and climbed the dunes. The White Sands dune area is vast and incredible. The drive we took only scratched the surface of what is probably 250 square miles of white sand dunes. The sand is gypsum as opposed to silica sand at the beach. Also encompassed in this area are secret government installations and a very long runway. (I think White Sands is like the third place in line the Space Shuttle lands if it can’t land in Florida or the dry lake In Mojave CA.) It was really fun, but would have been less so if it had been August and the temp was 115 or so. Then it would have felt like being on the surface of the sun since the snow-white sand reflects the sun back at you like a blast furnace. Jerry said these dunes are very much like the dunes on the shore of Lake Michigan at Sleeping Bear Dunes State Park. We had to be out of the dune sea (yuck yuck for Star Wars fans) by 12:30 as they had a missile test scheduled for 13:00 to 14:00. They actually close the National Monument and parts of the surrounding roads for the tests. The “in” gate was closed when we came out.

We headed back north to Alamogordo. Had to mention a lunch stop at Wendy’s where we received extraordinary service for a fast food restaurant. I plan to write a compliment to Wendy’s. There was a Imax theater there we wanted to check out. We stopped and there didn’t seem like too much activity. We went in and we would have had to wait for 40 minutes to see some kind of 40 minute Imax movie about mummies. We passed on that, and in the process coined another new traveling term, soon to be used again. We called it an “Imax Stop” meaning something we all decided we’d rather pass on.

We soon made another Imax stop at the much hyped Toy Train Museum and Railroad. It turned out to be a small building with some antique model trains inside, and some old guys playing with trains you could ride outside. It was $4.00/person for the Museum, and $4.00/person for the train ride, and as one belligerent old guy told Vickie “If it wasn’t worth $4.00 we wouldn’t charge $4.00” Guess he told her.

We left Alamogordo and headed back to Ruidoso via a town called Cloudcroft, which is at about 9000 feet. It was a scenic drive, and looked a lot more like Colorado than New Mexico. When we arrived back in Ruidoso, we made a stop at the little tourist trap kind of area in downtown. We were able to find some good prices on some Ruidoso labeled shirts and hats. I also found a Crocs store where I purchased a chili pepper Jibbet. I also noted they had a couple new designs of Crocs that I like and am going to look into when I get home. Crocs Yukon’s have leather uppers and are pretty cool. I also liked Crocs Vikings, which would be good for the type of hiking we have been doing lately as they don’t have any holes in the fronts or sides but do have them on top. Would keep the sand and briars out.

Went on down the road to a place called Bears R Us, which is a place to buy all manner of “stuff”, made out of and carved out of wood. Brenda was looking for a bear to stand on her front porch and we just hung around while she shopped. I got to talking to the Hispanic fellow who ran the place, and he was very interesting. This place had literally 10,000 items of wood stuff for sale. He was currently in the process of making a carved roadside sign for a local restaurant. Beside that undertaking he had a log about 14 feet tall and about 5 feet in diameter. I asked him what that was for, and he said he was going to carve “The Virgin Maria” out of it. Would love to see that when it’s done. After the shopping we retired to the condo for Jerry and I to watch the Presidential debate, and the girls were off to the Apache Casino for more fun.

This morning while working on this writing had a nice discussion with the General Manager of the Crowne Point Condos, which is where we are staying. We had all agreed that compared to other time-shares we had stayed in, this place was not in the top echelon. The gentleman told as of how he and his wife had bailed on big careers and a life in California to take over management of this resort. He said that the previous management either didn’t spend their maint. money or didn’t spend it wisely. The place has gotten way behind on capital repairs and upkeep. We had noted that a lot of work was in progress or already done. He told us they had an ambitious plan to redo a lot of the interiors of the units. We commented to him that the staff had all been very friendly and helpful. We encouraged him to keep after his improvements.
More later,
Wes

New Mexico Pictures

Link to Picasa Web Album http://picasaweb.google.com/wegeorgeiii/NewMexicoAdventure2008#

