Santa Fe Part 1

Who said, "You can't go home again." We sold our second home in Santa Fe in 2005, after almost 11 years of monthly trips up to the mountains. We loved Santa Fe, but decided it was time to expand our travels, and the condo, as much as we loved it, was holding us back. We thought if we want to come back and visit, all we have to do...is do it! We never would have guessed then that would come back with our new second home, Harvey, for a good visit. After being here for just a few days, it already feels great and comfortable, since we're so familiar with this place. First, I'll go back to tell you how we got here from Carlsbad.

We rolled up US 285 on Monday, which cuts right up the center of New Mexico, through UFO town, Roswell, and farther north until the rolling plains and mesas become much more steep, and you start the climb to about 7500 feet to Santa Fe. We're staying at a really nice RV park on the East side of town, actually a few miles from town. Mary Ann wanted to hit the ground running and head for a familiar place for dinner, so we went to venerable old Maria's. This place is more of a locals restaurant in a tourist town and their recipes for Southwest cuisine are basic and straightforward and ALWAYS reliable. No surprises here. To give you an idea, there is a large glassed in area in the dining room where several women are always making tortillas from scratch. Enough said. We spent the rest of the evening walking around The Plaza. If you've never been here, this is where you begin your visit to Santa Fe. It will set the mood for the rest of the trip. We did notice that one of our favorite other eating places, The Plaza Cafe, an ancient real diner, had had a kitchen fire and was closed. We're hoping that it will be open the next time we're here. The next day, we had lunch at one of our all time favorites, Zia Diner. The food is not stellar, but it is really good...and fun. Diner fare; meatloaf, turkey, burgers, etc., all with a Santa Fe twist and all consistantly tasty. The interior (top picture) is worth the trip there too.

So what is it about Santa Fe that makes it so fun to come to? Well....there are too many reasons to love this unique place. The weather. Cool summers and mild winters (cold enough for snow in the ski areas nearby though). The culture. Art of all kinds, film (more movie screens than towns 5 times larger), music, galleries, fashion, you name it. Food. This place is a vortex for foodies. There are literally hundreds of restaurants of all types. Not just New Mexican food. There are terrific Italian, French, American, delis, bakeries, Asian..almost anything you can come up with. The good ones survive, the mediocre don't. There's lots of competition for a small town. Another thing about the food here is that the attention to high quality still prevails. Most places say something on their menu's here about "organic" this or "locally sourced" that. We had lunch today in a new place called Vinaigrette, a predominantly salad menu, where everything on it comes from their own organic gardens in Nambe, a few miles from town. Even their homemade ice cream and desserts are mostly organic. It's hard to find such a variety of places like this almost anywhere. There are 2 Whole Food Stores here, Sunflower Market, a Natural Grocers from Colorado, and other smaller groceries, all catering to people who want higher end food. Again, there aren't that many stores of that type in cities 5 times the size. Even the normal stores carry a much larger selection of "healthy" foods than usual. The other thing that draws us here is the natural beauty. There are gorgeous vistas everywhere you look...and the night sky is like a planetarium! Crystal clear!!

Ok, we mentioned bakeries awhile back. We mean to tell you, you could (and we have!) go wild with them. There are even more here now than when we left a few years back. In fact, this is being written with one hand, while the other is stuffing down a 45 rpm record sized Copenhagen Cinnamon Roll from the Chocolate Maven Bakery and Restaurant! This place is world class. The restaurant has two levels. Make sure to sit downstairs so you can watch the bakers in operation through the large windows. It's awe inspiring! By the way...breakfast is THE meal in Santa Fe. You see, nobody actually works here. It's another one of those unique things. People just get up and go out to breakfast, then at around 10:30 or 11 am they will leave one of the zillions of breakfast places like Chocolate Maven or Santa Fe Baking or Pasquals or Tia Marias,or Tecolote,or..or........., and they go to where they meet somebody else for lunch (which may also serve breakfast all day!). From there, you guessed it, they discuss dinner plans. It's rough, but somebody has to take responsibility, right? What a town. Everyone's either "retired" or living off a trust fund. Stay tuned for part two of our "Coming Back Home Special"....

