Tuesday, August 24, 2010

936 Miles from Planet Del Mar

I recently returned from a family vacation in southwestern New Mexico. It should be noted that the verbiage family vacation is almost an oxymoron these days. In our youth, my husband and I enjoyed the long drives through the rugged deserts of the Southwest, stopping for scenic hikes in the wilderness, or soaking up Native American culture in little towns; bygone days. Instead, there's a continuous stream of Nintendo DS "noise" emanating from the backseat of the car from the two Gen Z traveling companions, with an occasional interruption of "Are we there yet?"

Anyway, I had hoped that during the trip that I could perform a brief reconnaissance of horse racing in New Mexico; lately in Texas, there has been much talk of racing in New Mexico, i.e., "Horsemen are streaming over the Texas borders to New Mexico, Louisiana, and Oklahoma where the purses are bolstered by slots!" Or something like that. So, I felt that it was imperative to discover where exactly all these folks are streaming to.

Interestingly enough, the only horse I saw on our vacation was at Roswell. In the International UFO Museum.





Oh, and its jockey, too.



Okay, all kidding aside, we did include Ruidoso Downs and Sunland Park on our traveling itinerary. The visits to the racetracks were short and sweet, as this was technically family vacation. But, amidst the backdrop of Texas horse racing troubles, it provided this fan some food for thought that I'll soon be sharing ...

I'll be back. Na-Nu Na-Nu.

4 comments:

Valerie Grash said...

Ah, Sue! You didn't by any chance visit the A & A near Sunland, did you? http://www.aaranch.org Not only does Pepper's Pride daddy Desert God reside there, but my beloved Southwestern Heat is standing stud there after a short foray to Australia. If you ever go back that way, please, please visit my boy! :-)

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you are still active with your blog. Ruidos is beautiful - wish I'd stayed longer. By the way did you see your old friend in Roswell (the one from Heidelberg)?
Dad

suebroux said...

Val - If A & A Ranch wasn't listed on my 2006 Rand McNally road atlas, it didn't get visited. And if ever I go back that way ... wait a minute, El Paso is 608 miles away!

Dad - The "old friend" to which you refer, resides in Clovis, not Roswell. And no I did not see him. I'm not in the habit of looking up old boyfriends when I'm on a family vacation.

Gene Kershner said...

As a Space Traveler...I need to know more about this UFO Museum...

Great stuff sue...as always and a huge LOL at Dad.