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
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
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