Day 1 in Ruidoso

Tuesday, August 9 - How nice it was to wake up to 54 degrees this morning!  We'll probably catch colds with that drastic change.  We toured around the area today, starting out by going to Dave's nephew's cabin here.  We met Jim (cousin) and Rita last night, and Dave's sister this morning at the cabin.  They came here a few years ago to meet Dave and Mazie and Rita fell in love with the cabin they stayed in, so they built one just like it a few doors down.  When we arrived, there were two deer right across the street, and a mama deer with two fawns (they still had their spots!) walking right down below their cabin.  There are bears in that area too, but of course they stayed out of sight.  After we left there, Dave took us to the Smokey Bear Museum.  The real Smokey was found in this area in 1950 in a forest fire in the Capitan Mountains, and after a magnificent career in Washington D.C. (they even retired him), he was laid to rest here.

They have a nice little museum about Smokey, and we watched a 10-minute film that told about his rescue and the Smokey the Bear fire prevention campaign that was already underway.  We left there, had lunch at the Smokey Bear Restaurant (of course), then made a loop drive that took us through the old town of Lincoln (home of Billy the Kid).  There were lots of old buildings there, some renovated and some crumbling.

We circled back to town, then they dropped us off at the RV and took Dave's sister back to the cabin.  Joe and I rested, read, watched a little TV.  We had a little rain shower then, but it didn't amount to much.  We had clouds most of the day, and it probably only made the low 80's, very nice!!!  When Dave and Mazie got back, it was happy-hour time, then Mazie and I went back to the casino for the evening.  We had a good time, we both came out a little ahead, but I kept her out past her bedtime. 

This morning (Wednesday)  it is 57 degrees, another beautiful day in Ruidoso.

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.

New Mexico

Sunday, August 7 - We left our very nice campground in Amarillo at 9:30 this morning, 81 degrees.  This campground is probably the best one we've stayed at as far as amenities, facilities, and people.  They lead you to your campsite, have a great indoor pool, coffee and donuts available in the morning and they visit with people as they sit in the club room, which is where the check-in desk in.  We would recommend this one to everyone -- Amarillo Ranch RV Park.

Yesterday as we left the Oklahoma City Memorial on I-40, we hit a traffic back-up, that we assumed was due to road construction, since we had seen sights about that.  But as we got to the exit (finally) to the outlet mall, we found out the traffic jam was shoppers taking advantage of the tax-free holiday weekend.  As soon as we passed that exit, we sailed right along.

Back to Sunday, we got off the interstate and took US 60 to New Mexico, and then US 70 into Roswell, where we spent the night.  In Texas, we passed through Hereford, proclaimed as the Beef Capital of the World, and from the smell of it, I would agree.  We saw lots of cattle feedlots right along the highway, and twice we saw cowboys riding through the lots, checking on the cows.

Grain elevators dotted the landscape, and there was some farming as well, cotton and corn we think.  This one was in Boniva, but we saw them scattered along for miles in this West Texas area.  I always enjoy seeing the feedlots, in spite of the smell -- reminder of my CSC/IMC days in Terre Haute.  I recall a lot of these town names from call reports we used to have to work on that our field salesmen would submit.

 We passed an abandoned gas station with the price posted at $1.39.  Joe thought he might just pull in here and wait for them to reopen.   The temperature held about 88 degrees across this part of Texas.  We crossed into New Mexico at 11:30 a.m., and the temperature had warmed up just a little --91 degrees.  We stopped in Clovis for groceries, fuel and lunch, we had right at 100 miles in so farm.

This New Mexico highway was a four-lane, with very little traffic, so Joe got the bright idea that I should drive for a while (so he could take a nap).  So I did.

But his plan to sit there and do nothing was not very realistic -- I wanted to give him a taste of what the co-pilot duties are.  So he looked for a campground, checking two different directories; he looked at the map to figure out where the campgrounds were; he had to take a couple of pictures.  I mentioned that I was thirsty and there was lemonade, but he just told me to take a sip of his watered-down soda.  And I didn't even ask for a snack, so I let him off easy there.  He did complain that he didn't get a nap in because I kept him too busy.

