We spent the three day weekend in Truth or Consequences, NM. In the 1950’s they changed the name from Hot Springs – something to do with the show. Anyway, when we first arrived I was afraid I had led Tom on an unsuccessful adventure – the whole place was full of trailers – that’s all. Over 60% of the people there are retired and I guess on limited incomes. Our motel was an old one that had been remodeled and the room and bathroom were really big. We drove into town and found the use bookstore I wanted to visit and spent about an hour there – both of us finding good bargains.

Sunday morning we made our way to the county fair grounds to see the Texas Longhorn Steer contest – I think they were going from here to some place in Ft. Worth and only the winners would go. These steers were fantastic and I never knew they had such tempers. At one point the winner (the choclate cow in the photo) was charging one of the other steers and this rancher just stepped right in front of the steer and said “Whoa” and that steer nearly tumbled he stopped so fast. The horns on the steers were fantastic – what I found fascinating is that as they stormed through the gates coming and going, they knew exactly the moment to turn their heads just the right angle so as not to hit their horns on the gates. I was impressed.

Later we drove out to the SpacePort – where Richard Branigan (?)  in six months is going to send folks to space from this 2 ½ mile runway. We were really just following these little rocket like graphics on a couple of directional signs – we had no idea how far it was. After about 15 miles after driving out to the middle of nowhere we were at a dead end and had to go right or left – of course we had not seen a sign in miles. We called the owner of the bookstore we visited the night before  cause that was the only local number we had (on her book mark) and she said take a right and drive 12 more miles. So we did and that is when we saw Ted Turner’s buffalo ranch. A woman at the fairgrounds had told us to watch for them. There was another animal she told us to watch for, but we had never heard of it before…. Let me tell you they have a lot of work to do on that SpacePort place in the next six months. Tom and I had a nice long chat with the security guard.

When we got back to civilization we went down to the RiverBend Hot Springs and soaked in the springs for two hours. It was around 65 degrees and a breeze was blowing so those hot springs felt just wonderful. We enjoyed talking to the other folks there – it was sort of like a communal bathhouse.

In the late afternoon we decided we wanted to go find this ghost town which was only about 40 miles but we had to go up the mountain and through the pass and we knew we didn’t have time. We did not want to come back though those curvy roads and switchbacks in the dark. We decided to just drive to the pass and then come back. It got colder and curvier as we got higher and higher, more and more snow. By the time we got to the pass it was freezing. We got some great views from Emory Pass at 8220 ft. It was a lovely drive – so strange to be so cold when a couple of hours earlier we were in the hot springs. We saw beautiful horses, eight deer, a baby cow on the side of the road, a longhorn steer on the side of the road, goats, Shetland ponies, and a bobcat! I took this photo of the tree with microwaves stacked in it.

The next morning before heading back we checked out the museum which was wonderful – so much old stuff and hundreds of old pots. My favorite was the beautiful embossed saddles and the photos of all the Hollywood stars who had been at their annual fiesta for the last fifty years.