Wrap-up, reflections, etc.

I've been home for a couple days. Back in my own bed at last. Most of the trip was enjoyable and I got to do pretty much what I wanted to do and still found the property I wanted to buy. I just don't like being chained to a cell phone or a FAX machine...but that is pretty much over. I have to admit the cell phone finally came in handy.

I still haven't found an unfriendly person out there. I've found a couple incompetent people....but never mind. As bad as they were they can't hold a candle to the incompetence of Capital One...(Ken...don't go there...).

The house project is bumping along. I will update my other blog on the developments there...check http://kens-gazette.blogspot.com/ if you are interested. I still don't have a final close date. I am very happy with my builder (Betty) and my agent (Donna) and how they have helped me with all of this. The real business is still ahead but I think it will go OK. Betty has the contacts to get things done when it needs to be done. I have to keep up.

The Ackermann family reunion was nice on Sunday and I'm glad I came back early for it. Bob had to work so he and Pat couldn't be there. Bobby didn't come so Jill and I were the only ones representing Rose's branch. Jill is the Ackermann..I'm just a hanger-on.

The aunts and uncles were looking pretty good and the weather wasn't too hot so that helped everybody. Aunt Ruthie and Uncle Johnny looked better than I remember from two years ago. Anne/Booie was in top form with a bright yellow umbrella. Don was doing OK but I didn't get to talk to Joanne much. Dot seemed a little tired to me and Eddie was on a walker due to a recent hip replacement. He is on the mend but had a really bad year. I think Johnny might be my new role model as I grow older. I guess Bob is now sort of the patriarch of the second generation. I think there are five generations now.

My next trip (or trips) will probably be back to New Mexico until I get things going out there. I still want to go other places (Belize, anyone? Spain?) so I might get to sneak one in to someplace else.




The picture shows a long view of the Santa Ana Pueblo lands from my building lot. This won't be developed...in my lifetime, anyway.

Heading home

Another beautiful day. You would never know there was a storm anywhere close yesterday. I'm still mulling over my land options and drove back up to the lot and looked at others that were for sale and got ten phone numbers for similar lots. Most of these do not show up on the internet MLS pages since they are offered by private parties or smaller agents. While I was driving around I found a house that is on one of the side streets. I didn't think anyone had built up there yet -- but this looked like it was a couple years old. I still like the lot I picked out.



It is time to go home. I got the car returned and got to the airport in plenty of time. I've been timing my driving to see how long it takes to get around in the city. It is about a half hour from Bernalillo to the airport (at noon). Traffic at 5:30 to 6:30 PM is pretty heavy on the interstate so it would take much longer then. There are 19 Albuquerque exits on I-25 and the airport is on the far side of town.


The flight from Albuquerque to Denver was rough. Big storms had flared up over the mountains so we had to climb up to over 34,000 feet really fast and by then we were halfway to Denver so we had to pick our way through the storms and get back down. It is only an hour flight so even in calm weather the cabin crew has to hustle to get everyone their freebee sodas and peanuts but these people were in a frenzy because the pilot kept making them sit down.

The four hour layover in Denver was uneventful so I began making random phone calls to people. I also watched the people in the airport. Back in Beaver Cleaver's day people got dressed up to go on an airplane trip. Not now. One guy was travelling in a tee shirt and pajama pants. Being a Saturday in the summer there were lots of families with little kids. The kids had Mickey Mouse ears or the Sorcerer's Apprentice hats. A lot of little kids were on leashes so they don't wander away. I guess that's OK but I don't think I could ever have put Jill on a leash. It just seems a little dehumanizing to me.

Oh -- and the Boy Scouts were everywhere. I guess it is the Philmont scout camp trip that they were on...either coming or going. There were a few going through security at Albuquerque when I did (heading home from Philmont) and the leaders were having to keep them all together and wait for the poor kid with too much stuff or too many medals. Actually the kids looked pretty sharp: the leaders looked like they were beat.

