Sunday, June 8
Happy Anniversary to son John and wife Carol in San Antonio!
With a recommendation from the RV park office, Jim and I set out to go to J Bar J Country Church this morning. We really didn’t know what to expect, but we were absolutely thrilled with what we found.
As we arrived 15 minutes early, we found the congregation singing old country hymns with an accompanying country band. We quickly signed in, found seats, and added our voices to the crowd. What an uplifting experience. We sang songs from our youth that churches today ignore and we sang all the verses without missing a beat. Believe me when I say, the band does not slow down…no dragging of the tunes, that’s for sure!
Promptly at 10:00 the service began with 6 more favorite hymns out of the Heavenly Highway Hymnal. (Isn’t that a cool name?) This was certainly what our souls needed this day. The assistant pastor delivered the morning message on Progressive Christianity stressing the fact that we never know what God can do. But, it all starts with fervent prayer which includes 1) the intensity of asking 2) the integrity of asking and 3) the immensity of the answer. It was certainly a powerful message that hit home for Jim and me.
Back at home in the RV park, we fixed a quick bite to eat and headed for the bed. It was nap time!
That night Jim was glued to the television to watch the Celtics take on the Lakers while I messed around on the computer. With a win in the making, I headed on to bed letting Jim root Boston on.
Monday, June 9
We had decided that today we needed to go back to Artesia to help pack up some more of Edith’s belongings and that we’d just spend the night with Jean since I also needed to finish up some grandbaby shower invitations for Susie. Also, the motorcycle is ready so on the way back, we’ll pick it up.
However, before leaving in the Vibe, we met up with sister Carol and husband Cal at the Travel Center. It has been really cool to get to see Carol and Cal so much lately! There are some real benefits to this life of retirement. Though Cal still has many difficulties, he is able to get around some and enjoy life.
Once in Artesia, we spent 3 hours boxing up kitchenware that they didn’t need and I washed our laundry at the same time. Nothing like killing 2 birds with one stone! (We didn’t even have to pack this time…clean clothes would suffice!)
Suppertime found us eating with the Terpening clan at Chapz, a restaurant that Jim and I had not gone to before. We all enjoyed some really delicious Mexican food and good company.
Tuesday, June 10
After leaving Jean’s and Edith’s, Jim and I pointed the car towards Roswell where he would hop on the retuned, re-tired cycle and ride it to Ruidoso with me following in the Vibe. Fortunately, we left the flatlands before the heat rose above 98 so Jim didn’t have too tough of a ride.
Once home, after unloading and putting everything away, we preceded to head for the hills on the cycle. It has been way too long since we’ve just gotten to ride for the fun of it.
At 5:50, we arrived at J Bar J Country Church for the Tuesday night service which included a pot luck dinner. Without going into great detail again, I’ll just say that once again we found ourselves thrilled with the service. During the praise and prayer time, Jim’s phone went off…oops! He slipped outside to check and found a message from Heather. What an answered prayer! She has landed a job as the Director of College Counseling in a small private school in the Dallas area which means that they will not have to move! Thank you, God, for answered prayers! For us, this meant that we can continue to see them when we go to Mineola to see Edith (once we get her moved!).
We finished up with church services around 8:15 and returned home where we spent the rest of the night visiting with our kids, friends, and family on the net and phone as we kept track of the Celtics and Lakers game on TV.
Wednesday, June 11
Boo…hiss! Our first full day to have the cycle and the wind was forecast to begin around 9:00 or 10:00. Gusts were expected (and delivered) to be in the 50 MPH range.
Therefore, we hit the trails of the upper canyon this morning before going to the Inn for breakfast.
We chose the upper canyon route since the boys and I spent many summers when they were young staying at the Dan Dee Cabins (top right photo)
Then it was home to cover the cycle and hunker down for the rest of the day.
However, I spent my time wisely…planning tomorrow’s cycle ride since it’s supposed to be a beautiful day.
Thursday, June 12
Happy Anniversary to Susie and James in Hobbs.