 Just before we hit Roswell, I pulled over and we switched back to our normal positions.  I can drive fine as long as I don't have to make any sharp turns, or heaven forbid that I pass someone -- who would I ever know when I had cleared them (I guess I would need a spotter).  But just after he took over, we hit strong wind gusts, and our awning came loose -- he had me stick my head out my window to see what was going on, and I could see a few inches of fabric hanging down, so we pulled over and got out the duct tape.  We knew one of the latches had not been holding very good, so he got it taped up and we were good to go.  I called several campground in Ruidoso, thinking we might just go on in one day early (he didn't think he could do this while I was driving), but they were all full, so we stayed in Roswell.  WE got in 230 miles today, and got off the road about 3:30 (we changed time zones again, so we gained another hour).  This campground had an outdoor swimming pool, so after we got set up we went over and swam for a little while.  This water was surprisingly chilly too.  One more day of driving -- and that is only about 70 miles -- then we get to stay put for a week.  Really looking forward to the mountains (and cooler temperatures) of Ruidoso.

Oklahoma City to Amarillo

Saturday, August 6 - We walked over to the casino for breakfast (did NOT play), and then pulled out.  It was 9:15 a.m., already 91 degrees.  We found our way to the Oklahoma City National Memorial and Museum (missed the first turn because Lucille was a little late with her directions), and lucked out with street parking for whole rig, so we didn't have to unhook the car.  It took a couple of passes, and a quick around-the-block, but it worked out, and we only had to put money in three meters.  As we walked up to the entrance to the Memorial, we saw the fence that was still filled with memorials and momentos from visitors here.  The fence was supposed to come down when construction on the Memorial was completed, but it was decided that it should remain as a reminder of Oklahoma's spirit in the recovery process, so they have left standing a section of about 200 feet.

As we walked through the Gates of Time, we saw the beautiful reflecting pool and the Museum, which is housed in the former Journal Record newspaper building that withstood the bombing.  The pool occupies  what was N.W. Fifth Street and is described:   "a shallow depth of gently flowing water helps soothe wounds, with calming sounds providing a peaceful setting for quiet thoughts." 

The water in this pool is only an inch or two deep, but it makes a very solemn setting for this Memorial.  To the right is the Field of Empty Chairs, each of the 168 chairs symbolizing a life lost, with the smaller chairs representing the 19 children killed.  Arranged in 9 rows, one for each of the 9 floors of the building, they are placed according to the floor on which those killed were working or visiting.  They are even placed in the approximate location of where they sat, or where they were, at the time of the bombing.

Another tribute is the Survivor Tree, a 90+ year old American Elm which, amazingly, did survive the bombing.

Inside the Museum, there are 3 floors containing exhibits.  We took lots of pictures, but I am just posting the one showing the damaged area which they have left as an exhibit itself.

There were lots of pictures of the building with the the walls crumbling, an area with a photo and momentos of each victim, lots of artifacts that were found, and on and on.  The grounds and museum are very moving, and they did a wonderful job of reminding us of the horrors of that day.

We left there just about noon and headed across Oklahoma.  I had forgotten that Oklahoma has red dirt, much like Alabama.  And we saw evidence of brush fires along the highway in several different places.  We also passed a wind farm just before we left Oklahoma.

We stopped for fuel (again) and lunch, and crossed into Texas about 3:30.  It had gotten up to 107, but we hit a few sprinkles just as we hit Texas, and the temperature dropped 24 degrees in 25 minutes -- down to a cool 83.  The little thunderstorm also, however, brought a pretty strong wind with it -- probably 30 mph.  Joe was hanging on the steering wheel pretty good for a while, while I kept an eye on the clouds to make sure no tornadoes were going to catch me by surprise, since we were in tornado alley. 

We saw a brush fire off in the distance here too.  It has been so dry down here I'm sure everything growing was trying to capture every drop that fell today -- which wasn't much.

