Alamogordo New Mexico Red Hatters Attend Red Hat Western Roundup

Saturday, March 16, 2019

Members of the New Mexico Roadrunner Chapter of the Red Hat Society traveled from Alamogordo, New Mexico to Las Cruces, New Mexico to take part in the Las Cruces Queens Council Red Hat Western Roundup Funvention on Saturday, March 16, 2019.

We arrived early Saturday morning to engage in Red Hatters favorite sport, "Shopping", with vendors at the event. While waiting for registration to begin, we occupied the Hotel Encanto de Las Cruces restaurant for coffee and sweet rolls. We definitely needed sustenance after all that shopping.

The fun started with some fun games and door prize drawings. We also purchased raffle tickets in hopes of winning some lovely items on the raffle table. Then, it was time for the "Hat Parade" peopled by those Red Hatters who created and/or decorated hats for the event. I did not get the name of the pretty lady who won for most beautiful hat, but in our chapter, Rosanna Heath's hat won for best representing the western theme and Carla Kerr's hat won for being the most outrageous. We were on a roll and it got even better from there. Karen Townsend won a prize for the worst Red Hat Bingo Card and she also won the table centerpiece which was a lighted red cowboy hat on a small bale of hay.  Carmen Veenpere won a door prize.

We enjoyed a chuck wagon buffet consisting of salad, fried chicken, barbecued brisket, potato salad, corn on the cob, pinto beans and spiced apples for dessert. The food was truly delicious and it looked like it was enjoyed by all.

We were entertained by a "senior" singing group of ladies with a gentleman director. They even brought in a keyboard, drums, and maracas for backup. They sang all the golden oldies that we learned as kids and a lot of us even sang along with them. This was a lot of fun as well.

For the next hour and a half Hatters went to different rooms for activities that included Decorate a Fascinator Class; T-Shirt Class; Line Dance Class and Red Hat Bingo. Everyone returned to the large meeting room for more door prize drawings, announcements and raffle ticket drawings. Trudy Reese won a door prize; Carla won two beautifully made throw pillows in the raffle and Carmen won a set of Red Hat plates and with another ticket won a Red Hat candy dish. We had a lot of winners at our table for a change. Table favors were mugs with purple or red western bandanas in them.

Driving back to Alamogordo was another experience because we drove through rain and as we approached San Augustin Pass in the Organ Mountains, we were hit with a blizzard. Being one of the drivers, I was so grateful the temperature never got down to 30, but close at 33 degrees because I don't have 4-wheel drive. Once we got further down into the Tularosa Basin, everything was bone dry and it was smooth sailing from there on out.

Royal Scribble Gail Swineford and Twinkle Toes Carmen Veenpere

L to R: Queen Curvy aka Kimberly Gugliotta, Lady Sunshine Trudy Reese and Enchanted Empress Karen Townsend

Rosanna Heath

Random shot of the attendees

Karen holding up her door prize ticket and Gail wishing it was hers

More attendees and the girl in the middle was in the Hat Contest

Another random shot of the attendees

Back Row from Left: Queen Ladybird aka Carla Kerr, Carmen, Rosanna, Gail. Front Row L to R: Kimberly, Karen and Trudy

Rosanna and Carla sporting their winning hats

Side view of Carla's hat

Front view of Carla's hat

The back of Carla's hat

If you enlarge the photos of the hat, you can see more detail. It took me a while to put it together with my trusty glue gun.

Thanks to Doug Kerr for processing all the pictures for this article.

This is all I have to say for now.