Las Cruces, New Mexico: Retire Here? Intro

 From February 2022

Several years ago, Julia and I were researching places around the country where we might like to move after retirement.  I'm talking about internet research, using categories such as cost-of-living, colleges and universities, hiking trails, climate, political climate, taxes, etc.  Las Cruces checked off a number of the things that we liked--in theory.  However, there is no substitution for boots on the ground.

In 2019, I drove by myself through Las Cruces with the Scamp on the way home from a long trip out west.  Julia was not with me, electing to fly back from Las Vegas. She was still working.  Julia warned me not to visit Las Cruces without her, but I couldn't resist a drive-thru.  

Obviously, driving on Hwy 70 through Las Cruces and stopping for gas is not giving the city enough time for a fair evaluation.  However, my first impression was that Julia was not going to be visually impressed.  As in many other matters, she was not going to rely upon my first impression.  Las Cruces still checked off many important boxes.  Julia wanted to see it for herself.

When we spontaneously decided to take the trip out west in February, visiting the Las Cruces area and seeing what it had to offer was a high priority.  We knew that Las Cruces was brutally hot in the summer, so we figured that experiencing the city in February would be a perfect escape from our Wisconsin winter.  If we didn't like the city in February, we probably wouldn't like it in July.   We stayed ten days to give Las Cruces a fair chance.

The next few posts will go over what we liked and didn't like.


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