The resort village of Ruidoso, New Mexico has an unusually large number of all types of restaurants, galleries and shops. You can easily find a wide selection of foods, arts and gifts. There are also some great lesser known businesses and services available that the casual tourist may miss. Here are my top “Ten Best Kept Secrets About Ruidoso, New Mexico” to enhance your visit. We’ll use inverse order to build the suspense!

10 Disco Taco – Yes, we have the upscale Mexican Restaurants. If you want a margarita and to mingle with fellow travelers, forget Disco Taco. If you want good, down to earth Mexican food without a tourist atmosphere, check it out. On highway 70 in Ruidoso Downs.

9 Bad Chili – The phenomenon of the Ruidoso band Bad Chili keeps steaming along! Together only six months, the group is playing to packed houses all over town! Is it their music? Is it their style? Judge for yourself. Catch a serving of Bad Chili when you’re in Ruidoso.

8 Go Ruidoso – The official travel and tourism website or Ruidoso, New Mexico. Chock full of information on local events, business and the community Go Ruidoso can be a life saver when planning a vacation in Ruidoso. Check them out at www.goruidoso.com .

7 Ruidoso Convention Center – Nestled in the sleepy little Village of Ruidoso sits the Ruidoso Convention Center. A first rate meeting facility, the convention center is adjacent to the world class Links at Sierra Blanca Golf Course and the Hawthorn Suites. Home to events of all sizes and types the convention center is the idea place to combine business with pleasure!

6 Lincoln County Grill – The grill really isn’t a secret, but many still haven’t tried their tasty and generous menu items. Breakfast is a treat and whatever happens remember this one simple fact about the grill…Chicken Fried Steaks!

5 Vacation Rentals – Accommodations of all types can fill up fast during peak periods in Ruidoso. Because rooms are in great demand, prices rise significantly for holidays and special events. One hedge against the high lodging prices are Ruidoso’s many vacation cabins, condos and home rentals. Private owners only in town for several weeks a year lease their properties out on a nightly basis. Frequently these offer amenities hotels don’t…private hot tubs, pool tables, putting greens, ski equipment racks and even boot warmers. All at a cost less that a room at an upscale area hotel!

4 Chester Fried Chicken – I don’t do fried chicken very often but when I do, Chester’s blows the colonel out of the water! Tender and flavorful, Chester’s is available for take out from the Ruidoso Lawrence Brothers IGA Grocery.

3 Weasel Productions – Weasel Productions is a Ruidoso hallmark in video production and photography. They feature the photographic skills of noted New Mexico photographer John T. Soden. John has been hailed by some as the “Ansel Adams of the mountain”! See his work in Ruidoso at the Hubbard Museum of the West and Josie’s Gallery and Framing. Sample the talent at www.weaselvideoproductions.com .

2 The Club House – A small, comfortable lounge tucked away behind a gas station. Relax with a libation, visit with friends or watch their big screen TV. This favorite “watering hole” is located at the intersection of Mechem (Hwy 48) and White Mountains Drives.

Finally, the very best kept secret about Ruidoso…

1 Visiting Ruidoso, New Mexico … the Ruidoso blog!

Plan on exploring some of these rather unique Ruidoso attractions. You’ll have a great time discovering new favorites during your visit.

Bob Huntington works in property management in Ruidoso, New Mexico. Visit his websites at casasderuidoso.com casasderuidoso.com and ruidosocentralreservations.com ruidosocentralreservations.com. Bob also authors the blog visitruidoso.blogspot.com visitruidoso.blogspot.com.

I have never been the kind of person that likes to pick up a ’safe book’ with name recognition. Instead, I like to try out new authors in certain genres. I have my favorites. Who doesn’t? But still, I try all kinds of new authors.

Last night found me at a drug store looking over all kinds of books. There were racks of them. I really had only expected to see a book or two that would appeal to me but instead, there were about fifty books in all. I wrote off the non-fiction books right away. If I’m going to learn something, it’s not going to be about the latest diet craze or another book by some famous talk show host.

I then zeroed in on the romance or chick lit. There was the book I recently read and was disappointed with and that one was a definite ‘no’. I’m still tempted to write the company and tell them that they should enroll that author in a writing course.