We were delayed 20 minutes leaving Denver but we still got to St. Louis 20 minutes early so the pilot must have found a short cut somehow. It was midnight when I got to the motel. The Watoto Children's Choir bus is on the lot so this might be interesting.

Enough for now. I'll be home tomorrow night (Sunday) and I wonder how tall the grass is.

Desert Storm

I got packed up and managed to have all my business finished and was on the road by 11:15. The road over the mountains from Angel Fire to Taos is pretty bad...narrow, twisty and no shoulder. The speed limit varies but is 25 mph a lot of the way. I came around a bend and somebody had driven their pick-up into a rock wall and the road was full of people trying to get him and his truck off the road. It was raining a little when I left and there were some wet patches on the road so that might be what happened. I decided not to take the "high road" down toward Santa Fe and just got back on the highway the way that I came up.

I did stop in Ranchos de Toas, a little village south of the town of Taos. This is where the famous church is located -- San Francisco de Assis. The church was being re-mudded, which is something that I wanted to see anyway. The church is solidly built and has a certain presence that causes you to stop in your tracks. This is the church Ansel Adams photographed in black and white back in his heyday (Not the one at Taos Pueblo). The work crew was on lunch break so I got a few pictures. They say the mud dries in about a day but has to cure for several days without rain. I think they picked a bad day. The local padre was sitting out on a bench talking with the workers and they decided that they needed more mud. The contractor thought he could get some but the padre might have to tell the supplier that he would be two steps closer to heaven if he supplied the mud. While sitting there it dawned on me that almost exactly four years ago we were at the basilica of St. Francis in Assisi.

Ranchos de Taos is not the tourist trap that Taos is. In fact, it looks like a real rural village with little houses and gardens. There is a small plaza by the church but the shops sell mostly religious items. There was a sentinel dog perched up on his wall watching all of the activity and pretty much bored with what he saw.

I stopped along the highway to take a better look at the Rio Grande -- the portion they do raft trips on. Some of it looks fast but not too rough and then there are places that look pretty bad. I understand that it is common for whole boats to be overturned or swamped but the river is narrow enough that people can reach the shore if they can't get back in the boat.

The storm finally caught up with me between Santa Fe and Bernalillo. Wind, rain. hail, tumbleweed, dust and sand all were coming down at once. It was pretty fierce for a while and there are still storms in the area but where I am now there was no rain.

We are at sort of a stalemate on the land counter offers. I'll need to rethink my offer and decide what I want to do. I'll check and see what other lots are going for and see if I'm being unreasonable. I know it is still a good deal but I got a little irritated with the seller and that might be my problem at this point...and that isn't a good reason to pass it up. I'll get an extention on my decision deadline and give it some more thought since I don't have to have it decided while I'm here.

El trapo de las turistas

I spent most of the day in Taos. It is a smaller version of Santa Fe in many respects. If you spit you hit a gallery of some sort…and there are all sorts of galleries. Pottery, weaving, sculpture, stonework, and all kinds of paintings and prints are available just about everywhere. The plaza has a bunch of “trading post” and “mercantile” stores that sell rubber tomahawks and other trinkets. Also lots of Indian jewelry is on display on a number of stores and it all seems to be authentic…not Chinese. Some of the jewelry is so big that you would need to build up your muscles to be able to wear it. There were a few places that actually had real stuff: rugs from the 1930s, early jewelry and some older pottery that has been actually used as pottery.

Taos was also a popular place with the flower children in the 1960s and 1970s and many are still here – as storekeepers. At one time there were two large communes nearby and it has become time for sort of a nostalgic walk down memory lane. A couple books have been written about the communes and what happened to them over the years. Apparently they have homecomings from time to time.

I went to the historic Hacienda de los Martinez, a house museum a little way out of town. It was built around 1805 as a fortified residence of twenty-one rooms around two small placitas or courtyards. About half of the structure is original with the rest being rebuilt on the original foundations. The original owner, Severino Martinez, was a trader and was on the receiving end of the Santa Fe Trail and also traded south into Mexico. The hacienda was fortified with two foot thick walls in case of possible Indian attack – from the Comanches, not the local pueblo tribes. Apparently there was never any recorded attack. He had over a thousand sheep and many cattle, horses, mules and oxen so if the Indians did attack it would have taken a while to get through the livestock to the actual hacienda. It is an impressive place and probably supported a large number of people at the time. One of the rooms is a chapel that served the family and the surrounding neighbors.

