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,
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
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