New Mexico Travelog – Aliens, Casino, White Sands, Pistachios, Sledding, Hubbard, Tribes

Before we crossed the border of Texas and New Mexico, we had a contest as to what time we would get to that crossing. I just hollered out a time and would you believe, I won the contest!!!  And my prize was a bookmark about bats and it was just perfect as we had just learned about bats in El Paso.

On the way to Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation Inn of the Mountain Gods Hotel, we stopped at Roswell’s UFO Museum. It was the best stop to use the restrooms I have ever experienced because we saw aliens that landed in the Roswell area years ago. In one exhibit, 4 aliens stood with a flat UFO above them and I just loved it. Another exhibit was a doctor and a man dressed in a business suit looking an alien on a stretcher. The alien has burns and sores on his head, shoulder, knees etc.  And on the outside of the building was an alien spaceship that was stuck into the corner of the building. On the other side of the building was an alien on the wall. Denise bought greens sunglasses the oval shape of the aliens eyes, which are also on the street lamps in front of the museum downtown. Everyone loved her purchase.

Then we went thru Ruidoso, my first time to see the racing town. All the amenities are here for the race track enthusiasts. Our newish modern Apache Indian-owned hotel was awaiting us nearby, with the casino the main attraction. Our room was huge and fabulous because it was like a suite but it wasn’t. It was just a normal room.  We dropped everything and went straight to dinner in the huge buffet restaurant that reminded me of those in Las Vegas. Afterwards, we had to see the Casino and it was exactly like the ones in Las Vegas. And the smoke was so thick we could barely breathe.

The next day, in the Ruidoso area, we went to a pistachio farm and learned again that it is the female pistachio tree that has the nuts, not the males!!! I told them in a coconut plantation the female trees produce the coconut balls, not the male a male pistachio tree is planted for every 6 female pistachios trees for the female to have the nuts. Although the pistachio crop had been harvested, I was able to find some on the female tree that were missed. Of course, I had to get some pistachio dark chocolate candy as a souvenir. And believe it or not, this visit was also a restroom stop. It was truly a nutty experience and another favorite best stop.

Driving into the White Sands National Park, we learned that the White Sand area is a basin that used to be water and when the water evaporated, it left this white powdery gypsum. And oh, it is so beautiful and white. And this basin is surrounded by mountains. The National Park is also home of an air force base and misslesle testing range, so we had to enter during the safe-to-proceed time.

Once inside, it was so much fun as we all get off the coach barefooted. First time I had ever done that. Oh, it was so cool, the sand that is. It was cool and wet because it absorbs moisture, and was a nice change because sand is normally hot. So, we all climbed up those huge sand dunes and walked the peak on a dune to where our tour director Donna Jones was waiting with a bright green sled. One by one about half of our people on the tour slid down the dune. And another contest was held to see who could slide down the furthest. And would you believe Denise won the contest. We don’t know what the prize is because she will receive it at the Farewell Dinner in Albuquerque. So far, Denise and I have won all contests on this trip and we never expected it.

Now it was time to go to the Hubbard Museum of the American West, housing the collection of Anne C. Stradling collection of anything pertaining to horses.  On display were things pertaining to horses like saddles, proper and ladies and men elegant attire, boots, wagons of all kinds, from chuck wagons to  stage coaches, to high society wagons, Kuchina dolls,  and many more totaling 10,000 items. Born in 1915 of a wealthy family, her grandparents were close friends of Teddy Roosevelt and Remington. She was married 3 times and the third husband was an oil man. She began riding a horse at age 1 and at age 6 she won her first competition.  Her donated funds saved and cared for stray horses and she was loved by all associated with horses. Our final event was meeting with a Mescalero Apache, Keena Frizzell, to learn about his tribe’s traditions.

He told us that his people do not like snakes and do not communicate with them as snakes are considered a bad omen. And owls are not high on their list either and his people do not have contact with it either and it is considered a bad omen if it hoots near them day or night. Bears are also an animal Apache do not have contact with because bears are highly respected. They never touch a bear, its waste materials, foot prints, bedding area or anything the bear has touched. And they do not call it by its name. He is referred to as “grandfather” or “my uncle”. If a tribesman crosses the path of a bear, he is to tell the bear to go into the dense forest and live where no other entities set foot.

Keena said that guests to this hotel/casino Mescalero Apache owned complex should not enter the resort with any product made of snake skin or any part of it. And don’t bring bear skin, claws or teeth in the hotel either.There are 4700 in the Mescalero Apache tribe here in Ruidoso and each one of them gets $300 before school and at Christmas from the Tribal Council and the money comes from the casino-hotel operation. When asked how they could afford to build this next casino-hotel complex, Kenna replied, “from grants and donations.” He said his people have the same laws as the USA and pay personal incomes taxes, social security etc. just like we do. They do not pay property tax because it is a reservation, and the land is owner by the USA government and the USA can take the reservation from them at any time. They also get water free because water is sacred to them.

Kenna said their new school and the education for grades 1-12 is funded by the USA government, state government and the tribe. Most of the tribe people are Catholic. And the Mescalero Apache tribe gets together periodically with other tribes to keep up with what is going on with each other.

