Ruidoso 2011 Part 1- The Beginning

 Our trip to Ruidoso began Thursday evening the 13th of January. The Biase's were in Lubbock, the Denton's and Evan's were flying to Lubbock and road tripping to Ruidoso together, and the Hargesheimer's were heading in the following day from SA to Fort Stockton to Ruidoso. All with different game plans but the ultimate goal to have a few days as a getaway together.

The Crowell's left San Antonio at 6:30 pm and arrived in Abilene around 11:00 pm. We were greeted by Bumpaw and Bar B Q. This has become a staple of West Texas food and our conversation consisted of our million dollar idea and implementation in S.A. I always love the random topics discovered in car rides with M.

Anyway, we arrived to discover that Momma (and Daddy) forgot to put a pull up on Laney. We are still trying to train her out of these at bedtime and it's a coin toss. Well, she fell asleep and had an accident. Thus, we got to deal with cleaning out a car seat at midnight in the winter chill in Abilene.

Friday morning-We woke up to get on the road bright and early to head out. Matthew discovered I had not packed for him nice clothes--I packed everything else comfy and left the nice stuff up to him. The lack of communication about packing for each came to a head and was a "fun" discussion. He made it through the weekend without a button up though (I swear) and was just fine.

The wind turbines that clutter the landscape in West Texas.

On our way out of town we stopped to get diapers and wipes. However, it slipped our mind to get gas. How you might wonder, considering this is a vital ingredient in driving a car? I/We don't have a solid answer. One would think we would recall, growing up in West Texas, many soccer weekends in Midland/Odessa, and highway driving that there aren't many gas stations in the middle of nowhere.

Here's the ridiculous story:

I see a sign that says we are 36 miles from Post. Two minutes later my gas light came on. Matthew asks "how many miles do you get when the light comes on?"

"Um, I would guess 26-29 highway" but how would I really know, right? I have yet to run out of gas in this car--did run out in high school but as a parent--I can only imagine what our parents would have said. I kept holding out hope for a small town called Justiceburg yet there was a sign and a couple closed down buildings.

Not a single gas station in sight.

M's plan: Hitch a ride or walk to Post if we ran out of gas.

Mine: Grab a rubber band, my running shoes, gas can in the trunk, and run down the highway to the nearest gas station.


Plan C won out and we coasted into Post. We were so happy at the gas station. Irresponsible, I know. I also wonder what my blood pressure was at this moment.


Matthew did call my car a lying s*(& though. This is why--it holds 17 gallons, roughly. We filled up to the brim and the meter at the gas station read 14.4. I do not know where the other 2.5 gallons are.
Our theory was the head wind and the gas gauge being off. I'd like to believe the latter yet more convinced of the former. Keep in mind, we are only into the first two hours of the trip. Geesh. But we were happy that we had a chance to make it! Laney got a Happy Valentine's Day Ring Pop to celebrate our success.



We stopped at a historical market 5 miles west of Post. It basically discussed the grasslands being settled 120 years ago, 1889. That was crazy to think about that the land I grew up around hasn't really been settled for that long. We also stopped at the Goodnight Loving Trail historical marker.  

Brownfield--As we drove into this small town we stumbled upon a couple of ponds full of geese. They must have been settling here for there southward stay. There were probably a couple of thousand! It was fun to stop and see them with the girls.






We made it New Mexico. We were in the middle of no where but the state we were aiming to get to at least. I forgot to mention--we bought the last Harry Potter book to listen to on tape. M and I are Harry Potter lovers/dorks and were quite focused on listening to the last book. This helped the time go to by quickly I think.

Our road trip marched on. Until about 2:00 pm--we hear Landry coughing in the back. She got very car sick and it was so so sad. She had never thrown up until this point in her short life and it was terrible. We pulled over, used about 100 wipes to clean her down, Matthew cleaned out the car seat, and we acted quickly. Still, poor baby, we felt terrible for putting her through the boredom and her getting so sick. The girls are such troopers when it comes to car trips and there isn't much fussing thank goodness. We broke the law a little bit and let her sit in the front with Momma. Then we made the executive, and legal, decision to put in her car seat after she seemed to feel better.



We did make it to Ruidoso and found our friends. More to come about our get away .....