I went back to Taos Pueblo to pick up something that I decided I wanted. I should have bought it when I saw it because I can’t find my way around the pueblo. I couldn't live there because once you are in the actual pueblo every direction you turn looks the same. You have to come out and find the river and then go back in once you have your bearings. They give you a little map but that doesn’t help once you lose sight of the church or the river.

The seemingly never-ending negotiations continue on the property. I suspect that this will still be going on after I’m home. I wonder what they want for this fixer-upper?

That’s all for now. Tomorrow I head back to Albuquerque.

Here Fishy Fishy

I had to make a couple phone calls about the property business this morning. I must be asking for too much. First, nobody knows what to do about the trust….even though I tell them what it is and how it has to be recorded, they still don’t get it. Secondly, there will be some closing costs even though I’m trying to do a cash purchase. Recording fees and title insurance at least but nobody seems to know how much that will run because they never seem to deal with a cash purchase. It will work out. The title company will handle the closing and we will find out from them.


The rest of the day was fishing. I drove about 15 miles to the Cimarron River canyon and fished there for about six hours. It was not crowded and I actually caught three fish on nymph flies (bead head). That is a very pretty place; even if you don’t catch anything it is still a nice place to spend a day. The weather was nice but the wind came up a little so I spent a good amount of time getting untangled from trees and bushes. There is a lot of color variation in the same species of fish, maybe based on what they eat or what is in the water. These fish were very dark in color compared to what we have at home.


One feature of the Cimarron Canyon that is especially striking is the Palisade Sill, a 27 million year old mass of volcanic rock that was intruded into older sedimentary rock. Apparently there is some debate among geologists on exactly what type of rock it is so I'll wait until that is settled and update you all later on that topic. They don't allow rock climbing. It looks like it would be a favorite place for rock climbers

When I got home the maid had been at my place. I think she came in about 15 feet and then backed out because all of the towels and things were stacked in the kitchen. (C’mon, I’m not that messy.) The condo is actually pretty nice and very quiet. I have neighbors but I don’t hear them…except the two boys a couple doors down who brought their pellet gun with them on vacation. They get bored in the evenings and mom & dad send them out with the pellet gun. So far, we have no casualties or damage that I know of.

That’s about it. I’m a little pooped.


Your correspondent

Vrooom Vrooom

I checked out the neighborhood today. I can’t go too far from the fax machine until I can get the property counter offer worked out and sent. The hotel has a fax but they are not likely to watch it so I have to check with them every few hours. I watched parts of the Italy vs. France Euro Cup match…Italy won and now goes to the quarterfinals. France is eliminated.

The motorcycle club guys are still here and I finally got some pictures. I didn’t know John Deere made motorcycles. There are also some BMWs and a Moto Guzzi and a number of side car bikes. There is one with two front wheels but they say it isn’t old. I saw a bunch of Indians and old Harleys. The Henderson was hard to find but I finally got a picture...it really looks different. I'm surprised at all the configurations of sidecars. Most of the club members are in their fifties or late forties with a few older. When I'm walking aroun d taking pictures people wander up and ask me "What does this lever do? Is that a double reduction?" (Huh?) More pictures below.

I drove up to the New Mexico Viet Nam Veterans Memorial, about three miles up the highway. It was the first Viet Nam memorial in the US and is really very moving. They have a small chapel and a small museum along with a few bronze statues and a helicopter. A doctor from this area lost his son in Viet Nam and started a foundation that now supports the memorial. You can buy a memorial brick for a walk way they are building. I will do that for a friend of mine that made it only a week over there. There were a number of people there even though it is sort of an unknown and out of the way place.

