… Or scoping out the future in a hurry

This was going to be a 48-hour round-trip for in-person viewing of potential properties in the northern New Mexico area. The first of what may be many trips to the northern New Mexico area with the goal of putting the noise, crappy climate, and congestion and insanity of Dallas / Fort Worth and north Texas behind us.  We have a collective 3 decades or more of living here and it’s time for a change of scenery.

Not without complications, of course. Driving in and out in that time would leave us about 15 minutes to check out any potential listings.  Our trip had to be packed into Saturday morning through Sunday evening, with as much of Saturday as possible devoted to the Taos and Rio Grande valley area.  COVID had started to recede, but restrictions were still in place, and DFW <-> New Mexico flight routes were going to be a challenge.

Saturday 2021 04 24

Looking at the calendar and our schedule, we decided to try for a direct flight to Albuquerque, a car rental, and flying tour around the Taos area.  Flights to Santa Fe (which would have saved us at least an hour and a half of highway time) were thin on the ground and very expensive.  Trade-off was a long commute back and forth and trying to sort out lodging for the night, knowing we’d be getting back into Albuquerque in the middle of the night.  Challenge accepted!

Early AM visit to DFW Airport was pretty weird – I spent almost all of 2019 living in airports, but had not traveled via plane in upwards of 12 months.  Trying to remember all the tricks of spending less than a day navigating parking, security, check-in, boarding, bathrooms, water bottles, and coffee was a confusing flashback to times when that was my working life.  Definitely prefer highway time ….

That said, the direct flight was a definite time-saver.  Acquired a comfortable and hopefully fuel-efficient rental, and now it was time to head up the valley.  

First order of the day was of course food – no more than 4 hours of awake time can pass without the hyena needing a meal, so we tracked down a well-rated local brunch diner with friendly staff, New Mexico speed service, and enough space inside to plan out the day on the laptops.

No trip is complete without multiple diversions and side-jaunts, and Albuquerque being the focus and locale for one of our favorite television series of all time, we had a few places to check out.  Not sure if Pollos Hermanos is a real thing, but we did stop by Jesse and Jane’s (well, formerly Jane’s) house:

Given a mid-morning appointment north of Taos proper, we had to head north after that sighting.   Even traversing interstate highways is better in New Mexico – the wide open desert views, mountain ridges in the distance, dry blue skies high above.  The freeway to Santa Fe was fast, and for this trip we avoided the center-of-Santa-Fe-jam by taking the loop.  Once north, we had the scenic drive up the Rio Grande River valley towards Tres Piedras:

Having used the magic of Zillow to find some property options, we were able to connect with a realtor prior to our visit.  Having no real idea what was available and what the rural areas outside Taos had to offer, we wanted to have at least some guidance – got connected and did the texting / phone-call dance to plan out a sampling.  Goals include:

• Compact (under 1000 square feet if possible)
• At least 1.5 bathrooms
• Away from the city if possible
• Off grid if possible
• Reasonably priced

The first couple of items were do-able, the off-grid options are possible, however it was quite obvious that pandemic-driven real-estate speculation was going to make “reasonably priced” a unicorn.  More on that later.

Starting near Tres Piedras (“Three Stones” in Spanish, referring to some landmark rock formations sticking up in the middle of what is now nearly a ghost town), we planned to work our way back to Taos for dinner and the drive back south.

OPTION 1 (sorta the middle of nowhere):

There was a sore temptation to buy the first place we visited.  We loved the land and the view, with a huge picture window facing east and 360-degree horizon ringed with mountains and space.   The house style and layout would have been all wrong, but excitement about price and location had at least one of us ready to halt the search.  The price was very low, and included an option for some land across the road, but we had other places to go:

OPTION 2 (100 year old farmhouse):

Going a little west, right on the edge of the Lincoln National Forest (which like all the rest of our national forests is apparently just a harvesting ground for lumber companies …), we took a look at a refurbished 100-plus year-old farmhouse on a small plot of acreage.  Square footage was more than needed, and there were some, um, interesting decisions made during the re-model (stuffing a sleeping area between high ceilings and a low roof, no doors or walls around the master bedroom, a GIGANTIC bathtub in a bathroom that took up 500 square feet of the house …).  The large lot would need quite a bit of junk hauled off, although that seems pretty much universal in the area.  Sitting right next to Highway 64, location and the above dropped this one to the bottom of the list:

OPTION 3 (Need 911?  Good luck …):

We’d talked about wanting something away from the main roads, so our fearless realtor took us at our word.  Living in DFW, a 20-30 mile drive is not unusual getting between metro areas, but you’re always in the city -cellular service, indoor plumbing, emergency services, those are all taken for granted.  New Mexico, and especially rural New Mexico is a whole different animal.  Driving off the pavement near the Rio Grande bridge, we carefully followed our guide past expansive McMansions in the pueblo style, libraries stuffed inside of wrecked school buses, an entire community of living quarters in various wheelless vehicles, and potholes that would swallow Humvees.  After a mile or so of straddling a ditch in the middle of unpaved “road”, we finally get to the property, trying to keep the realtor in sight because cellular signal had disappeared a while ago.