New Mexico Adventure #6--Petroglyphs & Lava

Well today is Tuesday, and our first rainy day. Up here on the mountain it came in first last night as clouds wafting through the compound. Then it started misting, and by this morning it was raining. Yesterday we had a great day trip. We left here headed for Petroglyph National Monument. Jerry had programmed the GPS with this and another attraction we wanted to see. The GPS had us leaving Ruidoso on Rt. 70 then turning of onto some Apache tribal road on the reservation. We followed it cause it looked like a good short cut. Soon when it tried to make us turn on a one-lane dirt road, we decided this wasn’t the route for us. We went back to Rt. 70, went a little further, then the GPS wanted us to turn again. This time it was a reasonable looking two lane hard surfaced road, so we turned again. Turned out the hard surface road only ran up the mountain to the Apache high school, and once again the old GPS wanted us to turn on a 2 lane dirt road. We tried it thinking it might be a short way, but when the road started dragging the bottom of the car and was marked with painted arrows on the trees, we decided the GPS really didn’t know where it was going. We went back to the hard surfaced road, and forced Ms. GPS to take us via the main roads. When we got to the other side of the mountain range, we realized the short cut the GPS was using, pretty much went over the crest of the mountain that was between our destination and us.

We arrived at the National Monument to be greeted by a very helpful Forest Service person. She helped up fill out our day use permit, and gave us all kind of pointers about the hike. She even escorted Vickie to the ladies room, talking non-stop all the time. We decided she must be a little lonely babysitting a bunch of rock drawings in the middle of nowhere. We were warned to look out for rattle snakes and other desert denizens, took our map, walking sticks, water, and headed out. It was about a 1-mile hike, and we saw many interesting rock drawings (or Petroglyphs) and no snakes. Standing at the overlook sign saying Tularosa Basin, you could see the San Andres Mtns., White Sands Government land, and the El Mar Paris lava flow. The old gimp made it pretty well considering the walk was pretty rugged. My walking sticks again saved the day.

We left there and headed down the road to our other attraction for the day. Along the way we stopped at the 4 Winds Café at Carrizozo NM. We had a late lunch and speculated about an unsolved mystery in the parking lot. There was a Chevy Tahoe with Texas plates sitting in the parking lot with one of the back doors open. It was there when we arrived, and there when we left. Folks came and went in the restaurant, but no one ever approached the Tahoe. We think the occupants were snatched by aliens cause there was no one left anywhere around when we left.

From the restaurant, we went a short distance on NM 380, and ended up at Valley of Fires, which is a National Recreation Area. The Valley is where lava flowed and filled the valley 5000 or so years ago. It consists mostly of the hard black lava like in Hawaii, and is a very rough landscape. It contains a beautiful visitors center, and a bunch of campsites, many with full water and electricity. The camping is $18.00 a day with full hookups, and $15 with just water. The scenery is so beautiful I can imagine this campground stays pretty full when it’s not 115 degrees. When we were there today there was a great breeze blowing and temps in the high 70’s—no AC required and most of the campers had all their windows and screens open. The government has even built a big shower and bathroom building for the campers use. Once again our tax dollars at work for something good. Another cool thing, while we were riding around the campground, I spotted one of those old GMC sort of rounded motor homes that were built using the front wheel drive chassis from the late 70’s Toronado. It was in quite nice shape, and was nice to see one still plying the roads of America.

We availed ourselves of the Malpais nature trail that has been built out through the very rugged landscape. We couldn’t imagine how any type of civilization could ever traverse this indescribable landscape. Growing in and among the cranked and jagged lava are many types of cactus and drought tolerant plants. There really isn’t much soil for anything to grow on so most of the vegetation is quite specialized. The vista seems to stretch off to the distant horizon. The valley is also home to many desert birds, insects, and some small mammals. The coyote is probably the largest predator that is prevalent. Bats are known to habituate in old underground lava tubes that have not collapsed, making caves and a perfect microchlime for their existence. Standing looking down into the cracked and collapsed lava seemed like looking into a bottomless pit. The walk was around .66 of a mile and we made it handily, but after the earlier hike, everyone was ready to head home.

