Rick & Lori: October 8, 2017

Our trip scheduled for September 14-17 had to be cancelled due to Rick going to Houston to work on Michael, Lauren, and Lincoln's home which flooded in the hurricane. We were hoping to have Rick (and maybe me) go up to the cabin for a week or so and get some of those long-neglected projects going. Maybe next year.

We were joined by Amy and Vince on Thursday night (very late) and by JD and Jill on Friday. We had tickets for the Marshall Tucker Band/Charlie Daniels Band concert at Inn of the Mountain Gods on Friday night. We skipped riding on Friday, ate BBQ at Mad Jack's, and did some shopping. We met JD & Jill at Cafe Rio in Ruidoso for some great pizza before the concert. The concert was really, really good, especially Charlie Daniels. We got some free casino credits from our beers, spent a very short time at the slot machines, and Rick walked out with $66 and Amy with $45 (from $0).

It had rained a lot during the week, and there was still some flooding in town, so we knew the trails would be really muddy. Amy decided to run the Switchback Trail to train for her upcoming half-marathon, and Rick, Vince, and I did a MTB ride in the Pierce Canyon (first time riding there), Russia Canyon, and Karr recreation areas. The aspens were beautiful, and we had a good and challenging ride. JD & Jill took the 4WD pickup on some trails. We all had lunch at various times at Mad Jack's and made a trip to the Lodge for drinks on the patio.

We headed back to Lubbock on Sunday.