We hit the road bright and early, heading west to Artesia, NM, which is to be our base of operations for the weekend.  The drive was pleasantly uneventful and seeing all the wind farms in west Texas was really nice.  We got in to Artesia just before 5 PM local time, got checked in, and then went over to The Wellhead for some microbrews and dinner.  The food was great, the beers were good, though I preferred the red ale over the American pale ale.  To me the pale was a little one dimensional, as all I got was the cascades hops.  After that I had to do a little homework before turning in…