Carla's blog: Red Hatters of Alamogordo Explore Carrizozo, New Mexico

Saturday, April 9, 2016

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society took a road trip to Carrizozo, New Mexico to explore this small town. The town had many unexpected surprises. Carrizzo is known as the town of burros and indeed, sculpted and painted burros of every description are scattered at various locations and in their art galleries as well. The program is known as The Burro Serenade.

On the way to Carrizozo we stopped at Three Rivers Petroglyphs and indulged in a wee bit of shopping, the Red Hat Society's official sport.

Our first stop in Carrizozo was the Emporium where we were hosted by a dear man who filled us in on various must see places in town and the best place to dine for a large group such as ours. The Emporium is stocked with amazing items from the 1800's up to the present time. Again, purchases were made before we moved on to the lovely Malkerson's 408 Gallery where there were a number of painted burros. I purchased a lovely piece of Raku depicting petroglyphs duplicated from Three Rivers, created and titled by noted Taos, New Mexico artist Hollis Hansen, "The Gang's All Here".

The girls were getting hungry so we drove to the now defunct golf course to a beautiful new restaurant and gift shop called The Rustic Antler. It is owned by a charming family and they've been open for business since October of last year. The service and food were excellent and we had a grand time there. I highly recommend that you visit them for an excellent dining experience. While there, we sang and kazoo'd Happy Birthday to Lu Mattson and Gale Swineford. The owner brought out a bouquet of purple balloons to celebrate the occasion.

A lady, JoAnn Butler was having a meeting at another table with two gentlemen and when her meeting was over she asked questions about the Red Hat Society and expressed an interest in starting a chapter in Carrizozo which I plan to follow up on and help her get started.

We drove back downtown and went into the Photography Studio which was exhibiting the award winning photos from the latest New Mexico Magazine among many others. They also had a burro in their front window with an antique motion picture camera.

One last stop was made at a coppersmith shop and he was quite friendly and informative. It seems that the movie starring Denzel Washington, "The Book of Eli" was filmed right there in Carrizozo on 12th Street.

We all agreed that our road trip to Carrizozo was well worth our time and we still didn't see everything.

Indian Joe making a play for Trudy Reese at Three Rivers Petroglyphs Shop

Jan Jennings paying for a beautiful pendant she treated herself to

Lu Mattson, one of our birthday girls

Gail Swineford (our other birthday girl) amused at something

The pendant that Jan purchased

Jan enamoured with Indian Joe

A vinyard burro inside the Malkerson's 408 Gallery

This burro appears to have a middle-eastern decor

The artist just went wild with color on this burro

L to R: Trudy, VQ Donna Williams, Margie Purcella and Alice Johnston-Evan taking a rest break

A close-up of VQ Donna, Margie and Alice with a brightly painted burro

Carla purchased this lovely Petroglyph wall-hanging done in the Raku medium by noted Taos, NM artist Hollis Hansen

L to R: Lu, Trudy, Gail and Margie at The Rustic Antler

L to R: Alice, Jan and VQ Donna

Margie and Alice sharing this scrumptious looking (HUGE) banana split

The movie maker burro at the Photography Studio

There is no doubt that we need to return to Carrizozo sometime in the near future because what we've explored will have changed and there was still much more to see.