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Ranger Ted writes
So you have sold your house now. You could go anywhere. Are you sure that ABQ, or even NM is where you should go? Not to bust in on your theory, but you can go anywhere.
RT is right: we can go anywhere. Well, anywhere we can afford. Shermanilla wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of the various places we are presently considering. We want to return to California where both of us have strong family ties and the greatest number of friends, but we are effectively priced out of that market. We miss the West.
We have always liked Albuquerque, even when its downtown was a rather homely place. We liked the barrios and the acres of light industrial buildings adjacent to downtown. And we keep discovering things about the place that seem to call to us: a fifteen-mile bike path along the Rio Grande, a neighborhood of cool old houses next to downtown, the 24 hour place across from the U.
But why not consider some place like Bozeman? Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana all appear to be very cowboy-centric. We have nothing against cowboys, but we are not of them. And a lot of people respond to the cowboy look in ways that, well, kinda gross us out (eg tobacco-chewing). Montana blends its cowboy aesthetic with miner and field-and-stream. We lived the field-and-stream life (albeit vicariously, through our customers) back in Dunsmuir, and so it feels a little been there done that. We have driven through Colorado and we were not impressed. Many pickup trucks and rednecks. I am pretty sure that we saw a "Proud to be White" bumpersticker there. Wyoming is pretty but it lacks a city to speak of. Our response to Wyoming's scenery would have to be much stronger than it is for us to consider moving there.
In sum, there is no perfect place. And I am not sure that place is the most important thing to us. There is a lot to be said for a happy marriage. Strange as it seems to say, New Mexico appears to be the most fertile place for our relationship right now: adventure, a home-like place, plenty of cheap land (should we decide to go the ranchero route), and a good supply of quonset huts.
Posted by Underblog at May 23, 2005 7:02 AM
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I'm pretty sure you're going to hear some *wetback* remarks in ABQ, too. There are rednecks everywhere. I'll bet a lot of the Milwaukee Brewers chew tobacco.
Posted by: Suzanne at May 23, 2005 7:50 AM
Milwaukee?
Posted by: Sherman at May 23, 2005 8:08 AM
Nix on Colorado. Nix on the the pseudo-rustic "log-house vibe" wherever it may roam.
Posted by: Sherman at May 23, 2005 8:11 AM
Shermie's NM cons:
1. dry skin,
2. lots of ugly affordable houses,
3. Rio Rancho and it's cousins,
4. landscape not as pretty as a bit further north.
see, I can be realistic.
Posted by: Sherman at May 23, 2005 8:14 AM
I'll take the psuedo-rustic "pueblo vibe". it's what I grew up with. I have pleasant memories and associations. actually, I grew up with the real thing. Now the real thing costs about a million bucks.
Posted by: Sherman at May 23, 2005 8:31 AM
New Mexico sounds good to me. Plus they have some Yaks.
Posted by: RT at May 23, 2005 1:11 PM