Carlsbad New Mexico

After heading out from our fun evening in Lamesa, we set sail for Carlsbad, home of the famous caverns. We had a really nice visit with Mary Ann's folks. We brought a lot of good food with us, since we decided the best way to really get a concentrated visit in was to eat at home. Besides, there aren't alot of great choices for dining in town. If we had gone out, out best choice would have been Blake's Lotaburger. Enough said? We did try sneaking out on Saturday night, after the folks had gone home from dinner at our place. We were thinking, "it's Saturday night in the Big City,blah blah..."), and we had spotted a neat looking old hotel called The Trinity that has an Italian restaurant and nice looking bar. Something, we thought, very different for Carlsbad. So we got dressed up in our best jeans and drove on over. We walked in behind another couple and their kids, started for the bar, and were intercepted by the hostess as if we were breaking the line at Studio 54. She sternly looked at Mary Ann and said, "These people were here first. Wait to be seated!" To which Mary Ann replied, "We're here just to look at the bar." I was already eyeing the scene there-two lonely folks who looked like they had permanent seats, and that was it. Not exactly worth gettin' all gussied up fer. The hostess with the mostest kept on about waiting to be seated at the bar....as we were making our getaway. I mean, the rudeness of people today! Crashing the line, just to look at the bar! Well, we drove around town after that little disaster, checked out the mall-sleeping, the other bar-almost asleep, the Wal-Mart parking lot-really busy, but not what we had in mind. We headed back home to Harvey, watched a movie on our Roku Netflix Player, and wondered why we hadn't just decided to do that in the first place. Next stop, our former second home of Santa Fe.....

We're On The Road! Sept 2010

We pulled out of Dallas on Friday, Sept. 24th 2010, and headed West towards Carlsbad, New Mexico, home of John and Virginia Hays, Mary Ann's parents. Our stopover for the first night was Lamesa (pronounced La Meesa), Texas. Why? Well, two reasons really. One, they have FREE motorcoach hookups in their very pretty city park...can't beat that for a one night stopover. And two, they boast one of Texas' last remaining real drive-in movie theaters, The Sky-Vue! Wow, how fun can it get in a small town? What are you going to think next? Marty and Mary Ann are really cheap dates. Next thing, they'll stop over for a good bowling alley! Don't laugh, we might!). Anyway, The Sky-Vue (http://www.skyvuelamesa.com/) has been in operation since 1948, and has been owned by Sam Kirkland for the past 30 years or so. Sam, with whom we had the great pleasure to visit with, takes his theater very seriously, in the best possible way. He is the on site manager of all phases of the place, and it's wonderful to see the results. The BIG attraction is the concession stand. The place is so popular that area folks come for dinner without even so much as thinking about what movie's showing. In fact, Sam has a separate entrance for those who are just coming in to eat! Fresh food is all you get here. Well prepared and delicious. Nothing fancy, unless you're looking down the long menu and stop at The Chihuahua, Sam's original invention. It's basically two tortillas, stuffed with homemade chili meat, pimento cheese, diced sweet onions, and shredded cabbage for extra slaw-like crunch, then topped off with a jalapeno pepper. Never had anything even close to that! Sam told us about it's history...being a Texas State Fair item and that the Dairy Queen people wanted it at one time, but he decided to keep it simple and only offer it at his two drive-ins (the new one's in Midland, Texas). Another unique factoid about this place is that a very young Buddy Holly performed here, just as his star was beginning to rise. he did a show from the roof of the building near the concession stand that Sam pointed out to us. Lamesa's only a short drive down the road (anything less than a hundred miles is considered short out in West Texas!!) from Lubbock, Holly's home town (and home to his pretty amazing museum, by the way). So after chowing down and leaving Sam and the Sky-Vue, we headed back to Harvey and a good night's sleep (Burpppp!!), and ready to head over to Carlsbad...

