The Road To Reno

One never knows what one will stumble upon while traveling the great highways and byways of the USA.

We left Las Vegas and headed toward Reno with plans to stop overnight in Hawthorne Nevada. Seemingly out in the middle of nowhere with nothing to see or do. As it turned out – there was plenty to see Hawthorne was a great stop. But before we got there...

Shortly after leaving the area of Las Vegas we saw a strange looking aircraft in the distance. AREA 51 maybe? Nope. Shelley grabbed the binocs and said that it looked like a drone but was much bigger than she thought drones are – it was the size of a regular military aircraft – like a fighter. Shortly thereafter we passed a sign for Creech Air Force Base. Never heard of it. A quick Google informed us that Creech is where the Thunderbirds train and where drones are controlled from. A drone in Afghanistan? Controlled from Creech. A drone over Iran? Creech. Too bad – no pictures. The drone we saw was in the distance and had disappeared by the time we were abreast of the base.



Predator - Image stolen from the web.

 

On to Hawthorne.

Need bombs? Hawthorne has bombs. Lots and lots and lots of bombs. Miles of bunkers housing bombs – 3,000 bunkers full of - bombs. Hawthorne is the home of the U.S. Army Depot. This depot stores reserve ammunitions to be used after the first 30 days of a major conflict.



Bomb Museum, Hawthorne NV

 

Bomb Museum, Hawthorne NV

 

Bunkers and more bunkers

 


Very large bunker.  Most bunkers are hard to see - they just fade in to the landscape.

 

 

Rest Area - Whirlygigs made from what else?  BOMBS!

 

The next surprise? The entrance to a military facility that reads “Naval Undersea Warfare Center”

Hello? This is the Nevada, the desert. Navy? The best I can determine is that the Navy also has a munitions depot here and that possibly lots of mines are stored here. I don't know – and as they say – don't have a need to know.

 

 

Now for the last and best surprise. Wild Mustangs! Hawthorne sits at the southern end of Walker Lake.

Walker Lake

And on the land of the Army Depot where it abuts the lake is a herd of Mustangs. We were totally surprised. It was wonderful to see them. Our cameras did not allow for great pictures so I purloined a video link from youtube. Check out these beautiful animals click here ---->  Walker Lake Herd

 

 

 

 

Hawthorne - totally worth the visit.

LAS VEGAS !!

What happens in Vegas doesn't stay in Vegas - it gets blogged about.

The day after we arrived in Vegas, Jerry Williams from Oklahoma City and her daughter, Barbie Hallstrom from Centennial Colorado flew in to spend some time with us and to help us support the local economy.

We spent considerable time eating.

WE GAMBLED! (and mostly lost)

We went to Hoover Dam to see the new bridge - it is AMAZING!

Damn - I knew I should have brought the instructions for this thing.

Did I mention that we ate?

We hit the Bellagio on the strip.

And - we ate at the Bellagio (I'm going to be in sooo much trouble).

We partied at Freemont Street

We had a blast with Jerry and Barbie.  We dropped a few $$ at the casinos and gained a few #'s at the buffets and it was all worth it.  Thank you both for making our time here so memorable!

At the same time that we were putting Jerry and Barbie on their plane to leave, Shelley's cousin Art Richardson and his wife Honey and their daughter's Ciara and Savanna were rolling in to town for a softball tournament that Ciara would play in.


Ciara and Savanna
Shelley's first cousins once removed.

After doing some more eating and gambling we spent the weekend watching Ciara's team, the Colorado Springs Thunder, demolish 5 other teams, 1 from Idaho, 1 from Utah, 2 from California and 1 from Colorado. 

Ciara gets a hit!
This was not her homerun hit but she got one of those too.

 

Ciara steals 2nd!  and then goes on to score!

Somehow I got zero pictures of Art and Honey - but we will see them again in a few weeks in Colorado so hopefully I'll remember to drag the camera then.

So ends our time in Vegas.  We did not "do the strip" it was too friggin' hot.  Hottest 1st week of June on record.  But that is not what we were there for on this trip.  We had such a great time with friends and family - loved every minute of it.

Headin' on up the road.

Ruidoso, New Mexico and Surrounding Area

We spent a few days in Ruidoso, New Mexico.  We went for the horse races at Ruidoso Downs but found lots of other stuff to do.
 
As it turned out - this was the opening weekend of Quarter Horse racing at Ruidoso Downs and the place was packed to the rafters with racing fans all 3 days of racing.  The first day there was 25 races with 10 horses per race. And that was just day one.
 

 



It was so difficult to try to get pictures of these
Quarter Horses that I quickly gave up.


After a morning of races (they would go well in to the evening) we headed out for the town of Hondo.  En route we caught a glimpse of this sweet Episcopal Chapel that is very hard to see from the road.  It is not only set back from the road but also kind of set down in a hole. 

 

 

 

The chapel, actually in Glencoe, NM, was first known as "The Mission of Transfiguration." The chapel is situated on a site donated by the Bonnell family for use as long as church services are held on a regular basis.
The building is made of native field stone with a red tile roof. It was built by G. F. Bruns who lived in the Glencoe area. It has a stone altar and a metate stone for the front. The interior measurements are 34 feet length, 15 feet width and the height is 8 feet 6 inches. It has seating capacity for about 40 people. The local parishoners love their Church and are proud if its' history.

Next stop was the Hondo Iris Farm and Alice Seely Gallery.  We happened to hit the Iris farm at the height of the bloom.  Alice said that it was a few weeks late this year due to late freezes.  So for once we were thankful for cold weather (it was not cold currently) as we were enchanted by this lovely spot.

 

 

 

 

Also at the site of the Iris Farm is the Alice Seely Gallery.  Alice designs and makes pewter jewelry.  Very nice stuff but nothing tripped my trigger so I bought nothing. And I forgot to take pictures of the jewelry so these pictures were stolen from her web site. Here is a link to the site if you would like to know more.     Hondo Iris Farm and Alice Seely Gallery

 

Next up - the Hubbard Museum of the American West in Ruidoso.  Outside of the museum are the most amazing horse statues.  Every major American horse breed is included.  And they are totally life-like.  One of my favorite things so far on this trip.

 

 

 

On inside the museum.  And the pictures will speak for themselves.

 

 

 

 

 

This is Billy the Kid Country.  So of course we had to do the Billy The Kid Trail. 

The byway takes you to the town of Lincoln where much of Billy's history is but we were not impressed and there are no other pictures of that part of the trip.  HOWEVER, the trail took us to
the town of Capitan. 

And this is where real history is buried - in the form of Smokey Bear.  Smokey was rescued as a cub here after a wild fire and after spending his life at the National Zoo in Washington D.C., he was returned here after his death at age 26 in 1976.

 

 

Smokey's Grave Site

 

Something that I found interesting when we left Ruidoso - we drove through the Valley of Fires. The Valley of Fires is a lava flow that originated in the central part of New Mexico. It is a lava flow that is approximately 2 miles wide and over 20 miles long.

 

 

 

And that concludes our time in New Mexico - for now.  There is much to see and do in this state and although we have toured other areas of the state in previous trips I'm sure we will be back for more.