I thought, maybe an old favorite. Maybe Nora Roberts. But maybe you’re not aware of this but her new book has …uh yuk vampires in it. You wouldn’t know this from the front cover but the back says something about vampires. No way. Sorry. I’ve had to sit through my share of movies with vampires and I’m still upset about them.

So I moved on. There weren’t any favorites but at least, I had written off Nora Robert’s new book and the one I didn’t like. Two down. Forty-eight to go.

No safety here.

So it made me think, how do I choose a good book? I have come up with these main things.

Look At The Cover

I don’t mean to say, “Pick a pretty book” but generally you will see the genre you’re searching for reflected in the cover. There are all kinds of books with fanciful, girl looking large legs and graphic designed covers. They are usually humorous romance. They are a genre in a genre. There’s also novels with beautiful roses and flowers. They tend to be family romance stories. There’s also gold or silver covers for family romance stories again. Time travel romances tend to have a historic look to them and naturally there are the bodice rippers as they are affectionally called which generally revolve around first experiences for historical main characters.

You can easily target the kind of subgenre you read in romance or other genres just by the look of the book.

You can zero in on the kind of book you might like and generally dismiss a whole rack of books you won’t want to read.

Look At The Back Cover

Read it. If they have spelled out the entire story right there, why buy it? Move on. If they’ve left something of a mystery as in questions that are unanswered, you can certainly consider it.

Read The First Page

Read the first page and see if it is the kind of writing you want to read. If it isn’t, dismiss it because it probably won’t get any better. If you really want to be charitable, read the first 10 pages. That’s all most editors read before they decide if they want to read the rest.

Flip to the Middle

Flip to the middle and see if the dialog is realistic and entertaining. Some writers can’t do dialog and you don’t want to be slogging through a book full of poorly written speaking.

What To Do If The Back Cover Has A Large Photo Instead

Flip to the front of the book and read the first page that will describe the book instead.

I have to admit, I spent about a half an hour coming up with this way to decide whether I wanted the book or not and truly, I dismissed about twenty books by doing this but truly, I was still looking for something.

Yes, you guessed it–a storyline that would pull me in and make me care about reading the book.

Look For A Storyline or Characters that Interest You

From the back of the book through to the first page or two, if the characters don’t grab you, then of course do not buy the book. Likewise with the storyline. If there just isn’t any interest, you are going to be sitting there, reading a book where you truly don’t care what happens.

We buy books to entertain and to care about the characters so if this spark of interest isn’t ignited in the book. Move on. Move on. Move on.

Hopefully, this guide will help you out so that you don’t end up playing it safe. I hope you’ll try new authors. Some of the best ones I’ve read were when I lived in England for two years. I would literally go into a bookstore and get to work without any name recognition. Sometimes, it would take me two hours just to find a few good books but once I did, they were incredible and well worth the time.

Robyn Whyte is the CEO of Stargazer Press, a seriously independent press. Stargazer’s website is open twenty-four hours a day. Please, drop by stargazerpress.com stargazerpress.com anytime.

Check out Kate Rizor’s novel “The Governor’s Wife”.

Kids, check out our new novel by V.B. Rosendahl called “Bitter Tastes”.

Romania history has a deep root to be explored for. Passing through different ages this country has accumulated for the historians to know. Danube basin was the recognized state under the leadership of Burebista around 82 to 44 BC. Burebista expanded his realm through western Wallachia, Transylvania and the Banat. After the two campaigns, the Geto-Dacians were defeated in 102 AD and 105-106 AD. A Roman empire defeated them to reach the Emperor Trajan. The Geto-Dacian kingdom was the Roman province of Dacia—One of the most prosperous of all the Roman provinces. However, the Romans were impelled by Goths to abandon Dacia in 271 AD.

The repeated invasion of Goths, Pechenegs and Cumans and many others, another powerful empire Magyars emerged as one of the most dominating force in Transylvania by the end of the eleventh century, and the province becomes an important regional centre within the Hungarian Empire which is the focus of Romania. The Szekelers and Saxons were other ethnic groups who settled later settled in the region.

