Arriving Ruidoso

Monday, August 8 - We worked our way out of Roswell about 10:00 this morning.  We both lost our sense of direction in this town (must have been the alien forces) and never did see the town, but we got ourselves onto Hwy 70 without incident.  The landscape has changed drastically through here -- just barren, high desert.

We got to the edge of Ruidoso about 11:30 but came upon a road block due to a traffic accident.  They were waiting for the helicopter to air-vac at least one of the victims out.  Police were directing traffic on a detour through a residential neighborhood but they weren't sure if we could make it, and Joe was worried about tree limbs, so we just waited it out. 

We sat there for about 45 minutes, but the helicopter finally took off, and so did we.

We were only about 5 miles from the campground.  On the way, we passed the Ruidoso Downs horse racing track.  We will go there sometime this week -- our first horse race. 

Mazie was waiting for us at the entrance to the campground, and we got all settled in, then visited with them for a while.  Eventually, we went out to dinner at one of the casinos (yeah!) (I actually came out $27 ahead, but Joe lost $20, so we aren't rich yet).  We had a great dinner, then came back to the campground.  We are in the mountains, elevation around 7800 feet.  This is a beautiful campground, lots of trees, and it has tiered levels that go quite a bit higher (we are on the lower level).  There are supposed to be bears around, so I'll be on high alert.

We're looking forward to staying put for a few days and enjoying some cooler weather.  Dave and Mazie have been here many times, so they will be our tour guides of the area.