The Next Chapter 2011

It would be safe ( and a BIG understatement!!) to say that a lot has happened since our last post! This past May, we made the decision to give up our cushy centrifugal force life in Dallas, and trade it in for, what to us, is a totally different and exciting adventure. We put all of our stuff that we felt we might want someday (5500 pounds left of downsizing!), outfitted Harvey for his new role as our permanent house on wheels, and set out for New Mexico...as full time motorhomers! Yes, what started out a few years ago as a great new way to travel, has turned out as a great new way to live. On May 15th we headed for Carlsbad so Mary Ann could take care of some family business, then on to Santa Fe, where we had a second home for eleven years until 2005. We picked it to start our adventure for several reasons: A) The cool summer weather with great mountain lightning storms at night, B) Our familiarity with every nook and cranny of the place, C) The way better than average availability of great (healthy) food, between the amazing organic farmers market, a myriad of good groceries ( Natural Grocers, Trader Joe's, TWO Whole Foods stores, and an better than average array of good restaurants which we'll touch on in a moment), and D) The easy availability of outdoor activities which we both have been sorely missing, living in Dallas. Don't get us wrong. We love Dallas and both feel it is one of the best huge cities in the U.S. to live in. We were just ready for a change.

So here we set up housekeeping in Santa Fe. One of our goals is to head to places we're interested in, and live there for at least a month so we can absorb what it's really like, not just skim the surface. We planted ourselves just south of town, at the Santa Fe Skies RV Park, owned by the Brown family. We picked the right place because we ended up stretching what was a month's stay...to three months! We spent almost the whole summer there. Not only was our hunch right about all the elements of Santa Fe, we got spoiled by the Brown's way of running an RV park. All park owners should go and visit them to see how one should be run. The property sits high on a hill, with mountain views in all directions. It's a small parcel of land on what is called Brown Castle Ranch, the family's real estate they have owned for many years. It's about a five minute drive to town, so it's very conveniently located.

It has been a few years since we spent a lot of time in Santa Fe, but it still feels very much like home to us. As with all tourist dependent towns, it has changed some too. There is a lot more traffic than we remembered and lots more stores. Cerrillos Road and St. Francis Drive, two of the main arteries into town can be almost gridlocked at certain times of the day, a situation that we didn't expect. The restaurant scene is still very active. Santa Fe is one of the few places we've visited that you can eat out and not feel like you've just had a dose of chemically treated, mass produced, institutional food. Many places feature local and even organic ingredients. Some of our favorites are Joe's http://joesdinerandpizza.com/ , Chocolate Maven (they deserve an entire posting for their pastries!) http://chocolatemaven.com/ , and Real Food Nation (and their sibling The Supper Club, a high end place where the chef was formerly with Cafe Escalera, a legendary Santa Fe eatery from days past) http://realfoodnation.biz/ . The Supper Club deserves special recognition too, because we find it often left off the trendy SF articles from so called authorities on food. They lately seem to have the same half dozen or so places in their must dine lists, in a town with a disproportionate number of amazing restaurants for it's size.

Well, after eating and hiking most of the trails, and Mary Ann taking hours of intensive Yoga training from her instructor, Tias Little, towards certification, and biking our way through our home away from home ( one day we even took The Rail Runner train into downtown with our bikes!), in the beginning of September we finally decided to head to new territory....