Ursula Leaves the State, Day 6: Wednesday, November 21, 2012

As usual we enjoyed coffee before heading out of town, I had a request for an interior shot of Ursula, so here's one I took of how she looks when being lived in, complete with shoes and such.

Life in Ursula. Note my handy portable tavle, and the fan plus heater in the back. The fan got put away later.

Today was another day of scenery viewing for me and driving for Lee. I sure appreciate all the driving he did. I had wanted to see some of the small towns north of Alamogordo, so we went up to Tullarosa, which looked quaint, but not worth a stop, and continued on to Ruidoso (like in Austin, a Spanish word not pronounced in Spanish). The road went past the Mescalero Apache reservation and it was in lovely woods, with signs saying to watch for deer, elk and wild horses! Most everyone there seemed to have horses, too.

Ruidoso was a very nice resort town, and there were lots of very well dressed people on the street. Nearly all women under 30 had on Uggs. Lots of furry boots. The place was a shopping paradise, with lots of stuff you can’t find in Austin. I hereby admit to shopping. I got some cute tops in a very nice boutique, plus in another place I got a beautiful Pendleton wool/alpaca cardigan and the fake fur vest I had been wanting to get all season.

The vest and a really soft shirt I got. Plus another photo of the donkey cup.

Lee almost got a really nice hat from the people who made it, but it turned out to be the first hat ever that was too BIG for him. After all that shopping we were hungry so we had even more Mexican food. It was pretty good, too.

I got a really yummy fancy pomegranate margarita. Poor Lee had to drive on mountain roads, so no margarita for him.

We slowly left Ruidoso, looking at all the nice cabins, lodges and vacation homes, then proceeded on to the Three Rivers petroglyphs. On the way we passed acres and acres of burned forest—the fires that were going on up in NM while the ones were burning near us last year. It must have been beautiful before, and I hope it is again.

Sad burned forest.

We got to the petroglyphs around 5 pm, which means we got to watch the sunset. There were lots of interesting clouds in the sky, and the mountains kept changing colors. We got nice photos of the rock drawings and the scenery! This was the second time we visited this site, but it is so beautiful it is worth repeating! The little shop at the exit was closed, so we planned to see it on Friday.

I am showing considerable restraint in uploading only a few photos. The light on the mountains was just breathtaking. So, fewer words, more images.

Petroglyphs in front, and camping area below. Three Rivers Petroglyphs.

Birdie from folks hundreds of years ago.

Late afternoon sun hits the rocks.

The mountains before the sun set. 

As the sun went down, it illuminated just parts of the mountain.

One of my favorite petroglyphs. Pretty sure there's a picture of this same one in my old blog.

Another fave, the person wearing earrings. Thinking this might be a good Facebook avatar.

Wow. The light. I can hardly believe how many colors are in these sunsets.

This is probably the one I would have made if I were one of those petroglyph painting people.

Here is one where you can really see the snow on the mountain as well as the clouds hugging it.
I believe that's Sierra Blanca.

One last glorious view of clouds, Sierra blanca, and amazing shades of sunset.

Facing west, where you can't see the scenery, but you sure can see some clouds!

We headed back, stopped to get groceries for Thanksgiving at (I am so sorry) Wal-Mart,* snacked for dinner, and watched another movie.

*I have some lovely friends who work for Wal-Mart and Sam’s, and am glad they have jobs. However, wow, I can’t think of any other way to register my dislike of their business practices than to not give them my money. That’s how capitalism works, right? Vote with your pocketbook! So, the only two times I have been in one of those stores in the past decade were when we got batteries for Ursula in Cuero last year, and this time, because we could not get the GPS to tell us where the grocery store was (it finally came up with it the next day!).