Good eating down in Las Cruces and El Paso. Thanks, Taffy. We should go down there one day - call it some serious conference about art and literature - then spend the WHOLE TIME just eating and hanging out. I had a dear friend once accuse me - basically accurately - by saying "You just like to go out on the road so you can eat..." To which I say, "Yeah? You got a problem with that?"
Thank you, Paul, for this love letter to Las Cruzes. Never been there, but Tucson was on our horizon for a time. Going there to check out houses, etc., showed me how raw a town could be. Too many western towns are dressing up to gleam in the sunlight of progress, erasing their pasts, even if those pasta are just a few decades old. Californication obviously hasn't reached some places in the interior West.Your photos show a place that's raw and real, dusty and yet alive as the afternoon wind. The stories of your travels intrique me and this one most of all, probably because you paused your nomadic life long enough to fall in love.
Thanks, Sue. I have a thing for Tucson, and it's still dusty and ragged around the edges, no matter how hard they try to dress it up. There's an interesting arts scene there, as well. As with most places I love out west, the water situation freaks me out, but life does seem to persist. Phoenix, I'm not so sure. I still wonder how Vegas and Phoenix are going to do unless or until the Colorado River picks up again in volume.
Tucson is considered one of the oldest continuously lived in cities in the country, so it has survived climate and social change for thousands of years. Phoenix and Vegas, on the other hand, are newbies. While Mormons started Las Vegas over 100 years ago, the city didn't become "Vegas Baby" until Bugsy Malone built his Mafia hideaway in the desert. It's not supposed to exist. Same with Phoenix, even though it's laid over ancient indigenous infrastructure. Those people built complex watering systems, but 20th Century boosters dropped a major city on top and sold it as snowbird/retiree paradise. The military helped the effort by making nearby Ajo a WWII army base. My dad was stationed there and my sister was born in Phoenix. Those two cities are ghost towns, but they don't know it yet. As long as they think they can steal water from every place else, they'll keep poking along. Don't get me started on LA. Same problem. They steal water from the interior West and have their scope aimed at claiming water from the Mississippi. Wrap your head around that one, Paul. Is it spinning yet? Meanwhile, LA sits on the brink of the largest body of water on the fukking planet, but gee, it's just too expensive and fish might get sucked into the intake pipes. 🤬
I'm with you on all of this, Sue. And the ancient ones in Phoenix didn't get all belligerent about having green lawns and golf courses. And as for fish getting sucked into intake pipes - sounds like all you have to do then is cook them and you're good!
Oh my goodness, what a stunning piece! Thanks so much for transporting me to another place, time & mindset this morning, Paul. & thank you for the fabulous "El Paso" keyring which you brought me back from this trip. It still resides in the alcove of kitsch in our apartment & I cherish it.
As always I get much joy from your writing and photos. We spent some time in the Las Cruces area in spring 2023 and really enjoyed it. We've been talking for a couple of years about where our new home base should be, if we can ever sell our dang house, and we agree it should be at a higher elevation and not desert, somewhere that's not 100 degrees in the summer. On the subject of looking for a new home town, back in the 1990's Jacqui and I were thinking about moving somewhere very different from Grand Junction, CO and we agreed to do some research separately then get back together and discuss the towns we chose. After a few days we revealed our choices and, remarkably, we both chose Glasgow, MT. We never did go there to look around but I guess it's not too late.
The summer heat leaves out Las Cruces as a base but we could still explore there in fall/winter/spring. I'm still a desert rat, though, and the two towns my mind keeps coming back to are Las Cruces and Barstow, CA. Both are near active railroad corridors. I'm guessing the food is much better in Las Cruces but I've spent most of my adult life on the west side of the Continental Divide. Seems like a silly distinction but for some reason it keeps coming back.
Thank you for the road stories and photos, they offer inspiration as well as a happy distraction from some other things going on. Best wishes in your travels and searches.
Thanks, Jeff. Have not been to Glasgow in a million years. I love much of Montana and try to ignore some of the "Montana is being overwhelmed with tech money" stories that I read in the news more and more. It can be cold up there, but you do have water. I like that, politically, New Mexico goes their own way and does not fall sway to some of the more radical right extremes that you can find in other parts of the west. It's a poor state, but so rich in people. The medical care is one thing that freaks me out about New Mexico. It's not great. Only one Level 1 Trauma unit and that's in ABQ. Now, there are other areas, notably in the hills around Santa Fe, that are nice in terms of climate. More fire hazards there, though. I'm riffing quickly cause I have to go out, so please don't hold these thoughts against me. There was that whole Silver City scene, but that didn't do it for me as much. We seriously thought about Socorro for a while, but I'll tell you my thoughts on that some other day. Ended up counting it out. I love Albuquerque, but it's not for everyone. You know what? I just love New Mexico. Could not ever live in Hobbs or Clovis or Deming, but I'd be happy with most of the rest of the state. We need to get a coffee. Might be out west in July, but might not be wandering around too much due to possible heat. More later.