Jim: When we looked at the Ruidoso guide that we received when we checked in here at Twin Spruce, we found that the Spencer Theater offers free tours of the facility each Tuesday and Thursday morning at 10:00. Since we had barely even heard of the Spencer Theater, and we didn’t have anything pressing on the agenda except riding the cycle, we decided we’d ride up there to see what it was all about.
What we found, after about a twenty mile ride through the countryside, was truly a “jewel on the mesa.” The Spencer Theater for the Performing Arts, a vision by Jackie Spencer, is a 50,000 square foot complex that houses a 5,000 square foot stage and a 514-seat theater area.
Designed by architect Antoine Predock, the facility silhouettes Sierra Blanca, a 12,003-foot glacial peak that hovers in the distance. Rising seven stories in height, the facility is encased in 440 tons of sparkling white limestone that was quarried in Spain and cut in Italy before being shipped to New Mexico. 
Because of my previous life, I was particularly interested in the backstage area, where I found that in addition to ample shop, storage and dressing areas, the fly space contains 95 battens (for “flying” sets, curtains, etc.), with nearly 5 ½ miles of counter-balanced steel cable.Within the lobby and other parts of the building are nearly three million dollars worth of permanent glass art, commissioned by Mrs. Spencer from Dale Chihuly, the world’s foremost glass artist. Works include blown-glass representations of Indian Paint Brush, a Persian Wall, and the Glowing Sunset Tower that graces the entry way.
Headline performers for the 2008 summer season include The Smothers Brothers, Chuck Mangione, Pam Tillis, The Fab Four, Esteban, and Kathy Mattea.More information about the Spencer Theater can be found at http://www.spencertheater.com/.
After our two-hour tour of the Spencer, we climbed back on the Voyager and wheeled off down the highway to historic Fort Stanton, one of seven United States Army forts that were established following the conclusion of the 1848 war with Mexico. The mission of the army presence in the New Mexico Territory included subduing Indian tribes, protecting settlers, promoting commerce, and confronting the invading Confederate forces during the Civil War. In 1861 the fort was abandoned to Confederate soldiers. Retreating Union troops attempted to set fire to the fort, but rain extinguished the blaze. In the ensuing months, Mexican, Indian, and Anglo settlers cannibalized the fort for supplies.
One of Fort Stanton’s most colorful and famous commanders was General Black Jack Pershing, who served two tours as commander of the fort. Billy the Kid was incarcerated at the fort during the early 1880’s, and the territorial governor, Lew Wallace, is believed to have written part of his epic novel Ben Hur while staying at the fort.
In 1899 the fort transitioned from a military fort to a Merchant Marine Federal Tuberculosis hospital. It later became a state medical facility and hospital in 1953. During World War II, it housed a large contingent of German prisoners of war.
Currently, Fort Stanton is property of the state of New Mexico and is part of the state’s prison system, housing first-time non-violent alcohol and drug offenders. Because of its status, only a couple of buildings are open to visitors. The visitor center and museum houses a small but very interesting assortment of memorabilia from throughout the fort’s history.
More information about Fort Stanton is available at its website: http://www.fortstanton.com/.From Fort Stanton we rode on down NM 220 to U.S. 380, where we turned west toward the village of Capitan, where we found the Smokey the Bear Museum and Visitor Center.
On May 4, 1950, a carelessly discarded cigarette started the Los Tablos blaze in the Lincoln National Forest. On May 6, a second fire, known as the Capitan Gap fire, started in the same general area. Together the two fires destroyed 17,000 acres of forest and grasslands.On May 8, a 70 mile per hour wind made it impossible to control the blaze. On that day, nineteen men were trapped in a rock slide while the raging fire blazed around them. They all survived, but later expressed the opinion that they knew “just how a slice of toast feels.”
On May 9, a fire crew brought a badly singed bear cub into their fire camp. They had found the frightened cub clinging tenaciously to the side of a burnt pine tree. Badly burned about his buttocks and feet, he was given the name “Hotfoot.”
