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
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
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