Ignoring the retired pickup in the front yard, we liked the style of the house – rustic adobe, thick walls, but plenty of windows and space.  Some other choices, not so much – a shower and sink in one bathroom, a toilet and a sink in the other, and a kitchen / dining area that incorporated an interesting mish-mash of fixtures and storage..  Despite all that, we like it – however, hearing that our realtor’s cousin’s brother’s friend who is an EMT / ambulance driver in the area often can’t find where the dying people who managed a 911 call are threw a little bit of shade on the location.  An hour drive on a dry and sunny day to get 10 miles covered also raises the question of what visiting the grocery in the middle of February with a foot of snow on the ground would involve … :

Didn’t get pictures of a favorite from the trip, but it was the right size, the right price, and on a nice-sized acre-plus lot away from town but near passable roads.  Of course, it already had an offer in-place by the time we showed up and the owner wasn’t interested in entertaining any more guests.  Bookmarked for future reference …

Visits to the Arroyo Seco area (closest housing area to the Taos Ski Valley until you get *into* the valley) showed that despite some acceptable layouts and desirable styling and architecture, the area felt a lot like suburban DFW – crowded, heavy traffic, and very, very expensive.  Closer in to Taos we found some options jammed into narrow plots on suburb-feeling streets, with some weird layouts like laundry connections stuffed into the master bedroom.  Have to keep looking, but got a feel for some of the areas to help guide us as we make more trips.

As always, food and the acquisition of same were critical agenda items.  The Burger Stand is a pretty consistent stop on every trip – fast (for New Mexico), casual, and before sobriety, a great location for beer.  We realized that due to schedule / seasons for past visits, this was the first time we’ve visited during the day.  Great work on the wall complementing the tasty food and beverages in side:

After lunch – one large fried hamburger with an ultra healthy side of potatoes cooked in duck fat and probably covered in green chiles and cheese, one small quinoa and rainbows salad, washed down by … water – we headed back towards Tres Piedras and beyond for some exploring. Beautiful views on the way, posing the question “why do we live in Texas?” every few minutes:

Going back through Tres Piedras, we noticed an apparently abandoned building in distinctive New Mexico pink off the highway.  There’s not a lot of information online, but from little there was indicated the former schoolhouse was most recently used as an art gallery.  The gym and two-room schoolhouse was in use until 1969, and it’s life as a gallery appears to have faded into “storage for Amazon shipping packages and 50 years of junk” …

In a continuing theme for the town, across the very quiet highway intersection from the schoolhouse is The Diner, which does not appear to be serving any coffee (or sandwiches, or anything else) these days:

Noticing the fading daylight, we determined it was time to head south.  In the spirit of never taking a direct route when we could easily tack on 12 hours of unnecessary driving, we checked Google Maps for the most complicated and slow way possible to return to Albuquerque and sleep.  Mislead again by Google, we found that what looked like a gorgeous and twisting road south through the Lincoln National Forest was in fact rough dirt road through ranch land, mostly private (at least it was ranch land, instead of fracking well invasions like we have carpeting the entire state of Texas these days):

After a short jaunt over hill and dale, and grabbing a couple of nice photos, we back-tracked up the hill and down to the state roads southbound:

One of our party is on a mission to capture collapsing and decrepit structures on our road trips – plenty of that scattered along every road in New Mexico, with interesting collages to be found around abandoned gas stations and houses.

Driving in the high desert between outcroppings of mountains provides plenty of opportunities for dramatic sunsets, sunrises, and great photos.  Capturing the last moments of sunlight on the drive back:

The views once the sun went down and we entered the heavily populated corridor of casinos and depressed towns were a bit less scenic, but we made it to Albuquerque without incident.

Sunday 2021 04 25

Knowing our day was going to involve a lot of rushing around before hitting the airport, we tried to get out of bed at a reasonable time. Moderate success there, followed by a mid-morning run through Old Town, which is a blend of really old buildings stuffed full of tourist-trap shops down near the river:

Nestled in the warren of t-shirt and jewelry stores, we did find a nice place for coffee with decent pastries and breakfast food, along with some nice logos for their mugs:

Coffee and a snack were not going to hold us (at least the hyena) for the day, so we tracked down a solid brunch location at Slate. Good food and a large number of Albuquerqians hammering mimosas and other potent morning cocktails. Our jealousy only lasted until we thought about our lack of hangovers and ability to focus our eyes in the morning. Taking a quick tour through the city center, snapping some photos, we had time to track down another Breaking Bad location, old churches, headless babies in very masculine Madonna iconography, and a building of pop culture illustrations:

Needing one last stop before heading to the airport, we spotted Boca Negra Canyon National Monument on the map. Two young and slightly stoned gentlemen wearing NPS uniforms greeted us with a smile, were moderately flummoxed that we didn’t have fistfuls of small bills to purchase entry to the park, and then conceded free entry with a general wave towards parking at the top of the hill. (Note to self when navigating national parks – keep small bills handy when under-funded facilities or questionably enthusiastic rangers have no way to accept or break a $20 or use electronic payment).

As usual with our random side excursions, we found a neat new place to explore. Clambering up a moderately steep trail through volcanic rocks and desert, we were rewarded with the sight of ancient human finger painting in the form of petroglyphs. Very cool, and topped off by a dramatic view of the city from the overlook at the summit. A nice way to end a hurried trip, followed by typical rush to the airport and quick flight home.