I’m looking for a place to fish if I can get a half day away from the hotel area and the fax machine. I drove up to Eagles Nest and got a fishing license and a bunch of advice. The Cimarron River is close by and is a state park with plenty of access. There is also a large lake at Eagles Nest that also is a state park. So, it looks like I might have a chance to fish before I get out of here.

Update -- June 27

I was filling out the paper work to buy a memorial brick for Rick Gudiswitz and checked to make sure I had the spelling and details correct. Rick died in Viet Nam on June 18, 1970, thirty-eight years ago, minus one day, from the day I visited the memorial. Things like this have been happening to me a lot. Rick was a member of a motorcycle club, OK, maybe a gang, but he was a good friend and he sure took care of his Harley. By now, he would have been a proud member of the antique motorcycle club.

Down Day

This has been sort of a down day. I'm trying to get used to the elevation -- it takes me about a day, usually. So I did my domestic chores. I got my laundry done. I went grocery shopping. Read my book. None of that was very photogenic so I don't have any pictures.

It clouded up and looked like it might rain but it never did...but the air smelled like it does after a storm so it must have stormed somewhere. The sun is going down now and the different mountains have all taken on a different shade of color. The motorcycle guys are still here so maybe tomorrow I'll have some pictures of some of the bikes. I looked up Henderson motorcycles. They date back to the early 1900s and went belly up around 1931. Schwinn produced them for the last 20 years or so.

I got my counter offer back this evening.....I didn't expect them to accept my first purchase offer but we may have a long way to go. They pretty much accepted everything my builder listed as conditions. It is primarily a price game except my builder wanted a flood zone report that they didn't respond to. I'm not sure why we need that given the location and terrain...maybe she knows something I don't.

Just a short report today.

Back on the road

Today was a road day, I drove north from Albuquerque about 170 miles to Angel Fire which is a ski and summer resort area high up in the Sangre de Christo Mountains. Elevation here is about 8,600 ft. while Albuquerque is about 5,000 ft. It is a lot cooler and I'm glad I brought at least one sweater and a couple long sleeve shirts.

The drive up was nice and I went through Santa Fe but didn't stop and had lunch in Espanola which was the first Spanish colonial headquarters back around 1600. I took the low river road up to Taos. There is a high road that I will probably take on the way back to Albuquerque. The river road follows the Rio Grande, which is a whitewater rafting Mecca. This time of year there is a lot of water and the rafters were out in force. The river gorge is impressive when you are in it but when you get closer to Taos you rise up on a flat area and the river gorge looks like a wound gouged out of the plain.

Taos is sort of jumbled. Probably grown up from old village streets and alleys and it looks like it would be hard to find anyplace that you specifically wanted unless you just stumbled on to it. Taos was not like anything I expected. I have always thought of it as a dry and dusty place but it is very green and surrounded on three sides by green mountains. It must have some kind of cosmic connection to Sedona because there are all kinds of wellness, wholeness, self-ness places here and you can take all kinds of classes and get various cures. It is kind of a Cowboy, Indian, Spanish, Buddhist sort of place.

I went up to Taos Pueblo and paid my visitor fee ($10) and my camera fee ($5) and walked around for an hour visiting little shops and taking pictures. It was a nice place with lots of friendly people. I was blessed a couple times. The shops were inside some of the old pueblo buildings and once you were inside they just sort of kept going from one room to another. The old church sits in the middle of the plaza and looks a little different than what I recall it looking like in Ansel Adam’s photos. It is interesting to see the mix of very old and very new. Pick-up trucks, old mission church, horno bake-ovens, visa card signs all mixed together...but they are trying to keep it traditional as much as possible. You drive past some more modern homes on the way back to the actual pueblo. And the ever-present casino is down the road a little.

The road to Angel Fire is a twisting mountain two-lane blacktop that has a few challenges. It also has herds of Elk at some point in the year because there are a bunch of warning signs. There are also the ubiquitous roadside memorials for car crash victims. That seemed like a good idea some years back but now it is both depressing and something of a hazard. The first time I saw roadside crosses was in New Mexico almost 30 years ago. At that time I asked at a local village what they were for and I was told that they marked the spot where pall bearers stopped to rest when they were carrying a coffin in a funeral procession. I think that is the actual traditional purpose of the roadside crosses – not as crash memorials.

