A Detour on the Tour of Dad's Childhood

We stopped off in Roswell to see if we could have some fun at the UFO Museum and Research Center. It was mostly blown-up copies of newspaper articles. I had hoped and expected it to be campier and a lot more fun. They had framed posters from the X-Files movie! Come on!

They did have an alien autopsy set up, which they got from some movie.


When I was getting a closer shot of the alien's face, Dad scared a girl in there by shouting to me, "If he blinks, that's going to ruin the picture!"



Possibly the best thing was the people wearing tinfoil hats and other headgear. From the accents that I overheard, the Germans are good sports about tinfoil hats!

Tour of Dad's Childhood, part 3

Here is a house that Dad lived in as a kid.


It was incredible how he could find his way around these towns after 50 years. He really has a great memory for streets and landmarks. I did not inherit that trait! If I'm not driving, I probably have no memory of how we got somewhere. It's lucky I'm not lost right now!

Tour of Dad's Childhood, part 2

After stopping in at Helen and Ernie's old cafe, Dad and I headed to the horse track and casino, Ruidoso Downs. When he was a kid, he'd sneak around back to get closer to the waiting horses. He and his buddy would pick up dozens of betting tickets off the ground, hoping to find a winner.



While we were there, the riders were just practicing. I don't want to say "jockeys" because it was clear that some of the riders were quite tall and therefore must be trainers or something else. They went around in both directions, some sprinting, some trotting, and some running sideways (inexplicable to me, a non-equestrian). Three riders lined up in the starting gate, and Dad drove over, into the valet parking area, to get a closer view.



Three riders got ready, and the gates were open! Three horses ran their hearts out around the track... but only two riders went with them. One fell off about 15 feet out of the gate. Poor guy.

As he limped back to the gate, his friends teased him in Spanish, calling out, "Hey, cowboy! Cowboy!" and he'd say back, "You bastards!"

Another rider finally led his horse back to him, the crowd dispersed, and Dad and I were on our way to the next stop.

Tour of Dad's Childhood, part 1

During my New Mexico visit, Dad took me to three of the five or six towns he lived in as a child. After his parents' divorce, his mother moved him and his sisters from Indiana to New Mexico. Every year or so, they'd move to a different place and live in a new little rental house.

His mother, Helen, and her boyfriend, Ernie, would run restaurants. It's unclear why they didn't settle down somewhere for more than a year or two.

This is the restaurant in Ruidoso that Helen and Ernie ran over 50 years ago.



Now it's called Jorge's, and the food is NOT good.



The coffee's all right.

Carlsbad Caverns Tomorrow!

Mom, sister Stefanie, niece Mazie, and I will head for Carlsbad tomorrow to explore any caverns that are accessible to toddlers. I have wanted to go there since my family moved to New Mexico (2.5 years), so I am very much looking forward to this trip!

I want to go to the underground lunchroom and mail a postcard from 755 feet below ground. I'll check back with photos and details on Monday.

Vacation!

I'm in New Mexico, visiting my family and having a blast.

So far, we've watched the Sex and the City movie, played with the baby, went to the farmer's market, bird watched, had a picnic, and ate an early Father's Day dinner at a Pacific Rim restaurant called Mix.

Tomorrow Dad and I are going on a tour of his childhood New Mexico hometowns, and maybe check out Roswell.

This weekend, Mom, Stef, niece Mazie, and I are going to Carlsbad Caverns to see what it's like underground.

Stefanie has been helping me get an Etsy shop set up to sell my amigurumi patterns. I only have one listed so far, but I'm on my way. :)

Sparky's new man

 
Finally continuing my account of the trip to Dallas:

We continued our day of culture by proceeding from the wax museum to the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. It was there that Sparky fell in love with a replica of the tallest man known to Ripley. He was like 8'11"! Look how well they hit it off. Cute!!

Good Times!

