Canon City Colorado Part 1

We've spent a lot of time in Colorado these past few years, and we've visited lots of the popular destinations there. Last year, while we were in Breckenridge, we'd heard about an area of Southern Colorado that we weren't really very familiar with. Mary Ann had learned that a tiny town down there was an apple center. She knows what an apple nut I am. So we decided to head down to Penrose to check it out. We drove southeast, down from the high elevation of Breckenridge, all the way down to the five thousand foot level, and on the way to Penrose we entered the outskirts of Canon City. As we approached the center of town there was a full blown farmers market going on at the beautiful Veterans Park. We stopped and spent an hour or so, and then headed on to Penrose. After buying a small barn's worth of tiny, bittersweet Jonathans, we headed back uphill to Breck (as the locals call it)...but something interesting happened. Maybe it was the town's mayor, who walked up and introduced himself, explaining the much milder weather in the "banana belt" of Colorado, or maybe it was the other friendly folks at that farmers market, or the look of the tall, surrounding mountains, but we both felt we needed to come back and take a closer look at Canon City.
We drove up to Canon (as the locals call it) from Santa Fe, and came in from the west. Straight up US 285 to Alamosa, then starting to go northeast towards US Highway 50 and through the pretty town of Salida. From there we followed the Arkansas River for miles as it winds through beautiful canyons, then drops down and spills into Canyon City. As you approach this town of around 16,000 population, there is an almost European feel. Drive off of the US highway, and make a left one block, and suddenly you're on Main Street, right in the heart of the downtown area. Drive down Main, and there are bars and restaurants on both sides, a pharmacy, little shops of all kinds, galleries, the Skyline theater, with it's wonderful marquee that dates back to the early part of the last century, benches about every hundred feet or so, and a very warm small town America feeling. It really is like going into a time machine....back about fifty years (although most of the buildings in downtown go back to the 1800's!). We ended up spending ten days in Canon (the only American town spelled with a Spanish Ene, only I can't use one here because it's not on our keyboards). We covered just about every nook and cranny, ate at a bunch of the local eateries, and even made a few side trips to Cripple Creek, Pueblo ( a 25 minute drive), and Colorado Springs (or The Springs, as the locals call it), a 40 minute drive. Here is the summary of our time in Canon City.

We figure that the main reason this area has not become more popular with the tourist crowd is the proliferation of..........the jails!!! Yes, the region is home to six or seven penetentiaries! The coolest one is Old Max, the Colorado territorial prison that sits just on the west side of town, right on US 50. It was built back in the 1800's and has quite a storied past! In fact, you can tour the prison museum to peek at the entire history of the place. There are other jails scattered around the county near Canon and Florence, Colorado, another very picturesque village about 10 minutes down the road. The place is crawling with law enforcement types. You can look at it two ways. One, who wants to be near all these prisons??! The other is, it's a real safe place and it keeps out the riff raff and the Aspen-Vail-Breck crowd away. We're guessing from our time there that the locals like it... just the way it is. In fact, we met one fellow who had just moved to Canon from Santa Fe. He was a retired professor from The University of California, and summed it up for us. "This is a real nice, quiet town, that has everything you need."

So what's so cool about Canon? Here is the short list: Natural beauty. It's almost surrounded by the Wet and Sangre DeCristo Mountain ranges. They help protect the area from the typical Colorado winter weather. They get far less snow than the large towns to the east and north, and it's also warmer. So a milder climate, somewhat similar to Albuquerque. Next, for a small town, there is everything you could think of. Good shopping, terrific restaurants, great places to walk or do outdoor sports of all kinds, and very friendly folks! Most of the homes in town are between sixty and a hundred years old...and in good condition. Lots of Victorian architecture. The downtown is a living museum of fabulous Old West buildings. In the Part 2, we'll go into more detail of some great places we found and the attraction that does bring zillions of tourists to town yearly. Stay tuned.....

Santa Fe Part 2

Ok, where'd we leave off? Can't remember...guess I'm Santa Fe'd out! That's a term we use around the house when we're acting ditzy. Our theory is that the thin air up here is the reason for the sometimes irrational behavior of the townfolk (they really drive weird, for example, like other drivers are invisible!). Anyway....I'm back now. If you've never been, it is a place to put high on the list. Once you get here, here are random thoughts of must do's: Do not (how's that for starting out with Do's?) just go to The Plaza and think you've seen the town, like a tourist would. Most of the interest is on some of the side streets downtown. Make sure to walk Lincoln and Marcy Streets, and zig zag the other little ones that surround The Plaza, especially to the north and east. Then make your way southeast from the east side of The Plaza, down towards Paseo De Peralta (or The Loop, according to locals), and turn south to find Canyon Road. Walk up it as far as you can. It's truly unique. Shops, restaurants, galleries; make sure to go off, on to the little side streets again! If you like walking, Santa Fe is your place. You can walk the downtown streets for days and wander up Canyon Road or over towards The Railyard area or other directions out from The Plaza and still stay constantly entertained. There are really too many great (and many of them are actually healthy!!) places to eat in Santa Fe, to even begin to mention any more than we have already, but here are a couple more. There are SO MANY!! Bobcat Bite (always looks like they're giving away the food from the look of the parking lot), a new place called Real Food Nation, which is another very casual eatery/bakery with the emphasis on local organic food. These two are not anywhere near The Plaza. They're way out on Old Las Vegas Highway. All you have to do is follow the cars! Just remember to get with us if you are going, and we'll give a list to start out with. You will find a few favorites of your own along the way. Outdoor sports of all types are available. We love hiking in the ski area during warm months. It's breathtakingly beautiful. 10,000 Waves, the famous Japanese styled spa is most amazing. You can book a private tub for an hour, get a massage, sit in the communal sauna, all while having nothing to look at but mountain vistas and at night, the most fabulous star show you have ever seen...no additional charge!! If you have time, take a one hour drive north to Taos. It's well worth the effort, and you'll have an excuse to dine at one of our all time favorite places...anywhere-The Trading Post. Ok, next stop, the mountaaaains of Colorado!

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!