WHERE THE DEER BUT NO ANTELOPE PLAY!

Today was an uneventful day for us. We met Bev and Larry for lunch at The Sweet Shop in Raton. When we lived there in the 50's, it was located downtown and was primarily a candy shop that served a few sandwiches at the counter as well as making all their own candy if I remember correctly. Well ... they should have stuck to making candy. I had a chicken salad sandwich which seemed like a safe bet, and when it arrived, it was toasted which was certainly not expected.The most that I can say is that it was very different.

The Stolarczyk's left for Santa Fe right after lunch and then they would be on their way in the morning to Las Cruces for Lisa's graduation. I'm sorry that we could not have been there for this special event since we have know Lisa since she was about 2 years old. She's a terrific young woman and has done quite well for herself. I'm sure that her folks are very proud of her. We certainly are!

After lunch we went back home and just took it easy the rest of the day. Frank had to run to the Super Save in the afternoon and he decided that we would not try our luck at any more local places and have fried chicken at home tonight. Seemed like a good plan to me!

We brought our take-outie food in and watched the elimination program of So You Think You Can Dance. We love that show and it was a very good episode. Those young kids are SOO talented!

We had one more day in Raton, so the next morning we decided to drive to Angel Fire, NM for lunch. If you haven't already figured this out, this entire trip will be focused on food. We love to eat and Santa Fe has some delicious restaurants, so we keep going back on a regular basis with many interesting stops along the way.
To get to Angel Fire, you have to go through Cimarron Canyon and then on to Eagle Nest. The drive through the canyon is beautiful and you pass by an area which is called the Palisades.
The rock cliffs are spectacular.

Once you've left the canyon, you descend into a little town called Eagle Nest which is situated on a small lake.

When Frank and I were engaged, I went to New Mexico to meet his folks, and we ended up having to spend the night in Eagle Nest with the entire family which was huge. As it happened, there was no bed for me to sleep in, so I ended up sleeping in a sleeping bag on the kitchen floor in front of the refrigerator. What one will do when she's in love. Today I think the Holiday Inn is roughing it!
Once we left Eagle Nest, we left the main highway and headed for Angel Fire. There is a mountain on the way to Angel Fire named "Old Baldy" (all of the mountains seem to have names in New Mexico) If you look closely, you can probably figure out why it got that name.

Frank's family owns a gold mine near there at the foot of the mountain. The only problem is that no one has been able to find it! We have the deed, but back when his family staked their claim there many years ago, all the description said was that is was so many feet past a certain marker and then turn either east or west until you come to a pile of rocks. No one has ever been able to find it, but we can still say that we own a gold mine!
We arrived at Angel Fire just in time for lunch.

They have torn down the old clubhouse and built a new one that is wonderful. It has a restaurant, gym, spa and there is a great golf course. We used to own acerage there but we gave it to the church.

We were both a little weary from driving and soaking in all the beautiful scenery, so we decided to have a beer and a burger on hte terrace outside of the pro shop as the main dining room was not open for lunch.

The weather was perfect, but as we finished our lunch, the skies clouded over and we decided that we had better head for cover and start for home. As threatening as they look, stormy New Mexico skies are beautiful.

The storm didn't last long, so on the way back through the canyon we stopped at the Old Log for a drink of crystal clear mountain water. When we lived there, we would take Sunday drives and bring some of that great tasting pure water home. It was always a treat for our children to stop at the old log. It made us feel like pioneers.

As we came back through the town of Cimarron, we decided to stop at the St. James Hotel. It's a pretty famous local hangout.
Many well-known people stayed there over the years. Wyatt Earp, his brother Morgan, and their wives spent three nights at the St. James on their way to Tombstone, Arizona. Jesse James stayed there several times, always in room 14, signing the registry with his alias, R.H. Howard. Jesse James’ nemesis and would be killer, Bob Ford, also stayed at the St. James.
Buffalo Bill Cody, who was a goat ranch manager for Lucien Maxwell for a short time, met Annie Oakley at the hotel and began to plan and rehearse their Wild West Show. When Henry’s son Fred was born, Buffalo Bill nicknamed him "Cyclone Dick” because he was born during a blustery snow storm, and he was soon asked to be Fred’s godfather.
When Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley left Cimarron to take their show on the road, they took an entire village of Indians from the Cimarron area with them.
Other notables who have stayed at the historic inn include Bat Masterson, train robber Black Jack Tom Ketchum, General Sheridan, Kit Carson, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Clay Allison, Pat Garret, artist Fredrick Remington, Governor Lew Wallace, and writer Zane Grey. The Hotel was later renamed the St. James and continues to cater to travelers today.
They have recently renovated the place and have restored it to it's original beauty. I forgot to mention that it's also supposed to be haunted, so that adds to the attraction of the place.

We stopped to look around and ran across these bikers in the bar. They looked as if they had just stepped off of the set of "The Milagro Beanfield War", so we decided that we should join them in a little libation ourselves, so I had a Vodka Tonic and Papa had a Margarita.

We watched them drive out into the almost sunset and then we took a quick tour of the place.

We used to drive to Cimarron to eat in the restaurant in the St. James on Sundays after church and sometimes on Saturday night when we could find a sitter. It was a nice drive and the food was really good. The place needed a "face lift" and the new owners did a super job restoring it. I'd like to have MY face lifted, but I couldn't stand the pain!

When we left Cimarron we drove through Philmont Scout Ranch which is the National Headquarters for the Boy Scouts of America. It was there that we saw this herd of buffalo.

Little did we know that when we saw the buffalo, we would soon see the deer playing (but no antelope today!)

They were in the velvet and were beautiful. In the wink of an eye, they were over the fence running past the buffalo and then they disappeared. I'm certainly glad that I was ready for that Kodak moment.

We then drove past headquarters. It's a lovely old home. We went to a dinner party there in the early 60's and had buffalo steaks. That was before it was the fashionable food of the month and I felt like a woman in a Wild West movie !

The scouts don't stay in such comfortable quarters, but they seem to always have a great time.

When my honey was a young man, he used to go to Philmont in the summer. I later found out that he was really a girl scout rather than a boy scout since he and his buddies would sneak out at night and visit the girls at Cimarroncita which was an exclusive girls camp right down the road. Most of the girls that attended this camp were from Texas. I suppose he was scouting for me at the time but didn't know it ;-) With those kind of antics it's a miracle that he ever made Eagle Scout!
We arrived at Bearadise just before dinner and were ready to call it a night (or day)!

We wanted to get an early start tomorrow as we would be on our way to Santa Fe, so we had a light supper, watched a little TV and went to bed. In the words of Miss Scarlet, "Tomorrow is another day!"
XOXO, Pcasso