Yes I am concerned about being relatively close to medical care. We've checked out Crestone, CO, up in the San Luis Valley, but it's 50 miles to the hospital in Alamosa. Our plan is to buy or build a small house or cabin on a few acres and spend summers there, then travel with the camper in fall, winter and spring as long as we're able. We'll see how that goes. We both like to travel for history and nature (and food!).
I love New Mexico, too, but it's a bit rougher than Colorado. I was talking with a neighbor this morning and she is from a small town in southern Arizona, near the New Mexico border, and she recommended checking out that area. I drove I-10 once all the way to California, back in the early 1980's, but I don't remember much about it except that I really enjoyed it. I look forward to getting together for coffee, I'm certain it will eventually happen.
I'm guessing you'll find it completely changed from that trip, but it's still worth it. I long ago embraced the interstates as a good way to get from Point A to Point B, into a zone where I could then get off and enjoy the local roads. 10 covers a lot of good ground, from the California desert to Texas. And it actually is a good way to get across the country, especially in the winter, when you get bad weather everywhere else. I often think to myself in December, "Take 95 down to Jacksonville and then make a right and head for L.A." Not quite that simple and it usually involves a lot of secondary highways, but it's a useful road. More fun than 80. And the idea of a summer HQ is intriguing.
How interesting to see Cruces through the eyes of someone else. I'm 2nd generation born and raised there and spent my entire life trying to get out and get to anywhere else. Escaped about 10 years ago and live in the beautiful, magical south where everything feels warm and wonderful and cozy.
I do miss browsing through Coas and the green chile sundaes of Caliche's (originally Scoopy's; in the old Blake's Lotta Burger building) sometimes - but, every time I go back to visit family, I can't ever leave fast enough and always having this weird worry about getting trapped there again.
I so hear you. I think that's the case with everyone's birthplace. I'm from Yonkers - a place nobody has every called "magical" or "special" or "enchanting," so it's perhaps not a fair comparison, but it's the one place more than any other that I never would go back to for more than an hour. Full stop. End of story. That much I know. I'd rather live in Jersey City and that pretty much says it all. Nothing at all wrong with the place, and I have fond memories of Yonkers. Good place to grow up. Too much emotional freight, too many memories, too little else. So I get it. I'm kind of feeling that way now about my current neighborhood, where people from all over apparently are dying to move to. So, as always, life is an inside job.
As a kid, I read all the time and loved reading about lively, interesting places and would have killed for a chance to see Yonkers! It certainly sounds "magical" to a young girl stuck staring at the sky and the cotton field across the street and spending Saturday nights skating endless circles on the wooden floors at Tommy's Roller Rink.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and Cruces was a much different (re: smaller) place then. And honestly, it was better...It was cozy and friendly. Just always too cozy for me because I wanted to be someone else, somewhere else. Even Albuquerque felt like something to dream and reach for...Every kid in Deming, Lordsburg, Clovis, etc., shared that dream because it was at least something almost obtainable.
"Too much emotional freight, too many memories, too little else..." Exactly that. People the world over likely share that sentiment about hometowns. Especially small/tight knit towns. The really funny thing to me is that after test driving several new places from Los Angeles to St. Louis to New Orleans and experiencing pit stops & break downs in a slew of other places, I landed in an unincorporated community of less than 500 people in central Alabama. The irony of that isn't lost on me.
I hope you find and settle in your magical place. I would strongly reconsider if you're ever thinking of Las Cruces though - the economy there is on a downhill slide and healthcare is beyond a nightmare. Even from where I am in the sticks now, we have access to top-tier facilities in Birmingham and, as husband & I head towards retirement, that is some seriously unglamorous but underrated stuff to consider when looking for a new space to call home.
oh I want the breakfast tacos and huevos rancheros! loved this, Paul.
Good eating down in Las Cruces and El Paso. Thanks, Taffy. We should go down there one day - call it some serious conference about art and literature - then spend the WHOLE TIME just eating and hanging out. I had a dear friend once accuse me - basically accurately - by saying "You just like to go out on the road so you can eat..." To which I say, "Yeah? You got a problem with that?"
