Road Trip to Ruidoso, NM

Instead of spending the entire two weeks of Cam's Block Leave doing Home Improvement activities (see later post) and hanging around sweltering El Paso, we decided to escape town for a few days. We headed north to the southern/central New Mexico town of Ruidoso. We had been promised, by several of our local friends, that the Ruidoso area would be the cure for all our tree-withdrawal symptoms. So, we packed up the truck, grabbed the dog and made the two and a half hour drive north.

Ruidoso did not disappoint. Its rolling mountains and hills were covered with Ponderosa Pines, various deciduous trees and green grass! There were streams and lakes, cute little "yuppie" and ski shops to peruse, and many, many, many cabins to stay in. (Too bad we chose one over the internet that turned out to be so "quaint" that it had newspaper taped to cracks in the windows...)

During our three days in town, we went for a nice, leisurely hike in the Lincoln Forest. It was glorious to be in the woods again and hear the stream babbling away as we walked. We also found out that despite her lack of enthusiasm for sprinklers, kiddie-pools and baths, Athena IS a true water dog. She happily went splashing through the creek we had to cross over/through several times, stopping only to bite at the rushing water. She also loved being able to find all kinds of new plants to sniff and even found a little garter snake to chase.

While out in the Lincoln National Forest, we stopped at the Monjeau Lookout, an active Forest Service fire lookout tower. It was completed in 1940, sits at 9640 feet in elevation and provides a gorgeous 360 degree view of 160 square miles of forest land.

We spent the rest of our "vacation" window shopping, trying new restaurants in town and just relaxing. We also took a walk in a local park where Athena found her first official stick ... from a tree!

It was a lovely short getaway and reintroduced a little green into our rather dull, brown desert lives!

Home Sweet Home

After 7 looooooooong weeks of increasing tedium, Cam finally finished BOLC II at Ft. Sill, OK on Friday, August 21st. Since I already knew how the drive home could get a little boring by oneself, I decided that it would be best if we made the trip together. So, as a "surprise", I flew up to Lawton, OK that morning in order to make the 9+ hour drive home to El Paso, TX with him. My sweet hubby was waiting patiently at the airport when I arrived with some beautiful flowers (in my favorite color!). After stopping for a little lunch and one last good-bye to Oklahoma, we headed out on our road trip!

We really enjoyed our drive home as it gave us the opportunity to reconnect, share stories of our activities for the last 4 weeks and verbally abuse the terrible New Mexican and Mexican drivers we passed along the way!!!

While BOLC II wasn't exactly what Cam had hoped for, it did make him appreciate the El Paso area and the time he spent in Officer Candidate School. He begins BOLC III (Air Defense job training) Monday, August 31st at Ft. Bliss and is looking forward to all the new stuff he gets to learn! He is scheduled to remain at Ft. Bliss throughout this training (August through December) and doesn't expect to leave again until his new unit deploys ... whenever that may be.

Eyes on the road

Not quite home, but at least the right state!

Chillin' in OKC

After the 9+ hour drive last Friday from El Paso to Lawton, OK (home of Ft. Sill), I picked up Cam and we headed another 90 miles north to Oklahoma City. Along the way, it was fun to catch up on all that he had been doing for the last 3 weeks. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to share because I haven't been doing ANYTHING exciting...

After checking into the hotel, we went in search of dinner. An Army buddy of Cam's suggested we try Toby Keith's I Love This Bar in downtown OKC. After SEVERAL trips around the block, we finally located the restaurant and a parking lot. One of the features of this restaurant/bar is local live music (the band that night was really good and played several country and rock covers) and military personnel get a free dinner! We then strolled along the Riverwalk in the Bricktown area of the city and finally had to give up when we (read: Kristy only) were covered in sweat due to all the humidity!

Saturday was a super busy day for us! We started off the morning with a leisurely stroll along the deserted Riverwalk and admired many of the Land Rush Monuments that have been installed. Unfortunately, we didn't have time to take the River Taxi tour, but followed along beside one for a while. We learned that the only reason Oklahoma City became the capital of Oklahoma was because 2 people stole the "official" state seal from a neighboring town in the dead of night. These folks then drafted a letter stating the capital was Oklahoma City and stamped it with the official seal. Therefore, OKC became the capital in 1907.

We then headed to the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum in honor of the Federal Building bombing in April 1995. See the post below for more details.

After getting baked in the sun all morning and afternoon, we took an air conditioned, self-guided tour of the Oklahoma state capital building. The building was full of white marble, amazing murals of the state's history, and crazy detailed plaster on the walls. I was quite surprised by the lack of people inside on a Saturday afternoon, especially given my childhood experience of visiting the Capitol Building in Olympia one summer with my family.

We ended the day by getting all dressed up and dining at a local restaurant suggested by online reviewers. Despite Cam's reservations, the food was delicious and the atmosphere charming. While we had grand plans of attending the Triple A OKC Redhawks game after dinner, after our busy day we ended up CRASHING as soon as we got back to the hotel.