 
First Hermione cursed Jason (or was he just scared of her hair?),














 
and then Sparky and I went to the Land of Oz (in matching shirts -- Jason refused to wear his teal scoop neck),
















and then Jason and I met Johnny Cash!! 

Rest Stop

 
A scary rest stop sign.

Waxy Nixon

 
Hmm. For some reason, this close up didn't appear on my earlier post. It's important, doggone it!

Museums

 
 
 
 
We wanted to get some culture while we were in Dallas, so we went to the logical place: The Wax Museum!

We saw lots of famous wax people, and all of the presidents. My favorite waxy guy was old Tricky Dick. He actually looked less waxy in person than in this photo.

Then my camera battery died, so I have to wait until I get the others' photos to show you more of the trip.

On the Town

 

 

 

Sparky, Jason, and I went downtown to wander around and eat lunch and see where Kennedy was shot.

In Dallas

 
 
 
 

We finally got to Sachse and got to visit Sparky, and her husband, Sparky's Problem, and their Kid. Jason and I wandered around a giant Frye's electronics, which took a while. It would have been more fun if their employees weren't so obviously working on commission. They were rather Aggressive.

Back at the Sparky house, we played Rock Band! And more Rock Band! My strength was on the drums (on Easy mode I kind of kicked serious ass). I sure sucked at guitar! But with some practice, I became adequate at it (on Easy mode, of course). The boys tired of it, and Sparky and I started our own band, the COCKAUTS!

I think we're in the South!

 
This was an intersection near our friends' house. Cotillion and Bunker Hill.

Pit Stop

 

 

On our way to Oklahoma, we stopped for lunch at Braum's Ice Cream / tiny grocery store. Jason has childhood memories of their milkshakes, and he got to relive those days with a vanilla shake. It lived up to his expectations -- how often does that happen?

Also, we saw a whole family of people with weird haircuts. Here is a shot of the dad (with a wicked Prince Valiant!) and one of the sons. I so wish we could have captured the whole family, but we felt shy about taking pictures of them.

So, we made it to Keystone Lake State Park in Oklahoma, beating the convoy by at least 2 beers (one hour). Apparently, Papa Motes had a coin go unaccepted at a toll booth and had to go back and put in another one. Still, an HOUR?

Now there are no more pictures, because none of us took any. There were about 50 people at the reunion, but probably 10 were just little guys. There was a two-month old, Wyatt, and kids ranging up to 13 from the 3rd generation. The 2nd generation started at 17 and went up into the early 40s. The first generation were 10 siblings, now just 8 living, but one doesn't go to reunions because of a feud over their parents' house (and who knows what other issues).

We drank many, many cans of beer, and some of us stayed up until 3:00 am, working hard to do so. On Saturday, we got to ride in two boats (a speed boat and a pontoon) and go to a beach to swim and hang out. One member of Generation 1 promptly soaked her cigarettes in the lake water. There was a beach ball that miraculously survived the breeze and tide of the lake. We had a great day at the lake! Some people rode on a tube pulled by the speed boat, and some were brave enough to try a new acquisition, The Air Chair. No one had too much success that day. They were too far out for me to see it, and I wished I had binoculars.

Sunday, we had a ceremony for a recently departed family member, the annual gift exchange, ate heartily, and Jason and I headed for Dallas to visit Sparky and her family.

Summer vacation 2008

 
 
 
 


First we drove like the wind (even ask the state trooper who stopped us!) from Colorado to Kansas, to Jason's hometown. With his older brother in tow, we hit the bar (where you can still smoke INSIDE -- how strange and old-fashioned seeming!). We proceeded to drink heavily, in preparation for the weekend to come. For the price of the three of us drinking sufficiently in Kansas, we could have bought one pint each in Colorado. Welcome to Kansas!

The next morning, we fueled up on donuts and coffee. While his brother looked on, Jason helped start a fight between his nieces, and then at the last second got us out of joining the convoy with his two brothers' families and his parents. We were off to Oklahoma for the Motes family annual reunion.