I so want a Juke gathering of contributors some day! that would be a hoot!
We should work on that. Let me mull on things. I'd prefer it to be out west.
Thank you, Paul, for this love letter to Las Cruzes. Never been there, but Tucson was on our horizon for a time. Going there to check out houses, etc., showed me how raw a town could be. Too many western towns are dressing up to gleam in the sunlight of progress, erasing their pasts, even if those pasta are just a few decades old. Californication obviously hasn't reached some places in the interior West.Your photos show a place that's raw and real, dusty and yet alive as the afternoon wind. The stories of your travels intrique me and this one most of all, probably because you paused your nomadic life long enough to fall in love.
Thanks, Sue. I have a thing for Tucson, and it's still dusty and ragged around the edges, no matter how hard they try to dress it up. There's an interesting arts scene there, as well. As with most places I love out west, the water situation freaks me out, but life does seem to persist. Phoenix, I'm not so sure. I still wonder how Vegas and Phoenix are going to do unless or until the Colorado River picks up again in volume.
Tucson is considered one of the oldest continuously lived in cities in the country, so it has survived climate and social change for thousands of years. Phoenix and Vegas, on the other hand, are newbies. While Mormons started Las Vegas over 100 years ago, the city didn't become "Vegas Baby" until Bugsy Malone built his Mafia hideaway in the desert. It's not supposed to exist. Same with Phoenix, even though it's laid over ancient indigenous infrastructure. Those people built complex watering systems, but 20th Century boosters dropped a major city on top and sold it as snowbird/retiree paradise. The military helped the effort by making nearby Ajo a WWII army base. My dad was stationed there and my sister was born in Phoenix. Those two cities are ghost towns, but they don't know it yet. As long as they think they can steal water from every place else, they'll keep poking along. Don't get me started on LA. Same problem. They steal water from the interior West and have their scope aimed at claiming water from the Mississippi. Wrap your head around that one, Paul. Is it spinning yet? Meanwhile, LA sits on the brink of the largest body of water on the fukking planet, but gee, it's just too expensive and fish might get sucked into the intake pipes. 🤬
I'm with you on all of this, Sue. And the ancient ones in Phoenix didn't get all belligerent about having green lawns and golf courses. And as for fish getting sucked into intake pipes - sounds like all you have to do then is cook them and you're good!
Oh Paul, cooking the fish would only extent the absolute human cruelty toward other species. This is California after all. sigh
Ok, then it’s got to be sushi…
🤣😁😂🤣😂🤪 Sushi it is!
Bravo.
Thank you
Merci, Maestro!
Bravo and Oh my goodness. I can't add to that, Paul. Maybe, it helped me breathe, a deep breath always good to start the day. And a work of art.
Thank you, Connie! Your presence here always makes me smile. xoxox
Oh my goodness, what a stunning piece! Thanks so much for transporting me to another place, time & mindset this morning, Paul. & thank you for the fabulous "El Paso" keyring which you brought me back from this trip. It still resides in the alcove of kitsch in our apartment & I cherish it.
Thanks, El. You and Jan may need to do some more borderlands weirdness one day.
As always I get much joy from your writing and photos. We spent some time in the Las Cruces area in spring 2023 and really enjoyed it. We've been talking for a couple of years about where our new home base should be, if we can ever sell our dang house, and we agree it should be at a higher elevation and not desert, somewhere that's not 100 degrees in the summer. On the subject of looking for a new home town, back in the 1990's Jacqui and I were thinking about moving somewhere very different from Grand Junction, CO and we agreed to do some research separately then get back together and discuss the towns we chose. After a few days we revealed our choices and, remarkably, we both chose Glasgow, MT. We never did go there to look around but I guess it's not too late.
The summer heat leaves out Las Cruces as a base but we could still explore there in fall/winter/spring. I'm still a desert rat, though, and the two towns my mind keeps coming back to are Las Cruces and Barstow, CA. Both are near active railroad corridors. I'm guessing the food is much better in Las Cruces but I've spent most of my adult life on the west side of the Continental Divide. Seems like a silly distinction but for some reason it keeps coming back.
Thank you for the road stories and photos, they offer inspiration as well as a happy distraction from some other things going on. Best wishes in your travels and searches.