In 1944 the U.S. Forest Service and the Advertising Council created and authorized the use of a poster by artist Albert Staehle, depicting a character named “Smokey Bear.” With the discovery of “Hotfoot,” soon to be renamed “Smokey,” a real Smokey Bear came into being, and the popularity of the fire prevention campaign grew so great that in 1952 Congress passed a bill into law governing the commercialization of the name and image of Smokey Bear. Due to the vast amount of mail that Smokey received from school children and fans around the world, he was given his own zip code.
Upon his death in 1976, Smokey’s body was returned to his beautiful Capitan Mountains. He now rests in peace in Capitan, buried in a small park that bears his name.
For more about Capitan and Smokey Bear, visit http://www.villageofcapitan.com/.
All the touring and learning, plus the altitude of the ride, just served to make us hungry, so when we located Emily’s Southern Accent at the east end of Capitan, we decided we’d sample some of the local fare. Boy, were we glad we did! The restaurant was very nice and unpretentious, but the food was delicious and the service and attention by the wait staff was wonderful. We looked over the menu, but both decided we’d go with the daily special, chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes, gravy, salad, cottage cheese and peach cup, and for dessert, we split a platter of homemade blackberry cobbler…yum yum!!! When we finished, I told Barbara she might just have to drive the cycle home while I sat on the back to take a nap!
Obviously, that wasn’t going to happen, so we took our customary seating assignments and rode back up NM 48 to Ruidoso, where we decided that it was time to take a break from all that learning and just rest a bit.
Tonight…Watch the Celtics make a historic run to come from behind and defeat the L.A. Kobies (oops, I mean the Lakers) in game 4 of the championship series.
I mentioned that Chihuly designed some glass art for the Spencer Theater to represent the Indian Paint Brush plant. Learning that, Barbara and I began to notice these plants all around.
Here’s a photo of each.
Friday, June 13Our original plan yesterday called for us to visit historic Lincoln, a small village tucked away in a beautiful mountain valley about 35 miles northeast of Ruidoso and just eight miles from Fort Stanton. However, we never made it there so that’s where we headed this morning.
After Fort Stanton was established and the area hostilities ceased, a community of seven or eight families and a large number of single men comprised the village of La Placita. The village grew steadily, and in 1869 was renamed Lincoln in memory of President Abraham Lincoln. It also declared itself to be the seat of Lincoln County, at that time the largest county in the United States.Lincoln is considered by many historians to be the most authentic of the old west towns remaining in the U.S. Its story brings with it the dubious honor of having been the most violent town in western American history. In fact, President Rutherford Hayes once called the single road leading through Lincoln “the most dangerous street in America.”
The cast of characters during the infamous Lincoln County War (1878-1881) included Billy the Kid (William Bonney), Pat Garrett, John Chisum, L.G. Murphy, John Tunstall, and many others who were caught up in a capitalistic struggle between two entities who were competing for the lucrative government contracts at Fort Stanton and the Mescalero Agency.
Now just a sleepy village with a handful of permanent residents, Lincoln is primarily a weekend tourist attraction. Various historic buildings, sites, and other areas of the village are well-marked, and tours of some of the main buildings are available.
Scenes from Lincoln, NM....
Of particular interest was the wooden shed pictured at left center. This was a Tuberculosis shed where patients were kept in quarantine to keep them away from other villagers. Because of the dry climate in New Mexico, many people with the dreaded disease came out here seeking a cure from “consumption.”From Lincoln, we returned to Ruidoso by way of Capitan and NM 48, the same road we traveled yesterday. After a brief stop at the Inn of the Mountain Gods, we decided to leave the area to the weekend tourists who were piling into town for the horse races at Ruidoso Downs and all the local tourist attractions, and we returned to Twin Spruce and Big V to settle in for the evening.
Saturday, June 14
Today was just a “take it easy” day for us. With all the weekend traffic in the area, we voted to not even uncover the motorcycle for a ride. Between reading and taking naps, we managed to use up most of the day, and eventually made it to Wal-Mart during the evening to buy some groceries and replenish some supplies.
“Give your troubles to God. He’ll be up all night anyway.” – Anonymous
From the v-e-r-y dry cool pines of Ruidoso,
Jim & Barbara