On the way back to the condo, we dropped Vickie off at the Apache Casino where she had spotted one of here favorite slot machines, and it was senior night. When we got back to the place, Jerry and I switched grills, and were able to build a fire smartly in the one without mechanical problems. We grilled last night’s hamburgers, and spent an interesting evening watching the opposing commentators on Fox News wrangle about the various national and political events. Later on Vickie called and was ready to come home. I went to pick her up, and the fog/mist had rolled in on the mountain. Returning on the way back up the hill, we saw 5 deer standing on the side of the road. They were quite different than the deer at home in that they had huge ears and little tails like rope. After that everyone was down for the night.
More later,

Wes

New Mexico Adventure #5--Cowboys & Aliens

Friday night and Saturday morning were a little rainy. We were a little worried about our visit to the Cowboy Symposium, but the weather cleared off and we headed out. (just after Jerry and I saw 4 wild turkeys walking in a line on the facing hillside) Vickie and I wore our cowboy hats, and she her boots. I had to be a cowboy with orange crocks but it worked out OK. The cowboy symposium was a little bit of everything, but all cowboy. They had vendors selling all manner of cowboy gear, jewelry, boots, cowgirl stuff, etc. etc. Interesting thing was everything being sold was top quality so it wasn’t like your usual junky flea market. Vickie bought a cool fanny pack to match a Rt. 66 tote bag her friend Mary K had given her. I found, and let Vickie buy me for my birthday, an exquisite hand made (by Sharon J’s) rustic lambskin blazer. We bought it from the lady who made it, and it was made in Mountainair NM. and she is shipping it home to us. Later Vickie tried on an old fashioned corset that they were selling. We got some good pictures of here in it, and she liked wearing it. She may look for one to order when she gets home.

Also at the symposium they had chuck wagon cooking contests, Dutch oven cooking demonstrations, biscuits cooked in a Dutch oven over a fire you could sample, axe throwing, milking demonstrations, mounted shooting demonstrations*, trick riding, music of all types (as long as it was western) on three stages, all types of barbeque to eat, and a vast assortment of people dressed in all manner of western garb. I used both my walking sticks and made it through the day pretty well. A good time was had by all and by mid afternoon we were ready to leave. Vickie decided to stay on at The Billy The Kid Saloon and Casino for a while. We pledged to get her home later and went on back to the condo. All in all, the Cowboy Symposium is really a big event in “These Here Parts”. Folks come from all the surrounding states and as sparsely populated as this part of the county is, it gives them a place to get together and have a big time.

*The mounted shooting demonstration was really impressive. Cowboys mounted on horses ride like the wind down through and back up a course shooting balloons mounted on sticks. It is sort of like barrel racing with guns. They have to ride down one side weaving around the pylons and shoot all the balloons, then round a barrel, switch guns, and ride back up the other side shooting all the balloons. One guy who was like the world champion, did one side with a gun, then held the reigns in his teeth and shot the other side with a lever action-repeating rifle. Really was an amazing demonstration.

Sunday morning we got up and headed off for Roswell to do the whole alien thing. Roswell is about 100 miles from where we are staying. Interestingly, by the time we got to Roswell our elevation had decreased from 7000 at the condo where we are staying to about 3200 feet. It was much easier to breathe. We were very surprised when we got to Roswell. It is a town of about 50,000 and has many large stores. We stopped at the Visitors Center, and got all the info we needed to see the region. The lady at the visitor’s center gave us these cool bags with some brochures and junk inside, and a place for labeling the “hazardous samples” we collected on the outside. The old original part of Roswell contains most of the alien stuff. We made the compulsory stop at The Alien Museum and Workshop. It is pretty much a tourist trap, but had a lot of informative stuff inside and only cost $5.00 admission. After the Alien Museum, we went across the street and found a cool abductee T-shirt.

After touring what we wanted to see in Roswell, we headed out to the Bitter Lake National Wildlife Refuge, which is near there. It was once again something to make you proud of your tax dollars. The Refuge consists of an underground river and numerous flooded sinkholes. This whole area is home to numerous water birds, and 90 some species of dragonflies. In fact they have a dragon fly festival every year.

After the Wildlife Refuge, we headed back to Ruidoso. Oh and an interesting thing—it seems there was something going on on the road between Roswell and Ruidoso. Both going and coming, we noticed an extra large amount of dead skunks lying in the road. Must have been like skunk mating season or something. Also on the trip home, we stopped at a really great “stuff” store. Their “stuff” was pretty pricey, but they had a couple things I’d never seen before. They had these really cool rocking metal turkeys for your yard. They were made with a polished rock for ballast, and would rock back and forth in the wind. In addition they had the most beautiful wind chimes I have ever seen. They were made out of heavy wall extruded aluminum pipe, and had the most deep melodious tone I have ever heard. We noted their web site and are going to investigate when we get home. Back to the condo for the night. Forgot to mention a great wall sign that the girls found, It said: “A good friend will come and bail you out of jail, but your best friend will be sitting there right beside you saying Damn, that was fun.” It really struck a chord with Vickie and Brenda, and the shopkeeper was dying to sell it to them. No sale—it just went in Wes’s pocket recorder.

