Geezer X - The Road to Ruidoso

September 11

I could probably copy and paste this section from previous blog posts I’ve written as we usually start our trips the same way when we head towards the Southwest, and that is to spend our first night in Tehachapi.  We had intended on leaving right after lunch, but were delayed for an hour after I found a leaky irrigation valve that had to be repaired, not an auspicious start.  Besides getting a jump on our trip, the big attraction for us in Tehachapi is the Redhouse BBQ.

It was an easy drive and except for some surprise showers, it was uneventful.  Our dinner at the Red House was great as usual and I thought the ribs were particularly good tonight.

Las Vegas, September 12 - 15

Our next stop was Las Vegas where we would spend four days before heading on to Ruidoso.  We left Tehachapi just after 9:00 AM and with very little traffic made good time to Las Vegas and were in our room and unpacking by 1:00 PM.

This Las Vegas visit ended up being mostly about gambling as we didn’t see any shows or eat any of our meals at a nicer restaurant.  I’m not going to bother with much detail as we did most of the things we usually do.  As always, we did have a great time, although Val had a better time than I did as she did very well gambling.  She didn’t come out ahead, but she left with almost all her gambling money intact, which we count as a win.  On the other hand, I didn’t lose all my money, but I certainly didn’t leave with much.  Still, as I said, it’s always fun to visit Las Vegas.

Val's big win, 119,310 pennies.

Gallup, September 16

From Las Vegas, it's a two day drive to Ruidoso and our overnight stop tonight was Gallup, New Mexico.  We actually got to bed early on our last night in Las Vegas so we were on the road by 9:00 AM.  It's close to a 500 mile drive from Las Vegas so it was a long drive.

The drive was mostly by Interstate 40, but a little tedious because of heavy truck traffic and a lot of road work.  We also lost an hour as we crossed into Mountain Time and didn’t arrive in Gallup until after 6:00 PM.  We didn’t feel like going out to a restaurant to we stopped at a nearby grocery store and got a vegetable plate and a couple melon plates.  After what we ate in Las Vegas, it felt good to have some healthy food.  We went to bed early as we were anxious to get back on the road and see our friends tomorrow.