Christmas Cheer/Random Acts of Kindness

Yeah, it's still snowing here. Piling up pretty good, too. Had the highway out front closed last night going east to Texas. Apparently it is snowing clear down to El Paso and into Mexico. Oh, and they don't have snowplows here, either.

We went into town for groceries this morning and noticed a lot of vehicles don't have snow tires. Huge slush on the road due to no plowing. Natives here are all excited about white Christmas and can be seen building snowmen and having snowball fights everywhere.

There was a guy in a Santa suit with a big old Suburban parked on the side of the road in downtown Roswell. He was standing out in the 6" deep slush and driving snow with a big homemade sign that read "Free Toys."

We noticed this year that Walmart was promoting layaways for Christmas. Last Friday the owner of a small local oil company 30 miles south of here (little place called Artesia) came into town with a wad of cash and paid off a bunch of Walmart layaways for people he doesn't even know.

Hmm, Nope, You Ain't Shittin Me!

The old cemetery on the way into Lincoln

Up in Lincoln yesterday and the snow started. After we hung out there for few hours with our friends, Linda and Boyd from Montana, we headed up to Capitan and had a late lunch at the Smokey Bear Restaurant. I highly recommend the green chile stew. My bowl had at least 10 pounds of beef in it, and the fresh flour tortillas were awesome!

Capitan is a really small town between Lincoln and Ruidoso. While we were sitting in the restaurant, a working cowboy stumbled in for a quick bite before disappearing back out into the blowing snow. Other than that, we had the town pretty much to ourselves. Capitan is where the real Smokey Bear cub was found orphaned, clinging to a tree branch, a bit singed after a forest fire had passes through in the early '50s. When he died in the '70s, they buried him near the spot they had found him. They have a museum dedicated to him here, too. RIP, Smokey, a true national treasure!

So, it has been snowing here in Roswell since yesterday. It is minus 5 C., and we've got about 5 inches with more to come. Sheesh!

Welcome to where?

This boy is the only one happy about the weather!

Hey, Mike, recognize this pavilion -- sort of?

Truck is froze

RVs are froze

Birds are huddled in trees unhappily

Usually the sound of them merrily singing fills the campground, but not today :(