Muy Ruidoso

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Abq, and then headed south to Ruidoso, so named for the 'noisy river' that runs through town. Apparently, there's a nice path along the river near the downtown area, but we jumped over fallen trees and scrambled up rocks without seeing a paved trail.

We ate at Le Bistro, a nice Frensch restaurant that disturbed me by hanging hundreds of empty wine bottles from the ceiling, Hall of Flame burgers, and the pizza place in the middle of downtown. Interestingly, all restaurants were quite full on Saturday for lunch but were nearly empty for dinner on Fri and Sat night. We can't understand where the people go/went.
We took a short hike on Saturday morning near Cedar Creek, but turned around as the trail started to disappear.

The Ruidoso area is most famous because Billy the Kid hustled cattle in the area. His exploits began by joining a new general store owner in the area who tried to break the monopoly of the existing general store that supplied Fort Sumner. Go government-enabled-monopolistic-capitalism!

On Sunday morning, we hiked in the White Mountain area. The campground at the trailhead was was closed so we had to park a 1/2 mile from the Bluefront trailhead. We're pretty sure that not a single person was on the trail besides us all day.

Fantastic views from near the top.

Two thumbs up for Ruidoso. And we didn't even visit the horse race track, fancy casino, and ski areas.

Thankful

Jill is thankful for:


Confidence that God knows what He’s doing
The Bible, and Bible Study books with blanks to fill in
Cozy apartment, most comfortable space on earth, especially when Chad’s here
Chad
Chad learning to play guitar
My family and Chad’s family
Sunshine
Mountains
Bike lanes
Perfectly tuned bicycles with carrying capacity
Our favorite neighbors, and the many comings and goings between their house and ours
Cushy part-time job
Local tea shop hangout
Church friends
Church friends trusting us with their kids
Crochet hooks and a stash of yarn
Football, and the resurgence of the Colts
Weekly box of seasonal fruits and vegetables
Cookbooks
Thursday night “Survivor” parties
Facebook and blogs for keeping in touch with friends
The public library around the corner

Dance Mania

What to do on a Friday night?

Jill had an idea . . .


a happening,

the first ever,

the beginning of a phenomenon

soon to be the hottest ticket on the East Side,

the Polkadot Dance Party.

You need to be thinking of a way to get on the guest list.

a simple goal

It seems that now is not the best time to be out looking for work, but that's what the bbb clan is up to right now. We've thrown the resumes around here and there and received a few nibbles. But we have no promises at the moment. My job goes through mid-Jan and then...???

To counter this uncertainty, we have made a certain objective: we plan to stay in Abq! I find it calming to have at least one fixed target to combat the lost feeling that 2 overeducated, underexperienced (well, maybe this only describes me) pseudo-professionals feel in a wide open job search.

This situation feels ironic to me because a major reason I stayed in school just short of forever was to ensure that people would beg me to work for them. Alas, I apparently studied the wrong topic. I got into groundwater contamination just as the EPA superfund program was running out of money. As an aside to future grad students: don't enter a field just as it's peaking or has peaked. Also, if you want to get rich, never enter a field whose goal it is to 'clean things up'. Once things are cleaned, you're out of work.

As it is, our goal is not to become rich, but to stay in Abq. Take that, THE MAN!

It was a beautiful weekend here. We loaded up our recycling on the Ute and dropped it off before joining the Polkadots for lunch. The black bean chicken pizza (#2) at Scarpa's is yummy!

to the Crest

Our buddy Ryan got a new, this-blog-approved bike last week and wanted to test out its handling. What better place to do so than the Crest's 14 miles of hairpins and slopes?

We left our house at 9:45 am with 45 degree temps expecting a high of 60. Very pleasant, except when screaming down the 10500 ft high Crest through the shadowy canyon. That was ouchy cold. At the bottom of the descent, we ate lunch at the Lazy Lizard. Either they don't believe in indoor heating, or we were still frozen from the descent. Thankfully their calzones were hot and yummy.

Ryan's new bike is a prototype from Boulder Bicycle painted baby blue. It has very low trail and very thin gauge steel tubing. Lovely! I rode my big boy blue bike and stuffed my windbreaker, scarf, wool cap, coke, and snickers dark in my jersey pockets. Jill was on her red bike with a rear bag to carry her warm clothes. All 3 bikes were made in the USA -- what are the odds of that?

Even though we've only bought one bike this year (the Ute), don't think that we're not experimenting with new bike technology, like this super light, compact bike:

Riding this bike put much strain on my shoulders, so I don't plan to borrow it for a long ride. Also, the rear hub made a funny noise when I rode it, but not when Jill rode it. Perhaps, I'm too heavy?

Friends and their babies are joining the bike craze. This happy mommy and baby met Jill for lunch last week when the temp was 40. It's never too early to toughen up the next generation -- might come in handy some day.

Tent Rocks, Dude!

So, it's called Tent Rocks because the rock formations look like teepees.

It is a most scenic hike.

If you happened to watch "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" the night before, you'll probably dare your friends to greet fellow hikers with "party on, dudes!"

There's a historical cave,

a bodacious tree,

totally interesting rocks,

and an excellent slot canyon.

When you get to the top, you will be most triumphant.

Party on, dudes!