I got to Angel Fire and checked in. The condo is nice – two bedrooms and two floors. It is very quiet and has a deck and a patio for sitting out and watching the mountains. What I really like is that it has a washer and dryer since I was beginning to run out of clean clothes.

Angel Fire resort is jumping with motorcycles…not just any motorcycles but antique motorcycles. In just a few minutes walking across the parking lot I saw old and not so old Harleys, a couple of Indians and a Henderson. I never heard of a Henderson but I was assured that it was a rare thing to see. It looked weird. I’ll have to look it up. Also saw some motorcycles with sidecars of various shapes and sizes. A guy I talked to was saying that most, but not all, were authentic and restored but a few were replicas or else modified to look like something they weren’t. He asked me what kind of bike I ride and I said it was stationary but I got to tell him about my one 1940s Indian experience when back in college.

Angel Fire has limited internet access. I can’t get anything at the condo so I have to go to the hotel lobby where they have wireless so I will be off line pretty much. My cell phone works. No word on the property offer so far and I’ll have to keep connected with my builder to see if there was a counter offer.

Home Show & a Marrrgarrrita

Well, with all that has been going on the Custom Builder's Home Show was a little anti-climactic. I went to about nine houses and saw pretty much what I've been seeing. One developer has a number of houses with roof-top decks which was different. Another one had a house that was almost self sufficient and generated almost all of its own electricity from solar panels on the roof. I think that if he would have sized the house better it would have produced all the electric it needed. The builders are committed to building huge houses. Another one had sliding glass walls so there was no separation from the house to the courtyard.

But, in the end, a toilet is a toilet...no pun intended. And why would you design a fancy utility room with cabinets and washer/dryer hookups and not have a place to hang your clothes when they come out of the dryer. I asked that question and they said it was an option. Lets see a show of hands...how many want a place to hang up your clothes? See? How many want a fireplace in the master bedroom? How many want a door on the bathroom? Yeah...a door on the master bathroom is an option. They put a door on the little water closet with the toilet but if you want to take a bath you might as well do it in the kitchen sink. Well, they say the privacy is afforded by the master bedroom. So if you get up to go to the bathroom at night you have to turn on the bathroom light and then trudge twenty feet to the little water closet, go in and do your business and then parade back the twenty feet to turn off the bathroom light and then go back to bed with an irate spouse. Maybe the light from the blazing fire in the master bedroom fireplace is supposed to provide enough light to get to and from the little water closet. See...I missed my calling....I have a gift for home design.


I ended the home show at one of my builder's houses and met with her assistant to go over the paperwork for the purchase offer. It was all in order generally -- the trust sort of threw them but I've been talking about it for days. They don't see that many revocable trusts, I guess. So I wrote out my earnest money check and the offer is being faxed tonight. We shall see what happens.

I decided to go out to Little Anitas for some New Mexico food and a margarita (I apparently have to practice rolling my 'r's if I'm going to order marrrgarrritas here). I had a chile rrrelleno and carrrne adovada. The later is sort of pork stew meat (en adobo) -- marinated in red chiles. It was good but I had them put the green chile sauce on the side so I could control how much I wanted. Anita's green sauce is mild, as you know, and tastes like green peppers with only a little heat. It was all good food and they give you sopapillas, rice, beans and a taco to go along with the other stuff. This was on top of the marrrgarrrita and the chips and salsa they give you when you sit down. So I eventually unwedged myself from the booth and paid my bill and waddled to the car.

Tomorrow I head north to Angel Fire for several days. That is about a 4 hour drive and I'll be fishing and chilling out...and waiting for word on the property offer. I fully expect to have to make a mad dash back to Albuquerque to sign more papers sometime this week.

