Sunnye mention the city of Cloudcroft, New Mexico and it brought to mind the time 4 young men from Pecos spent a week in that lovely little city.  I am failry certain the statutes on limitations has run so I am gonna mention names and the entire unabashed story.

Charles and David Bowers, Johnny Passmore and yours truly spent a week up there one summer.  It was not our intention to get in trouble but it just seemed to cling to us like lint.  Our first mistake may have been in staying in a motel owned by the city marshall of Cloudcroft.  It did not take much for him to keep his eye on us.

There was the pin setter at the bowling alley who for a small fee would sweep pins for us when we bowled, which we did every day.  If you bowled over 285 you got to bowl a game for free.  She was a comely lass with one brown eye and one green eye.  Dont remember her name but can still see her face.  We only paid for the first game we bowled that week and got all other games for free.  It is surprising that 4 young men who constantly bowled above 280 were not more well known in the bowling circles.  Hey, we could have become professionals.

We picked cherries at a cherry orchard one afternoon and ate 3 times as many as we picked.  There is a malady associated with eating excessive amounts of cherries.  It is not a situation that you want to be in with 3 other people in a motel room with only one toilet.  I think the medical term used to describe what we had is “Sweet cherry quickstep”.

Then to top off the week, we ran into a group of young ladies who were attending a morman church camp in Ruidosa.  I think there were about 30 of them staying in a lodge on one of the streets that run up the hill towards the gold course.  In Johnny’s black 57 chevy running up and down that hill every few minutes, it only took a short time to attach their attention.  We spent several days trying to entice them to either 1. slip out of the place at night or 2. slip us into the place at night.  I dont remember any names other than the girl we called “skinny Virginny”. They were all from El Paso. 

The straw that broke the camels back and got the law on us was a pinball machine.  One of the cafe/bars in town had a back room with several pinball machines.  We figured out that if you wedged a paper book of matches under the two front legs the the ball rolled slower and sometimes even stopped in an area that rang up free games.  It made a bit of a ringing noise when it was rolling up free games and that put the owner on to us.  When you have 2525 free games on a machine you have pretty well set yourself up for a life of pinball fun.  We also played the song ” Book of Love” approximately 2000 times on the jukebox.  The owner of the bar didnt not like that song.

Since the owner’s son was the maid service, remember the owner is town marshall, we gently asked him to clean our room first.  Remember, we had that sweet cherry thing going on and when rebuked I guess we got a bit more forceful and it ended up nasty.  Not violent nasty but name calling nasty.  Anyway, the next thing we knew was there was a loud knock on the door and we were ejected from our living quarters. 

My parents were there in town with some other people and I went to stay with them.  David, Charles and Johnny went immediately to El Paso.  The church enclave had broken up the day before and the young morman girls had gone home. 

There are several things you never want to do in a small New Mexico town.  Mess with a gal that has one brown eye and one green eye.  Do not threaten the son of the town marshall, and do not run up thousands of free games on a pinball machine.  These are not jailable offenses but sometimes it just makes certain folks a bit uneasy.

Gary

We just had our humteeth family reunion in Ft Davis, Texas.  I think if started in the 60’s but others say in early 80’s.  No matter, we have been going there for many years.  Never in all these years have I seen the area so green.  There was grass and weeds in the fields, the trees were starting to come back from the fire and it looked really nice.  Amazing how just a little bit of rain can turn an arid region into a paradise.  I love the weather in the mountains.  It was cool in the mornings and evenings and not unpleasant during the day.  Ft Davis is really one of the states hidden jewels.  I could live there I think.  Probably not much to do on a daily basis but seems like a place one could enjoy just being alive.  I guess I could spend some time downtown at the broom shop watching the guy make brooms.  Then over to the drug store for a milkshake or chicken salad sandwich.  That would take care of the mornings.  They have a nice little whole foods type market there where you can buy some “fancy” foods.  They had an impressive array of pickles and pickle products.  Didnt see any tofu but I bet there was a wedge or two laying around somewhere.  Artsy type towns and villages draw foodies like flies to cow patties.  I wonder if there are any artists who just sit down to a big ole chunk of steak, with a baked potatoes, loaded with sour cream and cheese and chives?  I guess eating tofu and sprouts make you more artistic. It just makes me extremely hungry.

Facebook is going to be the cause of my death.  Why did someone decide that facebook was the place to put pictures of  the most delicious looking foods known to man, along with the recipes.  The 7 UP bisquits are killers.  They have shown pictures of brownies that are sprinkled with chocolate chips on top of fudge icing.  I have yet to see a picture of a carrot stick or a stalk of celery.  I bet the caloric total for a day’s postings on facebook would be upwards of 300,000 calories.  And I am tempted by every damned one of them.  I have no will power.  I have no shame at getting in my car at 10:00 at night and going to the store to get the necessary ingredients for a triple layer, mandarin orange, fudge encrusted tea cake that is best eaten while consuming a  whipped cream mocha shake.  Why cant I dream about a nice salad instead of a slice of banana cream pie.  So, I hope when I tap out my family sues Facebook and that little fella who has made a trillion dollars by allowing us to fantasize about food as well as almost any other subject known to man.

Chuy the chewer

We did it.  We went to Arizona in the summer.  Good lord, how do they get that many people to live in one spot given the temperature range of 116 to 125 during the months of March thru October.  It wasnt but around 116 when we went thru going and coming.  We were headed to the cooler climes of Sedona, AZ.  I was looking for an energy vortex and I think I saw several of them.  We stayed at a very nice spa hotel and were pleased with the facitlities.  Room service needs some work as I ordered breakfast 5 mornings and never did they get the entire order correct.  They smiled when they delivered it, but I am sure they were smiling, knowing that they had left off the coffee, left the jelly in the kitchen, etc.

