Road Trip Part 3

Somewhere between Tatum and Roswell.

After we left Tatum, we cruised over to Roswell and had lunch at a little hole in the wall place called the Cowboy Cafe. Their sign said they had homemade pie and they had some veggies growing in their flowerbed. The people in the booth behind us were from Oklahoma, so they were getting the full tourist treatment. The owner made up some fried green tomatoes and other goodies for them to sample while suggesting places in the area they should visit. *grins* I had a green chile cheeseburger and Mr. Hairball had the ginormous Cowboy burger. For dessert we had some cherry pie. Most tasty!

Then we piled back in the car and stopped at the UFO museum.



Mr. Hairball contemplates a display.


Roswell is at 3573 feet, and this is where I usually start feeling a little sleepy. Traveling to New Mexico means that I don't feel my best for about five days as my body starts adapting to the drier climate and higher elevation. Drinking lots of water, taking some sinus meds, and eating lots of spicy food is what helps me.


This is about an hour west of Roswell. I am definitely yawning at this point!







Mr. Hairball took these two shots when he went with his grandmother to see where her childhood home used to be. I believe this is about 6000 feet. I didn't go with them as it was early in the week, and I was having enough trouble staying awake down in the valley!

During our time in Mr. Hairball's hometown, we basically just go from from house to house eating and visiting with all of his relatives. Most of his relatives all live in the same town so there's lots of people to see! My MIL made her wonderful New Mexico style stacked enchiladas, (this recipe looks similar to hers) and we ate until we were stuffed.

Unfortunately, my camera battery died so I don't have shots on the way back home when we reached the highest point (8000 feet) of our trip. We stopped and bought some cherry and raspberry cider in the mountains, and it was 77F in August! It was in the 90s down in the valley when we left Mr. Hairball's family so this was a most pleasant surprise. We joked about finding a way for Mr. Hairball to work in the mountains during the summers.

I'm all rested up and ready for another road trip!

2160.8 miles
15 days

Road Trip Part 2

On the road again



We stopped and read quite a few historical markers on our trip. I really liked this one about Alex Albright, the sheep rancher. (Click to enlarge)

Next, we spent two days in the city where we met. We visited with a few friends, ate at some of the places we miss from those days, and got some well needed rest. I got us a room through Priceline at the Hawthorn Suites for $40 a night. I was very pleased with this because the going rate for our room started at $85!



We piled back in the car and hit the road again.

Tatum, NM is the home of Westcraft Metal Arts. Wonderful examples of their work can be seen throughout the town.



Here's an example of the street signs in town along highway 380. All of the street signs are unique. Sorry for the blurry bits in the picture, I was shooting from inside the car.



Many businesses in the area have signs from them.




This is the fence in front of Westcraft Metal Arts showing more of their work. (Click to enlarge)


To be continued...

Road Trip Part 1

Whenever I take a road trip, I think about the people of the past and how amazing they would find it that we can easily drive hundreds of miles in a single day!


The country


The city


Here we are back in the country again on the same day. (It was dark when we arrived so Mr. Hairball actually took this picture later in the week.)

This is Great-Auntie Hairball's house. See the silver gate and the white car behind it? On the night we arrived, they had left that gate open so we could park inside the yard. By the time we arrived, there were several cows in the yard. The cows were very curious about our car and luggage!



The road down the hill from her house. She lives about ten miles away from a small town so it is very dark there at night. Mr. Hairball borrowed a telescope from work and brought it with us on our trip. Unfortunately, there was a full moon while we where there so he was not able to see everything that he had hoped to view.

We also took a brief side trip to see my brother and SIL for a day, but we accidentally left the camera behind at my great-aunt's house. My brother and SIL live in a house built in the 1930's that they have restored. Almost everything inside (except for things like appliances, computers, and TVs) is from the 1930's-1950's or is a very good reproduction from those years. It's fun to walk through their house and see all of their collections from the past!

My brother would really love to buy a 1950's house in his area that has been lovingly maintained. My SIL owned their current house for many years before she met him, and also raised her sons there. She is understandably torn about moving. I am curious to see what they will decide to do about the house issue.


After about a week of visiting with Great-Auntie Hairball, Mama Hairball, and Brother & SIL Hairball, we loaded up and left for our next destination. We happened to drive by a casino on the way and since neither of us had either been in one before, we decided to stop and lose some money before we ate lunch.

My seed money

I lost my two dollars and left. I thought it was depressing in there and Mr. Hairball found it quite boring.