Back in Texas...Winnsboro

We decided to slow walk our way back to Dallas, after having been on the road for almost two months. Harvey needed another night-on-the-lake venue, so we headed for Lake Bob Sandlin in Northeast Texas, just a ways from Texarkana. The lake is a state park and was the perfect stop for the night. We relaxed and had dinner in, and then the next morning started our final leg into the BIG D. One of the small hamlets we passed through to get ourselves down to old US Highway 80 into Dallas, is Winnsboro. This is a historic town, with several beautiful B & B's (that's one, above), an active little downtown with several good eateries and bakeries too, and a weekly REAL farmers market. We stopped there and bought some local handmade raw cheese and produce. Then we spotted a cool looking little place downtown called cibo-BQ that caught our attention. You guessed it! A barbecue restaurant (duh!). Well! This is not your average little joint-like shack in the boonies. It would thrive in any location, in any town, because of the high quality of the food. We saw a fellow, whom we later got to know, slicing the leanest, most succulent looking brisket, and we automatically opened the door and let ourselves in, following our noses. It turns out that that "fellow" is the owner, Rick Murray, who has put his own sweat and resources into establishing a big city quality operation in a small town. Rick also owns the Italian restaurant ciboVino that brings folks from miles around for the incredible dining experience. We enjoyed visiting with Rick (he wanted to test drive Smarty...and we let him!), and would highly recommend that if you're in that part of the world..or even close, make an effort to get some of his great food. We did! Then we headed back into the hummmmm of Dallas...back from an amazing journey that took us nearly four thousand miles in Harvey (and another three thousand in Smarty!!). Stay tuned for the next adventure on the road.

Memphis, Tennessee

We made the rounds in Memphis like two tourists on Speed! We only had a part of a day and a night to see a town we'd been wanting to visit for years, since one of our close friends, Frank Splann grew up there and we're always talking about going with them to see the sights. Instead, guided by a few phone conversations, we blew around the city in less than 24 hours, hit two of the most iconic eating "dives," saw Graceland, Stax, Sun, Beale Street, The Peabody Hotel, and a few of the neat neighborhoods on the way! Phew. wares me out just thinking about it! Not to even mention the really cool park we stayed in, on the other side of the Mississippi...right ON the river. We sat on a park bench in the morning and waved at the river traffic as it drifted by us. We were so close, we could almost touch some of the big barges. So which dives did our friend Frank recommend? First up was the Blues City Cafe. The BBQ was stellar. The best example of the dark (almost black!), peppery sauce Memphis is famous for. The second, Dyer's Burgers. This place has been in operation since 1912, cooks it's burgers in "secret" GREASE, and is one of the most awesome hamburger experiences I've had to date (and I've had a lot of them too!!). Dyer's is listed in so many top 1o burger lists, it's impossible to count them. It was also listed in Esquire Magazines list of "60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For." Both places are right on Beale Street and well worth the fat grams and calories. Memphis rocks. It's a great town, full of history, especially legendary music history, and is on our list of places to visit again in more depth!

Music City (Nashville, of course)

We literally blew through Nashville and Memphis, so our comments will be as brief as the time we spent in these two Tennessee towns! It's been many years since I was in Nashville on business (I was a music biz guy at one time, in my former life), and when I was there it was...get off the plane, head to some hotel meeting room or someones office, then dinner, or maybe just back to the airport. Done. The only part of town I remembered was around Broadway, where some of the old Honky Tonks are, and Music Row, which looks a lot different these days. Even Country Music has been been hit hard by the economy and the decline of the Record Business. It is still there though, and seems to be about the only category still standing in some form or other. We found the town itself a little on the, well, sort of, uh....ok I'll say it, boringly normal side. Aside from the fact that there's a Trader Joes there (a sort of boringly normal one at that), there was very little we saw that got us going. I'm sure there are some interesting places to eat, but we had a hard time finding something interesting enough to spend our time and $$ on, so we had dinner in our Harvey Kitchen while listening to a live Grand Ole Opry broadcast on WSM radio. Maybe we need to give it another try when we have a bit more time someday....

