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Go away.

Funny. The banner ad at the top of the screen is suddenly for some New Mexico something or the other.

“They are watching” lol

No.

A favorite drive in SE NM coming up from Texas is from the high plains of Artesia west 90 miles to Cloudcroft (9,000 ft). From Cloudcroft you can look down on White Sands and the Organ Mts 50 miles out.

Comfortable lodging to be had in town, nice campgrounds with showers in the adjacent Lincoln National Forest.

Beautiful 30 mile drive from there across the Mescalero Reservation to Mescalero : Pine forests, high mountain meadows, elk in the road at night. The Mescalero Rez ain’t like many, at least the parts you need to cross, never had a problem there over forty years of visiting.

The Silver Lake Campground/RV park on the Rez en route is a quiet and pleasant stay, many repeat clientele, mostly from El Paso.

The Mescalero Apache Mission just outside the town of Mescalero is among the nicer churches I’ve seen, 30 years in the making with a real story behind its construction.



From there the tourist town of Ruidoso is just over the mountain. Lots of comfortable places to stay or, more upscale, Inn of the Mountain Gods resort on the rez.

OTOH if ya wanna camp primitive at 11,000+ feet and get nosebleeds take the Ski Apache road up Sierra Blanca.

Other side of Ruidoso lies the Smokey Bear museum and gravesite (allegedly, local rumor has it Indian firefighters hopped the wall and stole the bones one night). Capitan is a quiet town with a nice old motel and a good restaurant.

A little ways further down the road is Lincoln and the Billy the Kid museum.

Well there's an obscure reference.

Who the hell is Jason Anderson

"El Hombre"
Motocross racer / supercross champion

People drive through on I-40, think they've seen New Mexico.

We're I a stranger wanting to explore on wheels, I'd drive all the forest roads in all the mountains I could each day, then find good eats in the small towns at night, have a beer, talk to the locals.

If you like architecture and history, just finding really cool old churches could be a thing, without even bothering with the big, well-known ones. Also some cool Pueblo ruins scattered about.

Where New Mexico truly shines is off the beaten path.

This.

Please tell the rest of California and Texas this so they stop coming here in such high numbers.

Politics suck but there is absolutely great food, history, breweries, and outdoor sights.

Right about Ella's. But, health caused Ella to move to lower elevation. Someone else took it over and kept the name going - was still good food when last I was there - 2022.

Right about Gallup, too. Always kept driving through there and through Shiprock as well - Cortez a welcome sight.

Adam's Rib in Chicago has great BBQ...

Per Hawkeye

Albuquerque

Atomic museum
Sandia peak cable car



Santa fe

Georgia okeefe
Taos pueblo

LRoy,

I've heard there are some really great Italian restaurants:

Trombino's
Saggios
Mario's
Buca di Beppo
M'Tucci's
Caruso's
Bravo!
Scalo
II Vicino
Piatanzi
Farina Alto
Luigi's
Luca

That's about all though.

Well ok. Lots of things are too late for lots of people.

At my wife's request we drove down to Santa Fe to spend part of a day on "museum hill". If you have any interest in that sort of thing there is a bit of SW native art in one of them, a good native history spread in another, and a nice botanical garden to walk around in full of local plants, all in the same complex. Also a "folk art" museum that was not at all to my taste but I did a decent job of pretending to be interested.

That whole area was absolutely crammed with boomers so might be a good fit. Herds of them.

Later, not far away, we ate excellent red chili sauce on some mexican food.

Santa Fe was already becoming Disney-fied when I first went there as a kid in the early/mid 70’s. I shudder to think now. I was actually just there, about a month+ ago, but I had just taken a bus down from Ghost Ranch and was catching a train to the ABQ and didn’t have time (or desire) to hit Santa Fe proper.

The Santa Fe/ Taos area got overrun by pretend-artsy (mostly) east coasters in the 70’s and really wrecked it. I don’t need to see some New York heiress parading around in faux Native American garb. Yuck.

I like the terrain in the Taos area. The mix of people is all right by me, since I consider the self delusions of art hippies to be pretty harmless. Outside town there are more lots crowded with dilapidated RVs and school buses and mobile homes than I care to be around, but also fairly harmless.

Now that reefer is legal in NM I think it has drawn in a lot of longhairs. Lot more here now than I remember from previous visits.

It is my understanding that the mag limit was stalled in committee and didn't pass. Of course, MLG vowed to bring it back next session.

Wonder of they still deliver.
I was thinking Italian...


Good list, thanks

Anybody ever been to "Pisanos" in Albequerqe ?

I bought legal weed in Cuba a couple months ago and it made my day. After spending my teen years dodging getting popped by cops <grin> it was awesome to be back there and walk into a store like a free man. Hell yeah. Let freedom RING.

Was it you mentioning climbing? There’s an area down near Socorro we used to party at called Box Canyon that I guess has become a bit of a thing. I didn’t start climbing until I’d moved to Oregon.