Oil? Who needs Oil?....Midland, TX

The Permian Basin Petroleum Museum

So we've only been on the road for 9 days now and we've seen a lot, but I must say I think the petroleum museum has to be the highlight of our trip so far. This place was so neat, informative we spent close to 4 hours here wandering around. There was definitely a lot of oil money pumped into this museum it was very well done. When you first walk in there is a room with B/W pictures of all of the donors to this museum. The only two we recognized were the 2 Bushes. The coolest part of the museum in my opinion (Peggy might think otherwise) was they had a complete wing dedicated to Chaparral Race cars. These cars were awesome and the amazing part is that each one of them are race ready. In fact every couple of months they take them out and run them on the track and then bring them back to the Museum. Lot of history on Chaparral, Bobby Rutherford and Jim Hall. Some hands on exhibits on the aerodynamics of the cars etc.
Oh yeah back to the oil. They had several wings dedicated to the history of Texas oil fields, the workers, the vehicles used back in the late 1800's to current. They also had several different types of pumps and oil derricks outside that you could drive too and roam around on.
The had a room dedicated to a mineral collection by Edward Judson. Each Specimen was in a separate plexiglass box that was top lit to show off the mineral and colors. This was pretty cool!!!
They also had a room of Canvas paintings done by several artist's depicting early Oil drilling in Texas.

UFOs and Aliens - Roswell NM

No trip to New Mexico would be complete without a stop at Roswell.  I knew very little about the events that happened (or were alledged to have happened) there July 4, 1947.  The most interesting part to me was reading all of the newspaper articles about the different theories.  We saw photos taken of the findings, art work and memorbilia from the time.

They had some unusual displays of props from the movies that have been made about Roswell.  The display of the aliens was a little hokey, but sort of cute.

I actually bought "Chronological Pictorial" of the UFO Crash At Roswell.  It has a timeline of events along with the newspaper articles and photos and interviews.  I think it will be very interesting to read.

Sunpot, NM ---- The National Solar Observatories

While we were staying in Ruidoso we decided to take a 50 mile road trip up to the National Solar Observatories. They are located atop Mount Sacramento at 9200ft. On the way up this very winding road the only wild life we saw were cows and horses on the road. We passed through Cloudcroft on the way. Nice little touristy town lots of cabins for people that want to beat the summer heat down in the valleys. We finally hit NM 6563 (named after the wave length in angstroms of light produced by hydrogen gas), on the way we stopped at Haynes Vista where you over look the valley and 25 miles in the distance you can see the White Sands National Park and how expansive it is. Also found a geocache while we were here. On up to the observatory. This place was pretty neat a lot of hands on exhibits. We were also allowed to go in to a couple of the telescopes. The nice thing was we were basically alone up there. No screaming kids, no bus load of tourists etc. :-) I think it was just Peggy and I and maybe one other couple. Before going into the largest telescope we stopped and talked with this lady that maintains the electronics. Smart lady and explained what goes on inside of the telescope while there doing sun studies. As it would happen they were doing a study and when we walked into the telescope monitoring room it was very dark. They don't  want extraneous protons bouncing around. It was cool to be able to see a sun study actually going on. I think we spent close to 3-4 hours up there roaming around. Oh did I forget to say we were at 9200 ft? Holy crap both of us could hardly breath walking around.

The White Sands....is it ever!!

As we left Deming NM heading for Ruidoso NM we passed the White Sands Missile range and into the White Sands National Park. We decided to pull in and head back on this paved and sometimes covered with sand road. WOW we were impressed the sand is pure white and looks like snow. We drove back about 6 miles into the dunes. Very impressive that out of nowhere there is all this white sand (actually it is Gypsum). Enjoy the pictures to the right.

Rock Hound State Park - Deming New Mexico

We've spent a great couple of days here at Rock Hound State Park.  We are staying in a small  - but nice campground.  One of it's best qualities is the quiet...the sites are far apart and level.  It's also cheap $14 a night - for electricity and water.  The views are spectacular.  At night you can see all of the twinkling lights of Deming.  

As you can tell from the name, rocks are an important part of this state park.  The park rangers are all knowledgeable about the geology and rocks of the area.  It's pretty cool to be able take rock from the park. 

We met a very talkative guy (Randy called him an "old guy" - but I think he was only a couple of years older than me.) who wanted to tell us all about the rocks and show us where to find interesting specimens. He camps in a tent in the park for long periods of time and just wanders around looking for "treasures" as he calls them.  The day we talked to him he had found a lot of pieces of Jasper.  One in particular he decided had been a tool of some kind for the Native Americans.  He had a magnifier out to show how it had been chipped and shaped. After we some similar things in a museum the other day ....I think he was right. 

I picked up several specimens...mainly Jasper, but I did find one that has some opal and a couple of other types of minerals. 

 

Rock Hound State Park has a day use area called Spring Canyon.  We took a drive up there to to geocache and to check it out.  We didn't get to the geocaches there ...too many muggles and then we were kicked out because they were closing the gate.  But we did see the steepest grade road we had ever come across...17% grade. 

 

We did geocache near the campgrounds and found our first "floater" cache where you have to pour water in to get the actual cache container to float to the top. 

Taos New Mexico - Art and Architecture

A few photos of our day in Taos New Mexico.  I love the architecture of Taos.  There is art everywhere.  It’s a wonderful place for taking pictures, but definitely too expensive for my budget.

Denver Highlights

We had a great two week stay in the Denver area visiting family.  Enjoyed some golf at a couple of great courses and had some great food. We took several day trips during the week while the others went to work.

We made a repeat walk through Garden of the Gods near Colorado Springs.  It is such an amazing and colorful place to walk.  Most of it is level and accessible for wheelchairs.  It’s hard to believe it is free.  We watched rock climbers – some just learning.





Our daughter and son in law took us to the aquarium in Denver.  They had never been there.  It was a pretty cool aquarium.  My favorite was the mermaids.  They gave a great performance underwater.  Their costumes were very realistic and boy could they swim.     

 Near Colorado Springs and Garden of the Gods and at the foot of Pikes Peak is a small town called Manitou Springs.  This small town is home to the Manitou Cliff Dwellings a rare historical treasure. Preserved under a protective red sandstone overhang, authentic Anasazi cliff dwellings, built more than 700 years ago, await you here. There are no "Do Not Touch" signs. You are free to touch and even go inside these fascinating architectural remnants of an American Indian culture that roamed the Four Corners area of the Southwest from 1200 B.C. to A.D. 1300.  Well worth the $9.50 entry fee.

While driving out in the area of Pikes Peak we stumbled on a quaint looking town called Cripple Creek.  It has some wonderful Victorian architecture.  It was a fun little town.  The down town area has several blocks of old buildings that have mostly been turned into casinos.