We decided to stop on the way home, and get some food for dinner. We chose to grill some burgers, so we picked up all the fixings, and some charcoal plus lighter for the grills that are here and there around our complex. After we were home for a while, Jerry and I decided to build a fire and cook. We went out in the semi darkness, found the grill, loaded it with charcoal, and lit it. We went back inside and set a timer to come back and cook. The time was up so we gathered up all our stuff, a couple of appropriate adult beverages, and went to cook. Wrong—the fire never even tried to get hot. We had a flashlight this time so we investigated. It seemed the grill was so clogged up with unremoved ashes that it couldn’t get any air. So we spent some more time working on pushing the ashes out the two vent holes on either end. We then piled up the charcoal and lit it again. We went back in and waited again—returning once more to no fire. By this time it was getting very late, and we decided we would have snacks and wait for daylight tomorrow to scope out the grill situation. Two experienced grillers, and we felt like morons. Turns out in the light of day, the grill was faulty, it had no fire grate, and the charcoal never did burn.
More later,
Wes

New Mexico Adventure #4--On to Ruidoso

Friday morning we said goodbye to Santa Fe heading for Ruidoso. If you look at the map Ruidoso is South and East of Santa Fe. We left Santa Fe on NM 14, which is called The Turquoise Trail. It’s called this because along this route were many turquoise mines. First town on the “TT” was called Madrid and was pretty much your desert tourist trap. Seems it is noted for its artsy community that took over after the mining played out. They are known for their Christmas display, and I even saw some porta-johns festooned with Christmas lights. We continued on NM 14 and later stopped at Golden Mercantile, Est. 1918 in Golden NM. They had good quality turquoise and silver jewelry at reasonable prices. Vickie found a nice gift for her Mom. Golden as a town was your basic wide spot in the road. Near the end of the Turquoise Highway, is a turn off for the Sandia National Forest Scenic Byway. Just as we were making this turn, we were attacked by a wily tumbleweed, but Jerry masterfully missed it and it proceeded on its tumbling way.

We proceeded up the Scenic Byway, which would ultimately carry us to Sandia Crest overlook and ski area. At the turn off we were at about 6800 feet, and the road wound steadily up. We managed to again hit the mountains at just the peak of the Aspen color change. The many artists out capturing the beauty said that the weekends coming rain and wind would pretty much kill the colors. We continued on to the Sandia Crest overlook, which is at 10678 feet. Along the way we saw 2 bicyclists working their way up the grade. On one side the crest contains all the TV and Radio antennas for Albuquerque. The wind was blowing quite briskly and making an amazing amount of noise through the clustered antennas. We hiked up to the overlook railing, and all of Albuquerque was spread out below us. It was an indescribable sight with the wind blowing so hard my eyes were watering and colder than s_it. While we were on top the cyclists we had passed coming up arrived. I chatted with them and took their picture. I commented to them that to be able to pedal up this mountain in this thin air was something I couldn’t even dream of (or even dreamed of in my 20’s) There was a Forest Service gift shop also at the crest. We availed ourselves of that and found a couple of cool things; I got an interesting dancing Indian rawhide and stone necklace. Soon however, I was ready to go—breathing at 10678 feet and doing anything but sitting are pretty much incompatible for me. We headed back down and soon we were below 7000 feet and breathing better.

The rest of the way we took NM 55 until it intersects NM 54 then 380, 37, and finally NM 48 into Ruidoso. If you look at the map, NM 55 pretty much goes through the middle of nowhere. It is interesting in that it makes what I have named “L” turns. You go 50 miles 100% straight ahead, then make a 90, then go another 50 miles dead straight. There are a couple of little towns on the road, but they are half abandoned wide spots in the road. Ranch country pure and simple. The formation here is what we would call a high mesa. You can see mountains way in the distance but for the most part it is hundreds of square miles completely flat with occasional ridges running across it.