Thanks, Jeff. Have not been to Glasgow in a million years. I love much of Montana and try to ignore some of the "Montana is being overwhelmed with tech money" stories that I read in the news more and more. It can be cold up there, but you do have water. I like that, politically, New Mexico goes their own way and does not fall sway to some of the more radical right extremes that you can find in other parts of the west. It's a poor state, but so rich in people. The medical care is one thing that freaks me out about New Mexico. It's not great. Only one Level 1 Trauma unit and that's in ABQ. Now, there are other areas, notably in the hills around Santa Fe, that are nice in terms of climate. More fire hazards there, though. I'm riffing quickly cause I have to go out, so please don't hold these thoughts against me. There was that whole Silver City scene, but that didn't do it for me as much. We seriously thought about Socorro for a while, but I'll tell you my thoughts on that some other day. Ended up counting it out. I love Albuquerque, but it's not for everyone. You know what? I just love New Mexico. Could not ever live in Hobbs or Clovis or Deming, but I'd be happy with most of the rest of the state. We need to get a coffee. Might be out west in July, but might not be wandering around too much due to possible heat. More later.
Yes I am concerned about being relatively close to medical care. We've checked out Crestone, CO, up in the San Luis Valley, but it's 50 miles to the hospital in Alamosa. Our plan is to buy or build a small house or cabin on a few acres and spend summers there, then travel with the camper in fall, winter and spring as long as we're able. We'll see how that goes. We both like to travel for history and nature (and food!).
I love New Mexico, too, but it's a bit rougher than Colorado. I was talking with a neighbor this morning and she is from a small town in southern Arizona, near the New Mexico border, and she recommended checking out that area. I drove I-10 once all the way to California, back in the early 1980's, but I don't remember much about it except that I really enjoyed it. I look forward to getting together for coffee, I'm certain it will eventually happen.
I'm guessing you'll find it completely changed from that trip, but it's still worth it. I long ago embraced the interstates as a good way to get from Point A to Point B, into a zone where I could then get off and enjoy the local roads. 10 covers a lot of good ground, from the California desert to Texas. And it actually is a good way to get across the country, especially in the winter, when you get bad weather everywhere else. I often think to myself in December, "Take 95 down to Jacksonville and then make a right and head for L.A." Not quite that simple and it usually involves a lot of secondary highways, but it's a useful road. More fun than 80. And the idea of a summer HQ is intriguing.
How interesting to see Cruces through the eyes of someone else. I'm 2nd generation born and raised there and spent my entire life trying to get out and get to anywhere else. Escaped about 10 years ago and live in the beautiful, magical south where everything feels warm and wonderful and cozy.
I do miss browsing through Coas and the green chile sundaes of Caliche's (originally Scoopy's; in the old Blake's Lotta Burger building) sometimes - but, every time I go back to visit family, I can't ever leave fast enough and always having this weird worry about getting trapped there again.
I so hear you. I think that's the case with everyone's birthplace. I'm from Yonkers - a place nobody has every called "magical" or "special" or "enchanting," so it's perhaps not a fair comparison, but it's the one place more than any other that I never would go back to for more than an hour. Full stop. End of story. That much I know. I'd rather live in Jersey City and that pretty much says it all. Nothing at all wrong with the place, and I have fond memories of Yonkers. Good place to grow up. Too much emotional freight, too many memories, too little else. So I get it. I'm kind of feeling that way now about my current neighborhood, where people from all over apparently are dying to move to. So, as always, life is an inside job.
As a kid, I read all the time and loved reading about lively, interesting places and would have killed for a chance to see Yonkers! It certainly sounds "magical" to a young girl stuck staring at the sky and the cotton field across the street and spending Saturday nights skating endless circles on the wooden floors at Tommy's Roller Rink.
I grew up in the 70's and 80's and Cruces was a much different (re: smaller) place then. And honestly, it was better...It was cozy and friendly. Just always too cozy for me because I wanted to be someone else, somewhere else. Even Albuquerque felt like something to dream and reach for...Every kid in Deming, Lordsburg, Clovis, etc., shared that dream because it was at least something almost obtainable.
"Too much emotional freight, too many memories, too little else..." Exactly that. People the world over likely share that sentiment about hometowns. Especially small/tight knit towns. The really funny thing to me is that after test driving several new places from Los Angeles to St. Louis to New Orleans and experiencing pit stops & break downs in a slew of other places, I landed in an unincorporated community of less than 500 people in central Alabama. The irony of that isn't lost on me.
I hope you find and settle in your magical place. I would strongly reconsider if you're ever thinking of Las Cruces though - the economy there is on a downhill slide and healthcare is beyond a nightmare. Even from where I am in the sticks now, we have access to top-tier facilities in Birmingham and, as husband & I head towards retirement, that is some seriously unglamorous but underrated stuff to consider when looking for a new space to call home.
Fabulous. I'll be rolling through Las Cruces in a few weeks. Lovely little place.