When we arrived I tipped the bell hop a $ 20.  Each time I got my car out of valet parking I tipped again.  By Friday, there were several bellmen fighting to get to be the one who got our car.  One of the guys tried to introduce me to one of his sisters.  Dorothy wouldnt let me meet her.  When we left to return to Phoenix I mentioned that we would be staying at a certain hotel.  The bell captain informed me that it was where he actually worked; he was up in Sedona training, and that I should ask for Leo when I got there.  When we pulled up to the valet parking in Phoeniz, well, when I mentioned my name was Cowan, I was told that they had been expecting me.  Tim had called ahead and advised that we were coming.  In the room was a tray of beer, chips and dips and other tasty things.  A card, signed by the staff, advised that Tim had called and advised that we were really good guests and that we should be treated with the proper respect.  Damned surprising what a $ 20 bill will do.  We had fun with it.

Sedona was a shoppers mecca.  I saw no stores where a regular person could shop.  You could buy any type of crystal or magic rock that your mind could comprehend.  You could buy Trannsval sausage from a Hungarian Deli.  What you couldnt buy was a pair of socks.  You had to drive to Flagstaff to go to Walmart.  While we were shopping for some things to bring home we went into a shop that had crystals.  I bought a smokey crystal which would be good for bones, hips, self worth and a few other things that I wasnt sure I had.  While browsing I saw a tray of round, marble like rocks.  I asked the lady if she knew what they were. She advised that they were sandstone marbles that were in their natural shape and could be found in certain secret locations.  I advise her that they were actually Comanche dog rocks.  After some lively discussion we had gather a crowd of other employees.  I told them that the Comanches kept a pile of those round rocks inside the flap of their tepees so that when the camp dogs got to acting up, well they would rock the dogs.  They tarot card reader lady almost choked.  The clerk blessed my smokey crystal inside a singing bowl.  I have felt blessed since.  At another store I purchased a genuine native american spirit pouch.  I can wear it around my neck, it is made of real deer skin, and contains my blessed crystal and will allow me to add other items as I find them.  I have got to do a bit or research to see what else I can put in there.  I know an owl bone is part of the spirits but I just dont have much access to an owl bone.  I bought a package of chicken drummettes so maybe one of those will work. 

Our day trip to the Grand Canyon was grand.  That is one big gash.  It is magnificent in every respect.  I would have loved to been able to come and see it at a time when I could have walked down in there and been able to walk back out.  I am not sure when that would have been but surely at some time in my life I could have made it.  We saw elk, a couple of giant condors, about 2.5 million asian people with about 3.5 million nikkon cameras and 2 squirrels.  Big sign warned not to mess with the squirrels as they carried fleas which carried plague.  I wasnt messin with the damned squirrel but it kept comeing up to me and begging.  Nobody has the heart to kick a squirrel.

We had a time.  It was relaxing.  I could live in a luxury spa hotel if they could get their room service staff to check my order.  When I order wheat toast, I do not want to eat russian rye bread with cinnimon butter.  Always got to be unhappy about something. LOL

Gary

A number of my readers have asked about my trip to the hot springs.  Well, it was a blast and a trip that I would highly recommend to anyone who wants to be isolated, with time to think, time to ponder the great lessons of life and time to look at nature.  Chinati Hot Springs is about 50 miles upriver from the lovely town of Presidio, Tx.  It is 7 miles down a dirt road that appears to lead to the ends of the earth.  However, as you turn into the property you will be greeted by a lovely little oasis.  There is grass, that is being watered almost constantly, there are large cottonwood trees providing shade for the slide swing.  It is quiet, it is very quiet.  You can hear the trickle of water running down the small stream in the bottom of the canyon.  Doves, of which there are many, are cooing almost constantly.  A family of mules came over from the ranch next door to taste a bit of the freshly watered grass.  The young mules were frolicking like colts in a paddock in Kentucky. 

My room was very well appointed, having a private hot tub that could have been used to tick dip cattle.  It was deep to the point that I could not just step down into the tub.  I had to go to ground to get in.  I had to get out the same way.  It had been years since I had actually taken a tub bath.  It felt wonderful with the water being about 110 degrees.  Very relaxing and refreshing.  There was a young couple who introduced themselves as a handy man and an entertainer in various mediums.  She was the entertainer.  After I saw her at the pool in her costume, well, I am guessing that one of the art mediums might have been in the dancing arts.  I spent about an hour trying to figure out how to take a picture but just couldnt do it with any kind of grace.  Some of my readers would have loved the sight.  Well, others, not so much. 

Meals were cooked in a cook cabin.  It was very well equipped and it was fun making a nice meal in such a nice place.  Eating out on the shaded porch looking at the flora and fauna, it aides digestion.  Too bad that I no longer drink cause it would have been a damned nice place to kick back and have a cold beer.  I had ice tea instead.  A man had his young daughter there with him and he advised it was their annual time together so I assumed that he and mom were divorced.  He cooked a fine pan of hamburger, sausage link and can of pinto beans,  Some bread and they were set to go.  Kinda rough cooking as he had no green veggie for the growing young daughter but she didnt seem to mind. 

If you like west Texas, Big Bend type country then I again recommend the Chinati Hot Springs .  Not that expensive, certainly cheaper than a pyscho doctor.  LOL

Chuy the adventurer.