We had hoped to find lunch and fuel in one of the little towns, but there was nothing until we reached the small town of Mountainair. We saw a sign for The Schaffer Hotel Restaurant. We decided to try it out, and the food was great. As we went in we noticed the décor was really cool. While waiting for food, Vickie was prowling around, and discovered that they had filmed a Renee Zellweger movie there in August. The name of the movie is called My One and Only and the cast stayed in the Schaffer Hotel while filming in Mountainair NM. We noticed several other buildings in the town that were sort of spiffed up with a new coat of paint and the like which were probably also part of the set. After fueling up at Mountainair’s ONE gas station, we continued on our journey, climbing and winding our way through the mountains to Ruidoso. After a GPS initiated tour of the residential areas of the city, we ended up at our destination, the Crown Point Condominiums overlooking Ruidoso. We were smartly checked in by a helpful staff, and then went on a search for our room. Seems as though they had a little communications issue when they numbered the units. Our key said #806, but all we could find was units labeled like 6-5, 6-6, 6-7, 8-5, 8-6 etc and 2 buildings labeled 701, 702…..and 901, 902….. We tried the key in 8-6 thinking it must be the one, but the key wouldn’t fit the lock. After a couple more laps, we decided 8-6 must be it, so we went back for another try. Seems like the key fit the doorknob but not the dead bolt. In this day in time we normally tried the dead bolt first. Silly us, they don’t use the dead bolts, and 8-6 really means 806. We finally moved into our chalet and got landed. The view from our deck is pretty great.

Soon after, we made the compulsory run to the grocery store, in this case a Super Wally Mart. At the Super Wally Mart, it was wall-to-wall people due to the Cowboy Symposium being in town. Plenty of cowboy hats and boots to be seen everywhere. We made a 2 basket run for mixers, food and other necessities. After fighting our way through the crowded isles, we arrived at the check out to an efficient, pleasant, check out person. Who’d have guessed it at the Ruidoso Wally Mart so back to the condo, and crash for the night. Tomorrow it’s off to the Cowboy Symposium and we are all excited to learn what that might be.
More later,

Wes

New Mexico Adventure #3--Exploring Santa Fe

We got up Thursday, and availed ourselves of a fine continental breakfast. The Sage Inn has a very high-end continental breakfast, with everything but meat, and really great donuts. We set out on a walking tour of what we thought was something about trains—the new Railroad Park across the street. Turns out, the park was unfinished, and had nothing to do with trains, and a lot to do with art galleries. Walking, it seemed was not my strong suit that morning. I struggled back to the motel and had to resort to some chemical moderation for my limbs. Jerry suggested since the traffic seemed light we’d just take the car and park downtown. We loaded ourselves up, and headed for the center of Santa Fe. The first stop on our tour was Lortetto Chapel to see the Miraculous Stairway. (as seen on Unsolved Mysteries) Jerry dropped us off and went to park the car around the corner.

The Lortetto Chapel was built in 1873. You can look up the legend of the Chapel on the internet, but to make it brief: Legend has it the Miraculous Stairway to the choir loft in the chapel was built by a carpenter named Joseph using nothing but a T-square, a hammer, a saw, and tubs to soak the wood. After constructing the stairway he disappeared without seeking payment. No records have ever been found for the purchase of the materials used. Many believe the man to be an embodiment of St. Joseph the Carpenter. It was a very cool and beautiful place.

We left the chapel and by that time my chemical “help” had made walking OK again. We walked over a couple of blocks, and ended up in the city’s main square. On the way we passed a food stand that had a sign proclaiming it had been judged #1 in Santa Fe street food in 2008 serving Carnitas. We made a note to come back to it for lunch. On the right side of the square runs the Old Santa Fe Trail, which we found out started in St. Louis. It also was part of historic Rt. 66 back in the late 30’s. I walked across it and stood on the corner of Old Santa Fe and Palace Ave. Palace Ave is named for what is called The Palace of the Governors and is located on the bottom side of the square. The Palace was built in 1610 and is the oldest public building in America. It was used to house the ruling class in the early years and is now a museum.

We walked down the street beside the Palace (after going in the gift shop and getting some postcards) and came upon a hitching post in the street. The inscription on the plaque below it read: “The Roadrunner Cowbelles dedicated this hitching post at the end of the trail to American cattlemen and their horses for their glorious role in winning the West. 1776 to 1976.” Also across the street was the Inn of the Anasazi, which Jerry told me, was a tribe of Indians that disappeared. About this time we ended up back at the Plaza, and it was around lunchtime. We headed back to the street cart we had seen and ordered up four Carnitas from Roque’s. They were served by a great old man (probably Roque) who said he drove Rt. 66 in 46 in a 41 Ford. The Carnitas are marinated strips of beef, grilled along with onions and chili peppers wrapped in a flour tortilla, topped with Pico de Gallo. They were messy, hot, and wonderful.