Moldavia and Wallachia were impelled to accept Ottoman suzerainty after the death of Stefan Cel Mare in 1504. At the same time Hungary is defeated by the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs in 1526, Romania finds itself entirely at the behest of the Sublime Porte. A well known unification of three principalities in the year 1600 after defeating the Turks at Calugareni However, the new state survived less than a year. With the expansion of Turkish Empire throughout the region, the Russian and Hapsburg Empires also filled the void.

stayresromania.com/romania-history.html stayresromania.com/romania-history.html

Florida, the sunshine state, makes an exciting vacation destination, but deciding where to go can be a challenge with so many cities to choose from. With its white sand beaches, emerald green water and beautiful sunsets, its no wonder Destin is becoming a popular vacation destination. Besides enjoying the sand and surf, don’t forget to pack your snorkeling gear, golf clubs and a little extra cash for an exciting dolphin and sunset cruise. Come experience all the attractions the welcoming city of Destin has to offer.

With the Gulf Coast comes an abundance of water adventures and sports. Take the family swimming, boogie boarding, snorkeling, parasailing or rent a wave runner. Create your own adventure by renting a kayak and paddle out into the open waters to explore the unbeaten path. For complete relaxation, grab your towel and soak up the warm sunshine while listening to the ocean waves gently roll onshore. Wander along miles of white sand beaches, occasionally stopping to gather sea shells and to take a dip into the cool, refreshing ocean water.

If the white sandy beaches and warm sunshine haven’t sparked quite enough interest, a variety of enjoyable boat tours are sure to catch your eye. Take a deep sea adventure and hop onboard the 76 foot glass bottom boat of Southern Star Dolphin & Sunset Cruises. Spend the next two hours gliding over the ocean waves, listening to calming music and exploring a variety of sea life.

Take the kids on a more active adventure and head down to the docks to try deep sea fishing, trolling and billfishing. With over 20 different species of fish from mackerel, red snapper, amberjack and blue and white marlin, your experienced boat captain is sure to help you successfully bring in the big catch of the day.

Every golf enthusiast will be eager to hear the golf courses in Destin are open year round. Home to over ten golf courses with four exclusively designed by renown golf architect Tom Jackson, you are bound to find a course for every skill level. Grab your clubs and take part in a challenging 18 hole round of golf and enjoy the views of Choctawhatchee Bay and the Gulf of Mexico at Baytowne Golf Club.

Located east of Destin on US 98, Henderson Beach State Park is home to 6,000 miles of protected shoreline. Grab your towels and head across the boardwalks which will lead you right to the beach, an excellent spot for dolphin watching. Take a hike along the ¾ mile nature walk and discover countless wildlife, costal dune ecosystem and a variety of plant life including sand pines, scrub oaks, and dune rosemary. At the end of your visit, leave the sand at the beach by rinsing off in the convenient outdoor showers.

While the focus of your vacation is around the beach, make sure to enjoy the Silver Sands Factory outlet, one of the largest. Shopping fanatics will love the great deals they find at the 120 plus stores.

After a fun day in the sun, you’ll be glad to know Destin is home to the regions best dining. From Seafood, American, Italian, Cajun and French you’re bound to find a restaurant with the cuisine you’ve been craving. For the family or group dinner, try Fudpuckers for some delicious seafood. After desert head downstairs and feed the live gators and get your picture taken! Whether it’s a romantic dinner for two, an energetic group gathering or the desire for a casual low key evening, there are restaurants to accommodate.

Before leaving town to fulfill the vacation dreams you are longing for, you will need to look into accommodations that will allow you to fully enjoy your vacation. Try staying in a triphomes.com/USA/Florida/Destin-vacation-rentals-6768d.html Destin Vacation Rental. Enjoy the benefits of a home or condo in close proximity to the beach, golf courses, shopping, restaurants and more.

Whether its friends, family, couples or a large group, you’re bound to find the perfect Destin Florida Vacation Rental on TripHomes.com www.TripHomes.com. Begin your search today for a vacation condo, villa, or home rental that makes your vacation memorable.