Headed South in New Mexico

Thomas and I have decided to take a long weekend and get away. We are headed south in New Mexico and plan to do a lot of letterboxing. Today was a great day. The weather was beautiful, clear blue skies and warm temperatures. We had a nice relaxing drive off of the interstates and through wonderful little towns. I ended up planting four letterboxes and finding six. Who could ask for more.

The day started early and we left the house at about 7:00am. We made our way to Moriarty and had breakfast at El Comedor de Anayas. This is one of our favorite restaurants when we travel in New Mexico. After breakfast we made our way to Quarai. We both love this mission. It is absolutely beautiful. We walked the short loop trail and wandered among the ruins. I took lots of pictures and managed to get one of my Alphabetical New Mexico letterboxes planted - Alphabetical New Mexico: Q (Quarra). An hour later and we were back on the road. I had two boxes to plant in White Oaks, NM. This town is actually classified as a ghost town but does have a few inhabitants. We drove through town and took in the sights. I got pictures of the Hoyle House, White Oaks School Building, Gumm House, Watson-Lund Law Office (now the White Oaks Saloon and Social Club) and the Cedarvale Cemetery. We had a great time exploring this place and I got my Alphabetical New Mexico letterboxes planted. Look for 'W' - White Oaks and 'M' - William C. McDonald when you get the chance to visit White Oaks. We both enjoyed exploring the cemetery - not only is McDonald buried here but so is J.W. Bell (Deputy-Sheriff of Lincoln County who was killed by Billy the Kid). There were also some unique head stones in the cemetery. It is definitely worth the stop.

From White Oaks we made our way just a few miles south on NM54 to Carrizozo. We filled the car with gas and stopped for a quick lunch at a mexican restaurant. Once full we headed out again, our destination was Tularosa. A very small place - it calls itself a village. We found the public library and went inside to get the Inside letterbox - Bookworm. It was a great little presentation. Unfortunately we did not find the Tularosa box. This one was located outside and we are not sure if we were in the right area or not. Our steps did not even come close to the clues. Oh well - we must move on. A few miles down the road we arrived in Alamogordo and headed to the New Mexico Museum of Space History. We found Astro D's Let Me Play Among the Stars letterbox. Another great Astro D creation - I just loved the stamp. Once we had stamped in and put the box back into its hiding spot we walked around the grounds and looked at all the rockets and missles they had on display. It was all very interesting but our favorite thing was the Whisper Dish. There are two dishes set up opposite each other (at about 50 feet or so) and there is a metal pole with a ring on top in front of each dish. Each person faces their dish and you speak softly to the ring. It is amazing - you can hear the other person as if they were standing next to you - this could have entertained Thomas and I for hours. I don't think that we have grown up yet - who cares - we had fun! We left the museum and headed for the Toy Train Depot. Here there are three boxes hidden in the park - Alameda: Take a Walk in the Park series. We had a nice little walk through the park and found all three of the boxes. Each cleverly hidden and nice little boxes. We didn't get to see the trains since we got there after hours. Maybe next time.

Our day still wasn't over. We wanted to get to Lincoln and hide one more box - another Alphabetical New Mexico box. This one is 'B' - Billy the Kid. The box is hidden at the old Lincoln County Courthouse. Since it was late in the day there was no one around - but when searching for this box please be discreet as this place seems to be a busy tourist attraction. Once our mission was complete we decided to head to Ruidoso for the night - we grabbed a quick dinner, checked into a hotel. My first order of business was a shower - after hunting for letterboxes and trying to find hiding spots for my boxes I needed to wash off dust and a few weeds.

It was a great day and we have more planned for the next two days. Our drive today took us along some very scenic routes and we saw tons of wildflowers, a couple of hawks, antelope, a roadrunner and a rattlesnake. Tomorrow we are going on a six mile hike - it should be fun and I am hoping to see more wildflowers.