A Fun Day

(Note - I've added pictures at the end of the blog)

I've been having a good time but I decided that today I wasn't going to do any real estate stuff...just have a fun day. I started out by watching the Italy vs. Romania soccer match in the Euro Cup tournament. Italy finally got a goal (even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while) but the match ended in a 1-1 draw. Then I headed to Two Fools Tavern, an Irish pub I found last time I was here, and had a Guinness and a Reuben and watched the Netherlands trounce France. Most everyone was pulling for the Dutch so it was a happy crowd. This is a picture I stole from their web page.....I guess there was no game that day.

Then I decided that I wanted to scope out some of the local wineries. There are about 6 or 8 wineries close to Albuquerque. I went to the Casa Rondena winery (with a squiggle over the 'n') in the little village of Los Ranchos de Albuquerque. Los Ranchos is a little enclave along the Rio Grande...think big money...and it is very rural with a lot of trees and farms. I suspect the movie people will be moving in there if the Tamale-wood movie industry expands. Anyway...the the winery is big and sort of pretentious but it is a nice place to spend a few hours. They have a tasting room but they charge you $5.00 for the experience. I went ahead and plunked down my money and I must say that the wines are good. They do several blended wines such as part Merlot and part Cabernet. I liked the "Serenade" which is 80% Riesling and 20% Gewurztraminer -- and I don't usually like sweet white wines. The taster lady kept pushing the "Founder's Reserve" which is a special Cabernet and very good but $45 a bottle. The least expensive wine was $14 a bottle. I ended up getting a glass of Viognier, which was a nice crisp and fruity white wine. I had intended to go to two other wineries close by but I ended up sitting in their courtyard enjoying my glass of wine and looking at the scenery.

I asked the taster lady for directions on how to get to Bernalillo without using the interstate. She was helpful and I headed up along the river through the Sandia Indian reservation to Bernalillo. The railroad line takes the same route and I got to see the Rail Runner Express go by. The Rail Runner is the local commuter train that everyone laughed at as "The Guv's Train" until gas prices went sky high...now it is the greatest thing and being extended up to Santa Fe. Maybe Gov. Richardson isn't so dumb after all. Part of the route up to Santa Fe will be in the median of the interstate so all the hummer drivers will see the commuters whizzing by on a $8 round trip ticket.

I got to Bernalillo just as fast on the back roads as when I took the interstate. No traffic. I went to a Target store and got a few things and then went to eat supper at Capo's Bottega (no squiggles over anything). I've been doing my own supper cooking so far on this trip so today was a reprieve. Capo's is a nice and casual Italian place with a back yard patio and, I think maybe a micro brewery (note to self...pay more attention next time). I got a Chile & Artichoke cheese Bruchette (like Chile con Queso with artichoke hearts on toasted bread) and a bowl of minestrone. Really good.

I drove around Bernalillo a little -- they have a historic district but a lot of the really old stuff is gone. The place started in the 1600s and they have been making wine here, they say, since 1620. The state wine festival is held here on Labor Day weekend. (Note to self...)

That's it for today. Tomorrow I am going to look at the custom home show...all the local builders are opening up some of their houses. I also have to meet with my builder to see what the status is on the lot. She had a bunch of technical questions that needed answers from the developer.

Lets Go Isotopes, Lets Go - clap clap

Tonight I enjoyed a good baseball game as the Isotopes came from behind to beat Round Rock. As you can see I was sitting two rows behind the famous Mr. Who -- who was once on first...but now sits in the stands. I saw two baseball firsts...for me, anyway. An "inside the park" home run by an Isotope which was almost an out except the Round Rock catcher dropped the ball. I also saw a run disallowed...the umpires conferred and reversed the call and disallowed a Round Rock run. I don't quite know why except that it had something to do with a bunt. There must be some obscure rule. The Round Rock team didn't protest very much.