After lunch, we headed back to the car, via many street vendors. While Vickie was talking to a guy about chili peppers, I spotted a very unusual turquoise and stone neck pendant with multiple leather straps. The price was reasonable, so I bought it for her. Then later Vickie bought an Indian cedar flute. After she bought the flute and tried playing it, Brenda asked the vendor guy how much for a knife in case she needed to slit her own throat. He said $20.

We retrieved the car from the municipal parking, and Jerry told me about a great system they had. When you park the car, the guy asks you how long you are going to be there. When you tell him, he looks up how much that will be on the card he gives you and that’s what you pay. Jerry asked him what to do if we stayed longer, and he said just come and tell him and pay the rest, sort of an honor system parking—highly unusual in this day in time.

We went back to the Inn and cleaned up a little, then decided to head out for an adventure afternoon. We took Brenda to a jewelry supply place she wanted to visit, and while she was inside, Jerry and I, sitting under a great shade tree, found this cool mountain loop on the GPS. When Brenda was done, we headed out for the scenic ride. The road wound its way up the mountain, from the Santa Fe elevation of 6400 feet to a termination of 10400 at the Santa Fe Ski Area. We didn’t realize it, but we are here at the peak time for New Mexico’s leaves. The mountains here are covered with Aspen trees, which at this time of the year are bright yellow. The mountainsides were painted with yellow and everywhere you looked artists were sitting and capturing the beauty. It was very cool and quite different than last fall when Vickie and I were in New England in the fall. Here it is green and yellow and there it was multicolored. Two very different scenes, both breathtaking.

When we arrived at the mountaintop, we found the ski area and a lot going on. They had one of the lifts running, and folks were riding it up another 1000 feet or so to the top of the summit. We decided we were not really dressed for the ride since we were already cold at the bottom, and the wind was blowing quite hard. (oh and we passed snow on the side of the road coming up) While we were walking out leaving, I noticed 12” or so of snow on the porch of the skiing day care center. I got up there and Vickie took my picture. I also made a snowball and threw it at the car when we got back to the parking lot. An interesting thing about being at 10400 feet for 30 minutes or so---we were struggling to breathe. The air is really thinner up that high, but it makes the sky really blue.

After our time at the top, we headed back down the mountain and back to the Inn. The girls asked us to stop by a local produce store they had seen down the street on the way back. The quality, price, and assortment of fruit and vegetables were unbelievable. In addition they had an old Mexican man outside custom roasting 25# burlap bags of chili peppers. He dumped them into a round wire basket thing with a motor to rotate it. On the back were four or five huge gas burners, and it literally charred the skin right off the peppers. They had pallets of different “heats” of peppers, and they were selling rapidly. Later we went out to Maria’s and had some great Mexican food (who would have thought it in Santa Fe) and then back to the room to rest up for the trip to Ruidoso tomorrow.
More later,

Wes

New Mexico Adventure #2--Driving to Santa Fe

After the festivities of the Balloon Fiesta, we checked out of our motel headed for Santa Fe via Los Alamos. We fired up the old GPS, and headed out through the backcountry of New Mexico. We soon left the outskirts of Albuquerque, and started seeing the rough deserty looking country we expect of the Southwest. I commented to my fellow travelers, “no matter how often I get to the Southwest, the beauty and sheer diffrentness amaze me”. (being the East Coast guy I am) Soon we saw our first Elk Crossing sign. We instantly found a reason to like New Mexico in that many of the back roads have 70 mph speed limits. Oh and at this time we discussed the morons in Congress that are once again dredging up the “National 55 mph speed limit”. Let’s hope they don’t figure out how to get that dinosaur passed again.

Our rental car has Sirius satellite radio, so I spent some time poking around that looking for something interesting. Only thing I figured out was you need a guide to use it. Will look up some stuff tonight on the Internet about channel lineup. There really is a lot of stuff on it—sort of like my cable at home. Too much to watch and a lot to wade through.