To be continued...

I'm back!!

I actually got back last week, but I needed some time to rest and get caught up with everything at home.


A few things I learned on this trip:


1) If I had to sleep for the rest of my life in a double bed with Mr. Hairball, I'd either end up divorced or in prison.



2) Luck Be a Lady sounds really good while driving off into the sunset.





3) Cattle are fascinated by auto trunk interiors.



4) You can leave a watermelon in your trunk for four days and it will be okay.


5) If you decide to stop and read all the "hysterical"markers on your route, bring a flashlight for the days you get a late start.


6) The weather in August is amazing at 8,000 feet.

Notice/Retro Music: THM-SRTE

Just a reminder that I am going to be gone for a couple of weeks. Today is the first day of The Hairball Multi-State Road Trip Extravaganza.

Since I missed Flashback Friday, here's a few songs before I go:



Low Rider by War



Convoy by C.W. McCall



Rockin' Down The Highway by The Doobie Brothers



Ventura Highway by America



On The Road Again by Willie Nelson

Goodbye!! *dabs at eyes and waves*

Food: Fruit Cobbler

I was looking through my copy of the Household Searchlight Recipe Book from 1938, and I found some recipes written in the back of the book. In going through the handwritten recipes, I found one for a simple fruit cobbler that I decided to try.





My great-aunt's handwriting is a little hard to read, so I'll transcribe it for you. The parts in italics are the additions I made for clarity.

Fruit Cobbler

Light oven. Set at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. In a baking dish, I used an 8x8 pyrex dish put 1/4 pound one stick butter or margarine, and melt in oven. Sift into mixing bowl:

1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tsps baking powder

Pour one cup milk over flour mixture and beat hard. Pour this into the pan with the melted butter, and place 2 cups chopped fruit over the batter. Pour 1 cup sugar you may need to reduce this or even eliminate it completely depending on how sweet your fruit is over fruit, bake one hour at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

I ended up making a plum cobbler. I plan to use this recipe again with other fruits.



You can tell that I didn't peel the plums. I normally don't peel fruits or vegetables if the peel is edible. Why throw away fiber?

I Really Hate The Weather Channel Right Now

The heat is really getting to me. I'm seriously considering wrapping myself up in a bed sheet and telling everyone it's a toga. I completely flipped out earlier and yelled a variety of obscenities at the Weather Channel. You know, I understand that some parts of the USA are experiencing cooler than average summer weather and those folks are thrilled about their lower power bills and such, but could you talking heads please turn down the glee a notch?

To the blonde gal in the Hamptons who keeps blathering on about how fabulous the weather is right now in the Hamptons: It's gonna be another scorcher where I am, while other people are really struggling to pay their bills, so your infomercial on the "Joys of The Hamptons" is highly annoying.

Can somebody hand me a guitar?



For those of you on dial-up, it's the scene from Animal House where John Belushi comes downstairs in his toga, hears the love song, and smashes the singer's guitar.

Retro Music: Cruisin' in the Olds...

My friend Joe of the blog 70s-Child, did a post about 8-Track tapes last Friday. While reading the comments, I remembered the free 8-Track tape that came with the Oldsmobile my parents bought. This is the only song I remembered from that tape, and it's been playing in my head since last Friday. Mr. Hairball is getting very tired of me singing this song. *grins*


For those of you on dial-up who can't do YouTube, here's the lyrics.



Hues Corporation - Rock the Boat


Would you believe that someone is selling what appears to be the same tape on Ebay?

Aunt Barbara

If I lived in the NYC area, I would love to attend one of Aunt Barbara's Tupperware parties!

Flashback Friday- Potluck Edition

Just a heads up that my posting is going to continue to be sporadic for the rest of the summer. I had planned to do more posts this week, but I hurt my arm earlier this week and yesterday was the first day I felt like trying to type.

I've also got The Hairball World Tour coming up in a couple of weeks. Okay, "World Tour" is not quite right, lets say The Hairball Multi-State Road Trip Extravaganza. According to Mapquest, it looks like it will be about 1800 miles (2,896.82 kilometers) round trip. Reserve your tickets now! *grins*




Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell- Ain't no Mountain High Enough



The 5th Dimension - Wedding Bell Blues



Gladys Knight & The Pips- Midnight Train To Georgia



Golden Earring - Radar Love



Loverboy- Working For The Weekend



Rick Springfield- Jessie's Girl



Have a good weekend everyone!