RACING BACK TO HOME

While we were in Ruidoso, we went to the horse races a couple of times, which was a great outing for an afternoon.  Since the temperatures are in the 70's in Ruidoso, and the sun is mostly shining (except when the monsoon comes in the late afternoon), it was very pleasant to eat our lunch and watch the horses and bet a little on our favorites.  On one of the afternoons, we met up with another couple that was staying in the same rv park.  

Ruby in the winners circle.

There were three female jockeys and one of them was very good.   Ruby, seen to the right,  has a ranking around 330 among 1440 national jockeys on thoroughbreds (as opposed to quarterhorses).  The other two women were quarterhorse jockeys.  

The first five races of the day were quarterhorse races, which meant that they were short races, since quarterhorses are bred to run very fast for a quarter of a mile.  Thoroughbreds on the other hand, run longer races, often holding back until near the end of the race, then coming from the middle of the pack and crossing the finish line by a head or a nose.  This makes for a more exciting race.  

Painting by NC Wyeth

Before we left Ruidoso, we headed east to San Patricio where the Hurd Gallery is located.  The gallery is actually one of the actual buildings on the Hurd Ranch and was converted into a gallery by Michael Hurd, one of Peter and Henrietta's sons, and the grandson of NC Wyeth.  

NC Wyeth was mostly known as an illustrator and probably some of those books you read as a child had his illustrations either on the cover or inside the book.  But the gallery also had some of his paintings.  There were also paintings by the Hurds and also Andrew.  

White Sands Painting by Michael Hurd

But mostly the paintings were by Michael Hurd who painted the scenes around the New Mexico area.  By our great good luck, Michael came by the gallery to drop off some paintings and we were able to chat with him for quite a while about where to paint in the area and he showed us some of his recent work.  
We left a week ago last Tuesday, heading to Eagar, AZ for a couple of days.  Shortly after we arrived, we had a water leak near the water connection box of the rv.  A mobile rv repairman came out and fixed us up very quickly with an added bonus of No Charge.  We spent the next couple of days exploring the area and were surprised to see that we were up to almost 8000 feet.  The area had beautiful meadows with Aspen and Spruce trees.  The Big Lake area is exceptionally beautiful.  And the little town of Greer is really cute.  A little lower down near Show Low, we encountered Firs and Pines.  By the time we were headed home down Hwy 60, we found ourselves back in Juniper and Manzanita, then on down into Mesquite...... We didn't take any photos.... and I doubt we will go back east on 60 ever again, as the 3.5 hour trip, took us 6 hours pulling the fifth wheel down into the Salt Canyon and then back out again.  Some of the scenery around the canyon was similar to Sedona.  And there was a lot of road construction.... it appears 60 is getting more lanes.  
So we are now home... trying to get everything laundered and put away until the next excursion.