Climbing into the mountains, we came upon the Valles Caldera National Preserve. By the name caldera, this brings to mind the big hot lava looking areas in Yellowstone Park. This must be an old one that cooled and is now this huge mountain mesa covered with grass and zero trees. It is 89,000 acres and looking down from the road above, it is an incredible sight. I spotted a bunch of brown spots way down in the valley. We stopped at a pull off and through the binoculars it was a heard of elk. All and all it is a beautiful place. I recommend you look it up on the Internet.

We continued our drive through the mountains and came to Los Alamos. Naturally the conversation turned to history and the atomic weapons developed there. We were impressed by the security around the National Laboratory in Los Alamos. It all appeared to be very new and probably has been constructed since 911. While we were passing through the area, we saw a sign in front of the main gate that said “Mission Accomplished 1st Production Unit W76-1/MK4A Seaborne Deterrent Sept 2008”. If you Google W76-1/MK4A it appears the Bush administration had decided to greatly increase the number of submarine nuclear warheads we have at our disposal. Pretty scary to think about but also pretty comforting. If we ever have to turn Iran into a glass dish in the desert or remove North Korea from the map we have the stuff to do it.

On a lighter note, I made myself a note on my pocket recorder “Here we are in Los Alamos following the Atomic City Transport bus as it makes its rounds”. Seemed like the lighter side to the whole atomic thing. While we were riding along, I spotted a diner that had a bunch of cars around it. That is usually a good sign of some place to eat. Jerry did a great U-turn and we ended up back at the Hill Diner in Los Alamos. The special of the day was meatloaf sandwiches and chicken noodle soup. Jerry and I opted for the sandwich special with a side of deep fried green beans, and the girls both went for a dish of the soup. We ordered drinks and they arrived in quart glasses. (we figured that keeps down on trips for the waiter, and at roughly 6-7000 feet elevation, everybody is thirsty) Soon the food arrived and we were thoroughly pleased. The sandwiches were to die for, the soup was great, and the fried green beans, served with ranch as a dipping sauce, were a new experience. All in all the Hill diner which has been a Los Alamos institution for years was an excellent find. The service and food were great and the prices not crazy.

On the way out of town we saw a Los Alamos fire truck. Ever on the lookout for something interesting, I made the observation: “The Los Alamos fire department has a great anachronym on the front of their trucks, L.A.F.D. I observed “gee these guys could go to a fire and say they laughed at it” Don’t you just hate my bad puns? Then Jerry added that it would also work for Los Angles---wonder if they ever thought of that? L.O.L

After a great and scenic trip, we arrived at the Sage Inn in Santa Fe. We were greeted by an overwhelmingly attentive check in staff that attended to our every need. We found our rooms, and collectively decided that we would forgo a dinner outing after a late lunch. In addition we were all exhausted after the 36 hrs of intense activity. A good nights rest was had by all.
More later,

Wes

New Mexico Adventure #1--Getting there and the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta

Well here we are in Santa Fe New Mexico after what seems like a whirlwind 36 hours. We picked Jerry and Brenda up at 10 am Tuesday eastern time headed for the Raleigh airport and we were eating dinner in Albuquerque @ 8:00 pm mountain time last night. This morning we were up at 04:30 am to head for the International Balloon Fiesta Mass Ascension, and then around 11:00 am we left Albuquerque headed for Santa Fe. We arrived at Santa Fe about 4:00 pm and are safely checked into our rooms at the Sage Inn. In between we experienced a lot of stuff.

Arriving at Raleigh, we were greeted by a significantly cheerful TSA staff. I presented myself with my now perfected drill, which involves: removing everything from my body except minimal clothes (I’d go nude, but it would probably clear the airport), stepping up to the metal detector and politely declaring, “I need an assist, I have medical prostheses”. The nice man passed me quickly through the metal detector to the assist holding cell. A nice fellow named Jamal came over quickly, and waved his magic wand all over me, and then patted me down. As soon as he was done, I sprinted for the “person reassembly area” and got all my stuff back on and in. I surged ahead and beat both the girls and Jerry out of the reassembly area. This was a first for me ever.

