Aug. 23 & 24

Friday AM - pull the slides in, hook up the car and leave Santa Fe.  We headed southwest on Hwy 285, destination Lincoln, NM to visit my cousin Ginger and her husband, Winston.  Ginger advised us to fill up with gas at Corona, then we drove on to Carrizozo, where we unhooked the car before heading up the mountain grades to reach the ranch.  As we drove through Nogal it started raining hard.  Winston met us and led us on the 3 miles of gravel/dirt roads to the ranch, where we were parking the motorhome.  They were solid roads & luckily not slippery from the rain.  They have a hookup pad at the ranch for motorhomes/campers.
Their lovely home is about 20 miles from the ranch, so we packed overnight bags so we could stay with them for a couple days.  (Night driving is challenging there with the deer & elk crossings).  We had a great evening together getting caught up.   The mountain ranges are beautiful here.

Saturday - a cloudy day with more rain predicted.  We all slept in and then headed to Ruidoso for the day.  The skies opened up and it rained hard, somewhat flooding the streets there.  Destination, Ruidoso Downs for the horse races.  I had never been to them, so another first in my world.  It kept raining, I felt sorry for the horses & their jockeys.  We did see several times when the horses slipped & bumped each other, luckily no accidents.  Gary & I were lucky betting several times and walked out a little ahead, that was a nice change. We had a great time and a lot of laughs.  We stopped for supper at the Cattleman's Steakhouse, then went back to the house for more wine & fun.