November 7-8, 2020
It seems it’s been a while since we’ve gotten out of town. My last post was in early September. We did make a short trip up to Gunnison, CO, in early October but I didn’t take any pictures and it was a rather uneventful trip, so I didn’t bother making a post about it. However, that means it’s been nearly a month since we’ve traveled. Unacceptable.
So we made a fairly last minute decision to take a quick, overnight trip to Ruidoso.
We left Saturday morning and made the drive to Capitan, New Mexico, stopping to see the Smokey Bear Historical Park. The town of Capitan is very proud of its connection with the wildfire prevention campaign icon. The Smokey Bear Historical Park is on Smokey Bear Blvd, right down the street from Smokey Bear Motel and Smokey Bear Restaurant, and around the corner from Smokey’s Country Market.
I was expecting a larger park, like a state park or something of that size. No, it was a small city park. It was beautiful there though. It was a nice walk that ended with us coming across the final resting place of Smokey himself. After our brief walk through the garden, we left for the 25 minute drive into Ruidoso to the MCM Elegante Resort where we had a room booked and waiting for us.
Before checking in, we headed into the Midtown shopping district, a short stretch on Sudderth Drive in Downtown Ruidoso. We tried to stop to grab some bric-a-brac but the area was crowded and parking was hard to find so we temporarily abandoned the idea in favor of finding some lunch.
We stopped at Grill Caliente on Sudderth where we had chips with a queso/salsa/guacamole trio. For my entrée, I had a grilled pork tenderloin sandwich with an amazing pineapple chipotle sauce and avocado on a jalapeno sourdough bread and Brandy had the mushroom swiss burger.
After lunch, we headed back to the hotel where I promptly fell asleep for a two hour nap. Waking up in the dark in a strange bed is jarring to say the least. I plugged in our travel Roku player, and sat for a bit and watched some TV. Before long, I was ready for dinner. I made my way to the bar in the lobby of the hotel where they serve pizza and wings. I’m glad I placed my order when I did, it took over an hour before I got the food. At 7:30, I was walking back into the room with dinner. We finished the evening watching TV.
Sunday morning, we awoke to find that it had rained overnight. In fact, when I got up, it was still raining a bit. I quietly showered and got dressed then went to the lobby for a coffee before breakfast was served. I sat on the west-facing patio watching the light rain while the sun came up over the Sierra Blanca mountains. Once the sun got too bright for my oh-so-sensitive eyes, I moved in and finished my coffee in front of the fireplace in the lobby.
Once Brandy got up, we had breakfast then packed up and checked out. We made the mad dash to the car in the rain and gusty wind. We started heading back toward Midtown but nothing was quite open yet so we drove around for a bit, finding ourselves at Grindstone Lake in the southern portion of Ruidoso. During the drive, we happened upon a small family of elk grazing in cabin’s front yard. We made it up to the lake where the wind was still blowing and the unpaved parking lot was quite muddy. I got as close as I could to the lake where I got out for some pictures.
As we continued driving, we happened upon a couple of deer grazing on the side of the road. We continued on and crossed a river where we spotted around 10 or 12 deer drinking from Rio Ruidoso.
Once the shops in Midtown opened, We headed back to the main drag and popped into a shop where Brandy bought me the most wonderful calavera for my birthday. It looks amazing sitting on my souvenir shelf. (Thank you love!)
We hopped back into the car and after stopping for snacks, made the quick 3 hour drive home.
Considering it was a quick overnight trip, it was a wonderful getaway. I got to decompress, see some new sights and it was super close. Brandy says it will be a frequent trip for us if we’re ever jonesing for a trip to the mountains. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve posted pictures on the Photo Diary page, be sure to check that out.
Up next, a long weekend birthday trip to Crested Butte next weekend. It’s snowing up there already so we’re pretty eager to make that trip.
And I leave you now with this quote from Jack Kerouac’s novel Desolation Angels:
“So shut up, live, travel, adventure, bless and don’t be sorry.”
(BTW, with all the wanderlust I’m experiencing, I suppose Kerouac is someone I should try reading…)
Until Thanksgiving week…
-Phil