Santa Fe to Ruidoso, N.M.


I've got to check my old B&W photos, but I think I took this same shot of my surname 42 years ago!



Leaving friends is always an unpleasant part of life. While traveling, it is no different. Along this path, I had been thinking much of a pair of friends I met and got to know in early service years, 43 years ago.




John and Quita and a map with an X on it showing their hidaway in Mexico!



Air Force Tech School was my focus, but in it, you meet people you wish you could know forever. John(Tony) and Quita(Marquita) George were 2. Thanks to the Internet, it was so easy now to use the "White pages" on Google and find out where they were and their phone number.



We reconnected and had a wonderful 2 days with them. Found out how interestingly parallel our interests in life have been... THAT is a curious thing I should contemplate more.

Santa Fe has always been a beautiful town. Now,.... just too touristy for us, but that is happening most everywhere.


Anyway, Santa Fe had grown extremely in 43 years, but it is still a really nice town. Well, OK, another comment... driving performances.....YIKES it's scary, but outside town...back in the countryside, art, beauty and slapstick were everywhere.

An "eye" for art and such are a big part of our travel's blank page with which we try to fill everyday. Out here, it is everywhere. Art is American and America is Art.

Dinner at the High Finance restaurant atop the Tram...a MUST DO if any of you visit this city, was superb. Not much matches this place. I think I only rate the now missing Window's of the World restaurant atop one of the World Trade Towers in New York City, or a wonderful restaurant overlooking Port o Prince, Haiti that I once frequented in the early 80's.

HIGH FINANCE VIEW:
Thousands of feet above the city of Alburquerque, N.M. in near frigid fall air, the city appeared crisp and clear. The Tram ride up here was spectacular.


From Santa Fe south to Ruidoso/thru White Sands, we picked our dirt patch behind a Trucker's gas station and lived with the results.. not bad/not wonderful. Breakfast inside their establishment was HUGE and delicious/truckers portions of course.



Our quest for the day was the White Sands National Monument, west of Alamogordo N.M.
We arrived and did that. It was a very special place.. Gypsum had eroded from the mountains to settle into a lake below and then over millennium had drifted with the wind East to form what we now use as a military missile range and park system pleasure.

Our little Rat Terrier "Lady" thought this was a 'Day at the Beach'.





Afterwards, we had time to head N.E. to Ruidoso. A Ranger's guidance led us to a campground that would not be closed until it snowed here. WRONG!


WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE




Sands of Gypsum floated dunes 30' tall for miles. Rather than Granite granules we are used to when we 'think' sand, this gypsum has eroded from cliffs far to the east, to compose and create this rare part of earth.

No squeaking underfoot, the gypsum White Sands were almost as hard as concrete to walk upon and drift slowly.



We arrived at 6:30 with the last of the days sun to find the signs wrong leading us 3 miles more of skinny mountain roads that began to scare the p___ out of Dorothy/ especially when I finally decided to turn around up there and hang the a__ end of this M.H. off the cliff to descend! :) twas fun for me!!





Although a bit stiff, maybe rigid, many in life shoot high...


After we went to bed, one apparent Apache awoke us with his unlocking of the gate behind us. We had backed up to the gate that was locked for the season... and off road for a 100 yds, thinking we were out of site and would not see anyone for 8 months. Wrong again, as 4-5 other 'Gate crashers' arrived during the night and morning. THEY, had the right, I'm sure; the Indian nations out here can hunt and fish and use the land as they should and I have no problem with that...I only felt a bit between a rock and hard place for the moment.






Some, just shoot 'straight'! (I'd advise standing to the side)


At 6:30 a.m. a guide for hunting in a massive pick-up truck,knocked hard on our door telling us to leave. I snapped upright in bed answering him, dressed pronto and got out to talk. He was OK and not as gruff as I originally thought.














Some, live quite 'contained' I'd just finished browsing thru a wonderful photo book on this eco-friendly lifestyle/archetecture...Find It for MORE!






He understood, I understood. An afterthought was, and this has happened over the last month, is that I think I would really love the experience of sitting and chatting with any of these men and women I have met from the Indian Nations here. They seem very friendly and engaging. It is MY fault for not finding a way to slow down my interests... I know that. Hmmm.?




Yet others seem duplicous, mulit- faceted, or schizo! no matter, they are easy to read/only they don't know it! :)





I think my love for travel is also a love for knowledge and a love for connectivity. Along our path we are learning and growing. It's good.









But after all; It just might all be the impressions of a Jackass or Two. (Be easy on "Rusty", he doesn't get all my jokes!)


who said that!!