I was home in Virginia for about a week before going to New Mexico to visit my dad. It took me a little while to get excited about my trip since I spent my time before my trip studying for the GRE and trying to get my grad school applications finished. I was also realizing how difficult it was having a month off of work and trying to pinch every penny. However, once on the plane to Albuquerque, I was grateful to have something to do for the next ten days and not have to worry about spending much money.
I had a brief layover in Minneapolis and was flying into Albuquerque by early afternoon. It was interesting to see the changing landscape from the plane, especially the snow-covered mountains in New Mexico surrounded by the brown of the desert (a combination I realized I'd never really seen before). Dad picked me up at the airport and we went to Old Town for some lunch and a quick look for the chocolate shop we'd visited a few years ago before beginning the three hour drive south to Ruidoso. When visiting New Mexico before, I'd really liked the part I'd seen, but it was a very limited portion of the state. The drive south began by leaving the mountains of Albuquerque for the seasonally-brown Rio Grande valley, with clusters of mountains emerging periodically on the horizon. After an hour or so (and after passing the herd of Texas longhorns) heading south, we exited the highway to start east on a two-lane state highway that cut across the north part of the White Sands Missile Range near the Trinity site (site of the first Atomic Bomb detonation) and the site of the reputedly seventh-best burger in the world (a green chile cheeseburger). Near the town of Carrizozzo, we crossed the Valley of Fire to start into the mountains to Ruidoso, the mountain resort town where my dad now lives. We had about enough time to drop off our stuff at my dad's condo before heading out to his favorite watering hole, Dreamcatchers, where we finished the night.(photos: A view of Virginia's Eastern Shore and the Chesapeake Bay over the Hampton Roads area and penninsula; snowy New Mexican mountains and the desert; Fat Tire, a Colorado beer not often found out east, sopapillas, and green AND red chile posole as my first meal in New Mexico; and a view towards the Sacramento Mountains and Sierra Blanca (our destination); Dad overlooking the Valley of Fire, a valley full of volcanic rock full from a geologically recent lava flow; and a local and popular microbrew from New Mexico (surprise).)
Friday I met my dad at his office before we met his associates for a lunch meeting at a Texas bbq joint (also served with the obligatory green chiles and jalepeños) and tagged along to the tour of a nearby ranch for a military benefit they were all planning. (photos: View towards Sierra Blanca from the Cook Canyon area; snow-covered desert on the way to Santa Fe; La Fonda Hotel, the end of the Santa Fe trail, near the plaza; the nativity scene in the basilica, complete with chihuahua; and the oldest statue of the Virgin Mary in the country (complete with a full head of human hair).)
(photos: The gothic cathedral with its New Mexican influences, still decorated for Christmas; wood and paper flowers; local American Indian artisans in front of the Palace of the Governors selling their crafts; some of the ever-present adobe; and the very understated New Mexican state capitol.)
(photos: Full moon rising over the desert; outside the No Scum Allowed Saloon; music at the No Scum, complete with a banjolin (combo of a banjo and mandolin); awesome elephant-skin cowboy boots; and some of my new friends from the No Scum in front of the portrait of Billy the Kid.)
(photos: A Roswell institution, complete with specially-decorated street lamp; an exhibit in the UFO museum emphasizing the existence of UFOs based on comments from past US presidents; your standard Roswell alien autopsy scene; a map of the Big Room, the largest room in Carlsbad Caverns -- note the scale of the 747 in the corner of the graphic on the sign; and a view of a side nook in the caverns.)
(photos: A view down the Big Room -- note the interpretive sign in the lower right corner for scale; a close-up of a pillar in the Hall of Giants; the same pillars from further out; and a giant statue in a town halfway between Carlsbad and Roswell essentially in the middle of a gas station parking lot.)
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