Arrival

I have arrived! Well, at least at Whittington - from here on known at W. Trip up was easy..about 135 miles and hardly any traffic - typical for this part of NM. There was snow in the Colorado mountains last night and perhaps the most northern NM ones but nothing here. However, I could see the peaks from the highway..it's really quite beautiful. Check in was easy and fun...nice gals... we were given a bag of goodies..our own fleece jackets, t-shirts, shooting goggles/glasses and ear-protectors that we get to keep. The shooting vests (bright red) we have to give back..they have nice padded front shoulder areas to help with the re-coil from the rifles etc.

Our rooms are adequate. Some walk-in closets are bigger than the rooms...each of us (2 to a room) has a bed with nice clean, crisp linens and two blankets. I may just bring my sleeping bag in to use also. Closets are big enough...no dressers drawers though... oh well, it'll be fine. I have not met my room-mate yet as I checked in, unpacked and drove into Raton for gas/camp chair/lunch and some shopping. So after I post this, I'll head back to the room and see if she is there.

Due to privacy concerns, we do not get a list of everyone attending..they leave that up to the participants to share with each other if wanted. So I'm not even sure who my roomie is yet.

Raton (Ra-tone) is about 4 miles north of W so I drove in and filled up the gas tank, bought a new camp chair at K-Mart (forgot my nice new one at home) and drove around town a bit. Found a really nice shop (Santa Fe Traders or something like that) and met 4 other gals from W there. They spent LOTS more money than I did. I bought a couple of bookmarks and a cookbook. No quilt shop in town anymore. Also found a cool little gadget to hold my glasses onto my jacket if I take them off. We'll see how it works.


I took some pictures of the antelope that just wander around the place but found out when I sat down now, that I also forgot my card reader so won't be able to post the pictures unless I make another trip into town to buy a new one. Oh well, you'll ahve to wait. Needless to say, the antelope are gorgeous.

Off now to meet my roomie, maybe lay down for awhile and then get ready for dinner at 6 and orientation - we'll be going out camping for two days....since I didn't bring an air mattress or sleeping pad, I'm hoping they provide those...or cots. Time will tell.