The game was tied at the bottom of the ninth inning and finally one of the Isotopes got a base hit. Unfortunately for the visiting team, the bases had been loaded by the Round Rock pitcher at the time. It was an enjoyable game. They serve margaritas at the ball park but I had an Isotope Amber beer which was pretty good. The Isotope's mascot is "Orbit", a strange looking animal-space alien hybrid. They also have chili peppers and a taco that race each other around the bases.

I had lunch at the Flying Star restaurant in Corrales. Flying Star is a chain (local, I think) that is sort of like a Panera's with beer. There are a few extra gimmick's that they use as sort of a spin-off on the name. It all alludes to the 1950s -- satellites, atomic tests, etc. Much the same theme as the Isotopes team name and mascot.

Earlier today I met with my mortgage banker and also with my builder. Both were very helpful. The mortgage process was explained to me and now I have a better idea of how all of this will mesh together. In general, I pay. Whatever it is, I pay. But the builder is in the position to pull money out of the preapproved loan amount to cover costs of construction. Then it all gets rolled up into one big loan...which I pay.

I went with the builder back up to Bernalillo to look at the lots I saw yesterday. She said I should go ahead and purchase it because I won't find anything better at that price in the similar location and the lots look good as far as being buildable. She also knows the developer and thinks I can get a good price reduction because he wants to sell and he wants her to build in his development...so that is good. She said she will make the purchase offer for me and by Saturday she should have it ready for my review. Then she says we should expect a counter offer and maybe some back and forth. We shall see.

She showed me a number of floor plans in the general size that I want but we may need to adjust them to the lot dimensions and orientation. I have a fist full of plans to look at as homework.

Success...maybe

I went up to the northern edge of Rio Rancho near Bernalillo to meet with a real estate agent who represents another builder. The builder is selling lots but doesn't require that he build the homes. Also there are no restrictions on home size so my smaller home can be built there. And, there are utilities already installed except water and sewer...meaning I need a well and a septic system. The lots are reasonable...about $25,000 less than I was afraid I would be paying but there are the added expenses of drilling a well and installing a septic tank which would eat up part of the savings. It is high desert but there are juniper trees and tall chollo cactus on the lots. Otherwise, they are pretty sandy and rocky...but level. There is an elementary school within walking distance which helps with resale value at some point. I'm pretty happy with what I saw. My builder will go up there tomorrow to look at the lots so I'll know more then. Here are some pictures...






This picture is the Sandia Mountains from the area. That is some distance away...probably 10 miles or more, across the river.





This shows one of the lots and the view north toward Santa Fe. These are half-acre lots which is about the right size. Vegetation is juniper trees, chollo cactus and yucca but not much grass. They have about a gazillion kinds of yucca here.






This shows the school building roof just over the hill. That big barren space is the unpaved street. This is considered a rural area. The school and points east have real paved streets...that is civilization clawing its way up the hill. I would pretty much have the run of the place for a while -- at least until streets are paved.

There are still a couple other places I need to look at in the same general area so I'll be back up there over the next few days.

I spent a couple hours at the Santa Ana Star Casino near Bernalillo (which is not within walking distance of the aforementioned lots). The casino is owned by the Santa Ana pueblo which is located just north of Bernalillo. They have a slogan..."This is your casino. Walk around like you own the place". It was a nice place and large enough that I got lost and had to ask how to get out. The people are friendly. I met Tomas, an old indian playing slots next to me. He had several machines going so our conversation was a little sporadic.

I also went and looked at a place called Alegria which is an "active adult" housing development near Bernalillo. It basically a subdivision like any other but you have to be a geezer to buy a home. They didn't look very active to me. The homes were nice and it was close to the Rio Grande river bosque so there were trees within sight. It was pretty large so there must be medical and other services for those old people somewhere. I saw a "professional" building...I guess that is opposed to an "amateur" building. If someone "practices" medicine would they be in a professional building or an amateur building? Never mind.

I also will meet with my mortgage banker to see what is happening on my application now that they have figured out that I'm alive...but that is another story.

I cooked Swedish Meatballs for supper in the microwave oven...yum.

I feel like I had a pretty good day. Hope tomorrow is as good....maybe a little less windy.

Your correspondent.