Sunday was a much more relaxed day. We caught the very early showing of "Harry Potter & the Half Blood Prince" movie. (It was one of the better of the series, but as always, the books are FAR BETTER!) We then had a leisurely lunch and headed back to Lawton and Ft. Sill just in time to check into my hotel. Cam showed me around Ft. Sill a little and we also found Geronimo's grave in the Apache graveyard on post. All of the grave stones were lined up by family and dated from 1901 to present day.

After a fun filled weekend, it was sad to say goodbye. The drive home Monday morning seemed to take much longer than the drive up. Could it be that I wasn't excited to get home to an empty house?

Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum

As stated above, we spent most of our afternoon at the Oklahoma City National Memorial & Museum. It was a very powerful experience, to say the least.

The memorial outside has several symbolic areas. The gates on either end of the memorial are labeled as 9:01AM (the minute before the blast went off) and 9:03AM (the minute after the blast). There is a reflecting pool between the gates that shimmered in the sun and reflected the 9 rows of empty chairs. There is a chair inscribed with each of the 168 victims' names, including 19 smaller chairs for each of the children that were killed. Parts of the structure around the memorial are made from portions of the Federal building's concrete foundation that were still standing after the blast. You could see the melted, twisted rebar still sticking out in places. The memorial also includes the "Survivor Tree", a 90-year old American Elm that withstood the blast and now grows in a place of honor.

One thing we learned during our tour was that several buildings in a five block radius were also damaged in the blast. This included the two very old churches on either corner, the county water district building directly across the street and an automotive shop 3 blocks away that collapsed several days after. Also, included in the 168 are five people in these neighboring buildings that did not survive.

While the outside memorial was certainly moving, the museum inside brought me to tears. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed inside. The museum is set up as a timeline, beginning before the blast. You are first escorted into a room that plays a tape of a water district hearing from across the street that captures the blast. From there you move into room after room after room of exhibits full of actual pieces of everyday material that was scattered over 10 city blocks. They found shoes, eye glasses, coffee pots, microwaves, filing cabinet drawers, and children's toys. There were rooms set up like offices full of debris that were recreated from photos. You also can watch video of detailed survivor and rescuer accounts.

One of the more shocking displays involved a manager who was holding a morning meeting with her employees in a conference room. Suddenly her employees and the table they were sitting at fell away from view. This woman was unharmed, save for a few scratches and slight tears in her dress. Her secretary, in the office behind her, was rushed to the hospital with critical injuries. When all was said and done, the remaining portions of the secretary's clothing fit into a small ziplock bag. This bag was displayed next to the manager's slightly torn dress.

The rooms then transitioned from the recovery to the police search for the bombers to the bombers' trials and the aftermath of the event. Many new federal laws and protections are in place due to this one event. Finally, you leave the museum through a gallery of pictures and donated personal items from all 168 victims.

As a nerd alert aside, the most fascinating portion of the museum was the artifacts used and the stories behind the police investigation to catch the bombers. The actual truck parts that contained the VIN numbers and shopping list used by the bombers were on display. As a CSI fanatic, I just ate this stuff up!

I was an emotional mess when we finally finished. I cried happy tears for the human spirit of the survivors who became first responders and helped out the more critically injured. I cried sad tears for all the innocent lives lost ... for nothing. And I cried because it really opened my eyes to the fact that terrorism is still alive and well in our world ...

Road Trip to OK

This past weekend, I made the 9+ hour drive from El Paso to Lawton, OK to visit Cam. He's halfway through BOLC II training (Officers' Basic Training) at Ft. Sill and needed to get away for a while. We decided that we would head the 90 miles north to Oklahoma City for the weekend.

On my long drive, I noted a few interesting things...

1)El Paso and the surrounding areas are desolate and not very beautiful. However, drive 45 minutes to the east and you begin to see trees, crops, pecan fields, and green grass! I'm glad to know that all of west Texas is not as bad as El Paso. In fact, much of west Texas reminded me of eastern Washington minus the irrigation sprinklers and BIG rolling hills (Texas has very small hills - that are called mountains.)

2)Driving Habits: I now know why El Paso drivers are sooooooooooo terrible! It's the bad influence of the Mexican drivers! I passed 5 cars with Mexican plates on my drive ... all of them going AT LEAST 15 miles under the speed limit and in the left lane! Argh!

3)Mother Nature in Action: As I was driving along, I noticed some type of bird of prey swoop down along side the road and take off again with a snake in it's clutches. As it flew over the car, the snake was writhing around. Very cool to see in person!

4)More Local Wildlife: The only armadillo I saw was some road kill, but I'm going to count it as seeing a real-life armadillo.

5) Nerd Alert: How big of nerd am I that I was excited to see the fields and fields of oil rigs and was seriously tempted to stop at the Petroleum Museum in Odessa, TX and the meteor crater outside of Abilene, TX???

And now some photos of the drive:

I was most excited to see that in parts of Texas, the speed limit is 80 mph. Now, if only Washington would do this on many of its eastern highways! (I-90, Hwy 26, Hwy 395 ... to name a few!)

In the town of Anson, the highway curves around the city hall, planted right in the middle of town.

Do you think that Pecos Bill and his tornado are near by?

Nerd shot, but I had to as the car rolling over the 3000 mile point.