Lincoln, New Mexico & Up With People

We decided to drive up to Capitan, NM and check it out, plus pick up some geocaches.  Capitan is where Smokey The Bear is buried and they have a very nice park there for his resting place.  It is a garden with various local plants, benches to rest and reflect.

I had downloaded a number of geocaches including three virtual caches to show Judy & Herb how they work.  The first cache was a roadside historical sign describing the early days of Capitan.  Quick and easy cache and then on to a Smokey cache which Judy found very quickly.  We combined geocaching with sightseeing and had a great day with both.

 

Judy, Gerry & Herb geocaching

Lincoln, NM was the scene of the Lincoln County range wars from the 1870's and Billy the Kid was very active there as a "regulator", i.e. hired gun.  It was in Lincoln that he escaped from a jail cell and killed two deputies.  This area spotlights Billy the Kid and the events of that era.  There are many house and building from that area that are still in great shape and open to the public.  

Remains of house

Dr. Woods house  Circa 1886

Early duplex

Torreon Castle

We returned to Ruidoso via Fort Stanton which was an early fort to protect the settlers from indians, and bandits of that era.  The fort has been used as a TB sanatorium, drug rehab, actual fort and many other uses over the years.  The grounds and building are in very good shape considering the age of the fort.  

We had plans to attend the Up With People concert in Ruidoso so we headed back early to listen to the group.  They have 100 cast members from 21 countries and put on performances all over the world.  They were in Ruidoso for a concert and stay with local people and perform community services while they were here.  There motto is:  " Up with People is a global education organization that aims to bring the world together through service and music. The unique combination of international travel, service learning, leadership development and performing arts offers students an unparalleled experience and a pathway to make a difference in the world, one community at a time."

I must admit they put on a very good performance and we managed to talk with two cast members, one from Switzerland and the other from Sweden. It would be a good group to join for a young man since the girls outnumbered the guys by 2 to 1.   Enough said.