Surprising Asheville,North Carolina

Asheville takes a prize as one of the most surprising places we've visited. It's a city full of contradictions. It's a summer haven for the wealthy..has been for about a hundred years or more. After all, it is the home of the grandest home in America, The Biltmore. We're not going to spend a lot of time describing it because words, no matter how well written, cannot adequately give a person the overwhelming sense of grandeur this place exudes. It must be experienced with all of your senses. Then, you'll leave the way we did, pretty speechless. To imagine that one person had the fortune and vision to create not only the legendary house , but also an entire village to support it, is staggering. Anyway, go see it if you are ever anywhere nearby, or make a plan to visit. It will not disappoint. Asheville is full of summer tourists. They fill the town and nearby cities too (Highlands and Cashiers and Waynesville and Hendersonville, and on and on). These tourists share their space with a gazillion young (and old!!) Hippies and those we'd call counter culture folks. We saw more tattooed arms, legs, and faces on girls and guys than in Santa Fe or San Francisco combined. Asheville is a mecca for left wing politics (The Obamas had just visited before we got there) and has a very active Republican following. There are lots of start up, capitalistic businesses and lots of people on corners talking about unionizing the massive restaurant worker population. We found the people mostly welcoming, but some locals seem to resent the tourists. As we stated, lots of contradictions.
Asheville itself is a really beautiful town. The Art Deco buildings downtown are like a living outdoor museum. They are so well preserved we thought one of them, The Grove Arcade, was a new building made to look old. Alas, there's a big national register sign on it, declaring it's uniqueness and telling it was dedicated in 1929! Looks like it's brand new. It was July 4th weekend, so we got to experience the place like a local. They have a big dance in the newly renovated Pack Square every Saturday night. Hundreds of people turn out to celebrate the weekend. The next night, Sunday July 4th, seemed like half the town turned out for the big doings. These people really enjoy their wonderful venues, and they should be proud. This is a big city that acts in many ways like a small town. We walked most of the downtown streets, and its like a trip back in time. One of Ashevilles nicknames is "The Paris of the South." It's a fair one. The place has a very European feel.
There are good eating places all over town. We experienced several, and they were all worth the trip. The theme of most of them is LOCAL, Local, local, and more locally grown produce, meat, dairy, and everything else. Again, they are even ahead, in this category, of San Francisco or Santa Fe. Organic is taken for granted. It's the locally sourced food these people are into, and in a big way. Early Girl Eatery, Tupelo Honey, and Sunny Point Cafe are a few of the better examples. There are many many others, but these are the ones we hit, and they were all stellar. One of the reasons for this is the WNC Farmers Market, in the Southern part of town. It's been there for many years, is huge, and is an inspiration for these health conscience restaurants. We spent a few hours there and left with a few choice goodies like some Amish butter and Ginger Gold Apples (one of the first summer varieties from the vast apple orchards here to become available, even though it was still a little early).
Another interesting place we checked out is The Grove Park Inn. Built in 1913, it's another back in time place that Asheville is full of. It was constructed by a St. Louis entrepreneur, and modeled after the great railroad inns of the West. After falling into disrepair in the early 50's, it was resurrected by Dallasite Charles Sammons and his wife, whose company still operates it. It has hosted celebrities and presidents through it's long history. Again, walking in is like a trip in the way back machine. A spectacular place!
All in all, the eight days we spent here have been a totally fun surprise. We got to know the place as if we'd lived there for a year. Didn't see any of the famous residents like Andy McDowell or Billy Graham, but who cares when you can stand on a downtown corner and spot a multi-pierced, totally tattooed from head to toes, dredlocked Rastafarian cross the street in front of a couple driving their convertible Rolls up to the Grove Park Inn! What a country!!!