Being from the North originally, New Mexico has always seemed a far away and exotic place to Lisa. When Kim suggested a camping trip to the mountains in Ruidoso, she jumped at the chance to see the "Land of Enchantment". As the time for the trip neared, Kim pondered that September evenings in the mountains of New Mexico might prove to be a bit too chilly for sleeping in a tent...and so the romantic streak in him kicked in and the search for the perfect cabin in the mountains began.

There is an abundance of cabins in Ruidoso because it is a tourist area, specializing in quaint little shops and romantic getaways. The problem we encountered was that the weekend we had chosen for our getaway, September 21-23, just happened to be the same weekend as the annual motorcycle rally that takes place in Ruidoso. Since we had already arranged to take off from our jobs, changing weekends was out of the question. Fortunately, we were able to reserve accomodations at a place called Forest Home Cabins. Not only did we get a cabin in the Upper Canyon, we got Forest Home's "Special Occassion Cabin", which is set up as their ultimate romantic getaway, complete with 2 man jacuzzi and fireplace (click HERE to see pictures of us and our cabin).

For Lisa, the biggest thrill of this trip happened the moment we pulled onto the Forest Home grounds. She saw a bear. Let me say this again, SHE SAW A BEAR!!! Ok, now for most people, this may not sound like anything to get overly excited about, but she had never seen a bear outside of a zoo before. Unfortunately, her camera was packed away in the backseat at the time, but she swears she won't ever forget seeing that hulking black bear waddling along in the dark near the trashcans. As it turned out, bears are extremely common in the Upper Canyon area and many of those quaint little shops we mentioned feature bear items. In the spirit of the experience, Kim bought Lisa a large wooden bear, the type carved from a log with a chainsaw. Her bear, whom she named "Dudley", is about the size of a medium sized dog and weighs a good 60 pounds. These carved bears are very popular in Ruidoso and many versions of them can be found throughout the town and resort areas (click HERE to see photos of some of these interesting carvings). Oh, and besides Dudley, Lisa also now has a spirit bear necklace and a stuffed black bear to commemorate the trip. Kim spoils her, what can we say?! *grin*

We arrived in Ruidoso on Thursday night and spent most of Friday shopping in the town. We bought fudge, gifts for the Kim's sons and all Lisa's bear stuff, as well as several bear fetishes for Kim to add to her collection (she has been collecting them for years and considers the bear to be her totem). We went to dinner at a fabulous steak place called "The Cattle Baron" and then spent the rest of the night at "The Inn of the Mountain Gods", which is an Apache casino, throwing money into the slot machines (click HERE to see what we saw). On Saturday, we went back to town and visited one of those "Old Tyme Photo Shops". The picture of us on on top of this page was taken there. Kim has always fancied herself to be the Marshal Dillon type, so I guess that makes Lisa Miss Kitty, instead of just a random floozy. *laugh* We spent Saturday evening alone in our cabin...doing what couples do on a romantic weekend alone in the mountains. *grin* Lisa will miss that jacuzzi most of all, I think!

We were sad to leave on Sunday, but Lisa was also in a state of anticipation because the trip home would take us to the infamous Roswell, New Mexico. We passed through on our way up on Thursday evening, but had decided to wait until the trip home to stop so we could spend some time there. Lisa LOVED it! As you might guess, the entire town is obsessed with aliens. Storefronts, lamp posts and even coke machines have an alien theme. It's fabulous! (Click HERE to see photos of the town). We visited the UFO Museum and Research Center and, we must admit, we both found it fascinating. There is a lot of official documentation on the UFO crash in the 1940s housed there (click HERE to see pics from the museum). We spent some time in the Museum gift shop and came home with a coffee mug, a shot glass, t-shirts and a pair of "official" parking stickers for Area 51 which are now on our cars. *grin* Lisa's favorite item in the gift shop (which she showed some restraint and DIDN'T buy) was a mousepad that declared "UFOs are real...The AirForce doesn't exist". The museum also gave us free bumper stickers that declare "I had an out of this world experience at the UFO Museum and Research Center in Roswell New Mexico".

We made it home by 7:00 on Sunday evening, tired and content. After unpacking the car, we collapsed and reminisced about the weekend. We will definitely be returning to Ruidoso for a longer vacation in the future...and we will be saving our quarters for those slot machines in the meantime. *smile*