When asked if their traditions and customs are still followed, Kenna said that the elders follow them but the young people not so much. Their language is being lost but the school is beginning to teach it to the students now. The elders dress in tradition Apache attire but Kenna said he didn’t do it much. He was dressed in casual business attire with jacket. The elders dress in traditional attire and perform ceremonies all summer long. They do the Eagle Dance, the War Dance and several others.

When marrying, they have to check the person’s family tree to make sure they don’t date first, second or third cousins when they date or marry within the tribe. Marriage outside the tribe is allowed. They have medical doctors and facilities available to them but the old tradition of a certain root is used to cure many things and it works, Keena said.

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New Mexico Travelog – Flying, Airplanes, Bats, Norman Rockwell, Carlsbad, Roswell

Finding our plane and gate in Houston proved to be a challenge and VERY interesting as we tried to get to El Paso, Texas for another Tauck World Discovery tour.  All was fine when we landed and went to the President’s Club in Houston. That is, until we noticed the monitors said that our connecting flight had been delayed 1 ½ hours. That really put a kink in our plans because we were scheduled to be in El Paso for a 3:45 pm meeting. So, we them decided to get seats on the next flight to El Paso at 3:12pm.

Now it was time to eat a leisurely lunch in the airport. But as we were walking to the restaurant, Denise followed her rule of always checking every monitor she passes to make sure the gate and flight has not changed. To our shock, our 1 pm flight was now ON TIME! Denise immediately went into emergency mode to make sure the monitor was correct and getting us both to
the listed gate. And the plane took off on time because one was brought from the hanger and we landed in El Paso 30 minutes early!!

El Paso is called Sun City as almost 365 days of sun with little rain as it is in the Chihuahuan Desert, the largest in the USA which also goes into Mexico. It is a huge military town with the latest techniques.
It is the 19^th largest city in the USA, is 3000 ft. high in the desert, is 80 % Hispanic, is the third largest international crossing, a  population of 700,000 people, and is the terminus of the Rocky Mountains. El Paso is also the home of The University of Texas at El Paso.  Juarez, Mexico is on the south bank of the Rio Grande River which divides the USA and Mexico and El Paso and Juarez. The Sun Bowl in El Paso is the second oldest bowl game in the USA after the Rose Bowl. It also was the first high rise Hilton hotel built and it still exists today. Elizabeth Taylor was married to Nicky Hilton and they stayed at the hotel in El
Paso .The combined population and DMA of the area is 2 million and El Paso started with just a few people in the 1880s where the railroad stopped in this cattle country.

Both sides of the border have large industries like blue jeans. One side cuts the jeans and the other sews and finishes them. Computers, vacuums, cars, and many more consumer goods are manufactured in both cities.  But, Ft. Bliss is the biggest industry, and fighting illegal immigration and illegal drugs is a big challenge, too.

Our first event was attending a lecture on BATS because wewill see 500,000 of them when we visit Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. It will  be our first time to see the caverns and it has been a lifelong dream for me because my parents went there on their honeymoon in 1939.

In this Chihuahuan Desert, that covers the western tip of Texas and extends into Mexico, is called a rain shadow Desert because it has mountains on both sides and little rain ever gets to the Desert. We learned in this Desert there are 1100 different species of bats in the USA, 3550 different cactus in the world, over 300 plants, 400 migratory birds of which 100 are
residents, 60 lizards/snakes, 100 mammals, Carlsbad Caverns are famous for Brazilian Free Tailed Bats which also have a huge colony in Austin, Texas.  The Brazilian Freetail Bat used to be called Mexican Freetail Bat until it was discovered these bats go as far south as Brazil, so the name was changed.

Through the Guadalupe Mountains, we traveled from El Paso to Carlsbad Caverns where we saw seventeen different species of Bats. Here are some facts about bats that you may not know: Bats are not blind, have sonar capability to locate food, have sharp teeth to catch all kinds of food, there are 1100 different bats in the world, they can fly anywhere they need to be,
they are good for controlling insects on plants, they help maintain biodiversity in the rain forest, only 3 species are blood suckers and they live in Mexico and Central America, and some have huge ears to release heat from the hot desert and they live in Big Bend National Park.

We learned that Carlsbad Caverns is the place for bats to have their babies and each mother can have 200 babies and one month later, they are up and flying. These 200 babies hang in one square foot of the Cavern wall!!!!  With so many babies hanging from the wall in the caverns, there is a fight for survival. Snakes also hang out at the entrance to the Caverns so they can catch the bats for food. They snakes can’t go far inside the caves because they are cold blooded and the caves are 60 degrees and cold to them. We really enjoyed this speech and education on bats.

Another thing we liked was going to the El Paso Museum of Art, an old converted bus station, to see the Norman Rockwell art exhibit on opening night. We were among the corporate execs, political leaders and other dignitaries of El Paso eating dinner and viewing over 30 of his paintings and drawings that appeared years ago on the cover of the Saturday Evening Post. The
display showed the photographs he took of people, family and friends, who posed for his art. Then Rockwell would draw his style into the people by cutting up the photographs and putting the pose of a hand with the pose of another person’s hand. Likewise, he would mix and match heads and feet etc. to get his drawings.
This was also where we had our Cocktail Reception and Welcome Dinner for this Tauck tour. And all 40 of us met each other for the first time.

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