We proceeded to locate our gate, and then on to the nearby Delta Crown Room. We have a pretty cool deal with American Express that gets us several free companion airfares a year along with admittance to the great airline lounges for frequent travelers. The Delta Crown Rooms offer complimentary adult beverages, tasty snacks, and all manner of daily reading materials. We availed ourselves heartily of their hospitality until it was time to adjourn to the boarding gate. The flight to Atlanta was uneventful but during some brief turbulence somehow the plane’s bouncing motions got in time with the video showing on the overhead screens. It seemed to make the video motionless to my eyes. It was an odd metaphysical moment. (prescription drugs could have been involved)

Upon arriving in Atlanta we were fortunate to have our connecting gate be in the same concourse (anybody who has flown through Atlanta will appreciate not going from A to D). We located our new gate and all agreed lunch was probably in order. There just happened to be a Krystal Burger just down the concourse from us. We availed ourselves of their fine fare and a few sliders later we boarded the plane for Albuquerque. The flight was long, cramped, and full, just the way I like it. We arrived in Albuquerque, collected our baggage without fanfare and made what seemed like a fifteen-minute bus ride to the rental car complex. We arrived at the Dollar Rental Car counter to find a long waiting line. Jerry had the Dollar Member’s Express privileges and slid right in ahead of everybody. We were significantly impressed. As we headed out to the rental car it just happened to be sunset over the mountains in Albuquerque, which was a beautiful vista. We collected the Dodge Charger that we were assigned and engineered all our luggage into its commodious but not user-friendly trunk. We carefully inspected the car noting any damage and headed out to find our motel, which ended up being perfectly located for the next days activities.

After checking into our motel (A Super 8 that was surprisingly spacious and nice) we were looking for some supper. The desk clerk suggested a place just down the street that served Mexican fare. (as opposed to New Mexican fare??) We took his suggestion and ended up at Cazuelas, which actually was in Rio Rancho NM instead of Albuquerque. We had an interesting experience there. When we arrived, there were cars in the parking lot, and the sign was on, but it looked like it was closed. As we were checking the open hrs on the door a young hostess came to the door and unlocked it to let us in. They had been closing early for lack of business, but opened up for us. We were glad they did, and had a fine and tasty meal. We then headed back to Mr. 8 to hit the hay for an early wake up call.

Reason for the early call was a discussion we had with a knowledgeable person in the motel lobby about what we need to do to effectively attend the International Balloon Mass Ascension at the International Balloon Fiesta Wednesday morning. According to this person and a couple other bystanders, we had to leave the Motel by 05:00 in order to beat the traffic and actually make it to the start of the Ascension. At 04:30 the clock went of and we headed out shortly after 5. (after grazing on the marginal “continental breakfast”) We arrived at the Balloon Fiesta Park smartly avoiding all the traffic and got a ride by some lovely young girls in a courtesy cart from the handicapped parking to the festivities. When we got there, we realized it was dark, cold, and the wind was blowing. We weren’t freezing but it was definitely chilly. Jerry was hungry and got a giant tasty looking breakfast burrito, and I settled for a mucho biggo coffee. Vickie just had to have cotton candy as soon as she spied it.

Soon however, the “Dawn Patrol” started warming up. What this means is a small group of hot air balloonists take to the air just at dawn. It was amazing to see them get filled up and take off. Every time one of them fired their propane burners, the balloon lit up like a great big light bulb. What’s really amazing is you can get right down amid the flight preparations. They encourage you to mingle and talk with the balloonists and crews. The heat from the burners as they fired them was really great.

After the dawn patrol, came the first balloon up after it was actually light. This was the Continental Airlines balloon, one of the main sponsors. It got to carry up the American flag, and they play the star spangled banner. It was very exciting. Soon after that all the international balloonists start getting ready. What was surprising is that out of the darkness covering the balloon park there materialized hundreds and hundreds of trucks with crews preparing to launch balloons. The field is probably as big as 4 or 5 football fields, and covered with smooth grass.

The balloons are inflated with big fans first, and then start firing their propane burners to generate hot air and lift. Soon they are straining to rise against the strength and weight of the crew holding them in place. Each balloon must be cleared for take off by an official. All the officials (and there are a bunch of them) are dressed head to toe in black and white stripes and look sort of like clowns. They run around whistling the balloons to freedom in a never-ending stream. It seems when one balloon goes up there are three more preparing to take its place. Pilots from 26 different countries attended this event. We watched the entire lift off, and it was over 2 hrs. There must have been 750 huge balloons.

After the balloon ascension, we headed back and checked out of the Super 8, headed for Santa Fe via Los Alamos starting on the second part of this carazy day.
More later,

Wes