^^The NM forum appears to center around the Albuquerque area and also appears to be heavily populated with very, very young folks.
I am hoping to get a mustang convertible, but won't really know until +1's company irons out detailllllllllllls. I noticed from the publications that the arts are very important in NM and checked out the webcam in the Santa Fe Plaza. I am very, very interested in the museums, historical buildings and architecture, Native American places of interest and particularly art. Food, of course, is very high on my list of enjoyable things (you can pretty much tell that from all the Buckeye photos )!! I'm not into the gambling thing (I already have enough bad habits) . I believe that we'll be located on the Pueblo of Pojoaque about 15-20 miles north of Santa Fe.

 

Now that the highway construction north from SF is complete, it's only about 10-15 minutes into Santa Fe from Pojoaque (Po-wah-kee, with maybe a tendency for a "whah" in the middle, for you folks looking at that and thinking "what the..."). If your interests tend toward Puebloan and Navajo art (wonderful pottery and sculpture, weavings and paintings, jewelry), the Wheelwright Museum and the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture (both on "museum hill" on Old Santa Fe Trail) are quite remarkable. And downtown, the Museum of New Mexico and, of course, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum are worth a visit. And don't forget the galleries -- they function as de-facto museums, particularly the Gerald Peters Gallery.

And, maybe you know this already, but if not you'll value it: When the server at the restaurant asks "red or green?" [which is, no joke, the Official State Question], they're asking about which kind of chile sauce you want on whatever you ordered. "Christmas" means half-and-half, and it's acceptable to ask which is hotter (it varies by restaurant) and to have it on the side. HPH

 

Thanks for the "red or green" translation. I'd have been dumbfounded!! I am so looking forward to the art -- ALL OF IT. My great-great grandmother was Lakota Sioux and I enjoy Native American art immensely. I also enjoy many forms of primitive artwork and love Georgia O'Keeffe's work (her story is quite interesting as well). I'm very much interested in seeing St. Francis Cathedral. (I love the architecture of the old churches). I'll pm when we get there and get settled. I'd like to get the names of some restaurants, etc. if you don't mind. We spent a good deal of time in the Texas Panhandle and it was an interesting place to visit (but I wouldn't particularly want to live there). The weather was quite unlike the weather here and tornadoes, thunderstorms, winds, etc. were unpleasant to me. I did enjoy Diablo Canyon and found it be breathtakingly beautiful.

 

Hey, I've got every sort of opinion you can imagine.

I'll be out of town for a couple of weeks after today, but I'll eventualy respond to mail. HPH

 

Darlene and Jim,

I hope that you enjoy your time in NM. It is one of the twelve states that I yet to travel too. I am looking forward to discovering it for myself sometime.

I hope that you are going be in temporary housing or at least something like an Embassy Suites? A hotel room alone would get real old for that long a period of time.

Have a safe trip

Enjoy

 

We will have very nice housing, Matt. It will be located on a golf course, so I may decide to take up golfing. +1 doesn't golf either.

 

Wow Val, quiet a change from Virginia. Your trip sounds great and you even have a tour guide in Cloud. Make sure you post a pic of you, Jim and Cloud together in front of his S. Get a couple pics of the "red" and "green" too.

 

Boy, am I ever jealous, Val

I have really enjoyed our couple trips to NM. The area around White Sands is interesting as well as Ruidoso, which was near the hiding place of one of the bad guys of the wild west (Billy the KID?) Of course, you must visit Roswell to check out the latest extra-terrestrial landings One of my favorite places (off the beaten track) is Las Vegas New Mexico which is a small town with neat area of 'old west' historically-certified buildings.....great for a walking tour. Not many people realized that the Rocky Mountains extend down thru NM....so there is a lot of geo-physical and climate variety. You should also check out Carlsbad Caverns....all the way down in the SE corner of the state.

NOW.....a question:
Why don't you enlist a volunteer (lady) co-pilot and the S out west? You could take a few days for a Kyras-type drive and pick up +1 at the Albequerque airport

 

^^ Already checked on Kyras' location -- she is 12 hours from where we will be and we really are not out there for fun . I don't think we'll have the time to do a lot of visiting with folks. Albuquerque is 90 miles from where we'll be, but we will be flying in and out of Albuquerque several times during the months we're there. We're just trying to make the most out of a working trip. +1 has accepted an assignment and will be working. We're hoping he gets some weekends for sightseeing, etc., but I'll be doing the scouting during the week while he's at work in the hopes of finding some places of interest for him to see when he's off and taking as many pictures as I can manage. I'm hoping to get some work time in as well, particularly in the study of the Native American cultures and ART. I understand the Santa Fe Opera is wonderful and we're hoping to see at least one performance, but are unsure due to the work schedule. We consider ourselves very fortunate to be housed near Santa Fe since other options that could have "reared their ugly heads" were not as nice.

Edit: +1 will be staying for the duration of our "tour of duty" and I will be flying in/out a time or so, but they'll be quick trips. We may make a short trip over to Arizona, but am not sure yet. One of the nice things about these work assignments is that we usually get an opportunity to stay long enough to establish a routine of life that gives a real picture of what a place is like for those who live there.
+1 was on assignment in California that was great (several yrs ago), Maine for four months (WOW a wonderful, beautiful State), Canada for four months (he discovered how bad his French is), Amarillo for two periods of four months each time (we discovered we do NOT want to live there), but enjoyed Diablo Canyon. Probably our favorite is Oak Ridge, Tennessee, but it is very similar to where we live now. We know we do not particularly want to permanently reside in Washington State, Idaho or a couple of other places, but every place has really good things and things that you'd rather not have. If we were totally loaded and had tons, tons of $$, we'd probably choose to live outside San Diego or maybe San Clemente or the area nearby.

 

Val,
the wife & I enjoyed a trip to NM in the early 90s. If you see a restaurant in Santa Fe called Maria's or Maria's Kitchen, they had great mexican food. We also went to Taos to look around. They had a historical museum there and I found an exhibit about my great uncle who was a trapper in that area.
I think it was in NM that we drove to Hell out in the desert as well. So now I have truly been to Hell and back.
Have a great trip.