I didn't expect us to make Amarillo today, especially since we spent 1 1/2 hours at the Museum, but since we were driving the interstate, we made better time and got here about 5:30.  It was back up to 97 degrees by then, but that was a lot better than the 107-111 we've been dealing with.  The campground we picked out is right next to a water park that looked like a lot of fun.

It's also next to The Big Texas steakhouse, that offers a free 72-oz steak (we did NOT check that out).  It is a nice campground, so we got checked in and I immediately went over and did the laundry.  Then we went swimming in their indoor pool which was amazingly chilly.  As the sun set, there were some pretty clouds out there, and some lightning, but I think the rain is over.

Joe drove 283 miles today, and we have 2 days to go the next leg, which is about 300 miles, to Ruidoso, NM, so maybe we can get back to our 200-mile-per day limit tomorrow.  We've put in some long days this week, with lots of miles for us retired folks.  We probably need a rest!

Pierce Arrow Show

Friday, August 5 - Our last show was scheduled at 7:30 last night, so we left about 6:00 for dinner.  We attempted to go to the Golden Corral, which was practically next door to the theatre, but the line was too long, so we went across the street to McFarlin's and got right in.  The show, Pierce Arrow, was a quartet of male singers who were very good.  The bass holds two Guiness records, one for the lowest note ever sang, and one for the widest range.  They sang a mix of mostly country and gospel, and had a comedian who was excellent  -- actually, I thought the comedian was the best part of the show.  They closed the show with a patriotic song called "Have We Forget," which was very moving. 

Comedian Jarrett Dougherty, playing his "toaster."










They also had a woman who sang a few songs, alone and with the quartet, and a 14-year old girl made her debut with them.  All in all, it was very entertaining.

 This theatre has been reviewed as the most beautiful showroom in Branson, and the comedian is also supposed to be the best in town.  This was my least favorite of the 3 shows we saw, but that is because of the type of the music -- I don't know many country songs, or gospel songs for that matter.  It's all a matter of taste, and they certainly were very good.
 
Friday morning we got another early start -- we knew we had miles to travel today.  We left the campground at 8:10, stopped for fuel and breakfast sandwiches at the convenience store and were on our way by 8:25.  We left the pretty green rolling hills of Missouri and breezed through Arkansas and hit Oklahoma at 11:10 (bumpity, bumpity, Joe says).  The temperature was 102 and moving on up.

When we crossed into Oklahoma, we were on Indian Nation property and I never did see the Oklahoma State sign.  We started looking for a place to have lunch, with some shade.  Joe missed the first possibility, but found an abandoned gas station again, so he pulled off there.  It had a tree, but wasn't putting out much shade.

So he just made a pit stop here and we moved on.  Luckily, we found a little city park just on the edge of Locust Grove, so we did have shade.  We took an hour break, then it was back at it.

We topped off our gas tank here, we found gas for $3.459.  Then we crossed the Grand River.

The temperature kept on moving up  How hot was it?   It was so hot even the cows weren't eating.

We drove through a wide spot in the road named Mazie, Oklahoma, but I wasn't quick enough to get a picture either of the city limits or of the water tower.  We made our way across Hwy 412, then down US 69 to I-40, skipping Tulsa.  It is brown and dry in Oklahoma.  We came upon a brush fire right beside the road that they were fighting, and we saw on the evening news that there were several of these springing up.  We crossed a huge Lake Eufaula right on I-40.

I found a casino just outside of Oklahoma City with free parking, so we pulled in there, not knowing what to expect.  There's a truck stop on the parking lot as well, and we got behind this huge over-sized load -- don't even know what it was but there were 13 axles on it.

We got off the road about 4:00, the temperature was 112.  If it got any hotter after that, I don't even want to know.  It is supposed to be 108 Saturday, another record here.  The campground was just one strip along the back, but the spots were paved, and it had 50 amp electricity.  Actually it was quite nice, and it was free!  We hooked up the electricity and went inside the casino to cool off.  I think we even came out $10 ahead!

 

It was a long day -- Joe drove 309 miles.  So he still has it in him, but he didn't like it!