Back Home. Where will our next home be?

With our mission complete to check out the top four choices for relocating next year, we drove home from Santa Fe without wasting any time, leaving early Sunday morning and pulling into our driveway on Monday evening.

Home, sweet home

I've mowed the lawn, picked up the junk mail, and roasted coffee for the week.  Did we reach any conclusions after five weeks of boots-on-the-ground research?  Kinda, sorta.  I confirmed for myself that I'm ready to move from Wisconsin after living here for the last 30-plus years.  Honestly, I could live in any of the four cities that we visited, but Julia and I are in agreement on the top two.

Not making the final list are Grand Junction and Santa Fe. We couldn't find as much bang for the buck as we expected in Grand Junction as it relates to housing.  Also, Julia felt that it was too isolated from a major airport and too small in general.  Santa Fe was just too expensive for us, although we loved many things about it as a destination.  As they say, it's a great place to visit, but we wouldn't want to live there.  We will be back.

In the final analysis of pros and cons, Fort Collins comes out on top, but Tucson hasn't been completely eliminated.  Fort Collins has a great beer scene, outdoor-loving people, dog friendly spaces, good housing market for us to downsize, mountains and trails, some folks we already know, decent pickleball opportunities, lots of sunshine, mild winters, and a major airport within an hour.  

We really liked Tucson also, and we can afford a lot more house in Tucson for the same money.  But the heat factor just can't be eliminated. I think I could get used to the summers and that they would be preferable at this point in my life to any winter.  But Julia doesn't feel that way, and it's going to have to be a mutual decision.  I know that I can be happy in Fort Collins, and if Julia is willing to downsize, it will work out just fine.  At this point, I think she is mulling over the downsizing part, so our decision isn't yet set in stone.  

In the short term, we have a couple of quick trips planned next month.  We are joining up with my mother for her first cruise.  Later, we will  drive to Kentucky for Thanksgiving with Julia's brother Scott for a big family Thanksgiving at Julia's sister's place in Lexington. 

In the meantime, I rescued this summer's refrigerated sourdough culture and will start baking bread again in the morning.  Today, we had our first wood stove fire of the year.

Living Large

 In full vacation mode, we have been doing the tourist thing for the last few days. We experienced the art scene in true brewedjourney fashion. While Julia bought a ticket to see the Georgia O’Keefe museum, I found an “art bar,” a place around the corner where people painted pottery while sipping brews from Tumbleroot Brewery and Distillery.

My old Milwaukee Brewers hat was looking pretty ratty, so I bought a new one promoting Tumbleroot—about the same cost as Julia’s museum ticket. I had been to that museum during an earlier trip to Santa Fe.

That night we dined at Tomasito’s, a Santa Fe Restaurant specializing in New Mexican cuisine. I had the Wednesday night special, which was a chile relleno inside a flour tortilla also stuffed with refried beans, chorizo and slathered with red chile sauce.

Julia had the blue corn enchiladas with green chile, refried beans and Spanish rice.

At 4:45 a.m. on Thursday, we were on the road to Albuquerque to see the balloon festival. We weren’t interested in battling the traffic or crowds at the festival grounds so we opted for another viewing point and arrived just as the “dawn patrol” took flight.

At 7 am , the sun was starting to rise and Steel Bender Brewyard was open for business.

Just one

On the way home, we drove along the Turquoise Highway and checked out Madrid. 

We arrived back in Santa Fe in time to check out the Tai Modern museum. Julia loved the bamboo and rattan pieces. I got caught up in a couple of interesting pieces by Tony Fitzpatrick, who used the written word in his pieces.

This morning we took Callie on a walk up Canyon Road, It was too early for galleries to be open, but we enjoyed some sculpture gardens and historic buildings along the way.

 

Later, we played pickleball at Fort Marcy. The regulars were very friendly and accommodating, so we played and socialized for several hours. All of this excitement has me worn out. But as you might imagine, Julia has other plans for me with another restaurant tonight.

Santa Fe

 

Santa Fe pickleball courts. Fort Marcy

Usually, we spend several days checking real estate listings and open houses. After one day of that here, there is good news. We are done with that job. We absolutely can’t afford to live here, so we are entering full vacation mode. 

It’s time for a hike. This morning, we did a steep but short four mile hike up Picacho Peak.

steep but well-marked.

A good day with spectacular weather and views.

Tucson

This trip was originally scheduled for last February and was cancelled when Justin was admitted to the hospital. I’m sure that Tucson would have been lovely that time of year. Now, normally, in the good old days, Tucson would be starting to cool off by October but not this year. Record after record is being broken with high temps over the last few days topping out at 105-107 F.  The scary thing is that locals are bracing themselves for spiraling higher temperatures in the years ahead. 

Other than the heat, I have only one other serious complaint: the local brewery scene. After spending 2-3 weeks in Colorado, it isn’t as good in Tucson. I’ve done my due diligence on the internet to find the thriving brewing scene and have come up short.  I’ve had some good beers from Barrio  Brewing Company and Pueblo Brewing Company but nothing great.  And I’ve had some mediocre-tasting beer elsewhere.

The weird thing is that some of the breweries have only one or two of their own beers and then rely upon a bunch of other guest beers. I don’t believe in complaining, as there are other tasty cold beverages . We have enjoyed great margaritas and excellent Mexican food over the past several days.

The weekend was again spent touring neighborhoods and open houses. Unlike Grand Junction, we both like the housing market here and can afford a nice place with mountain views here— if Tucson becomes the winner among the cities we are looking at. There is also good hiking/walking here, along with ample pickleball opportunities. 

The big question is can we handle the heat?  The answer is we have some honest doubts. In the early morning we take Callie on a three mile walk in an abandoned Oro Valley golf course turned into a nature preserve. It’s generally in the high 70’s when we walk and pleasant enough. The rest of the day until the sun starts to set is just incredibly hot. It’s not bad while sitting in the shade but pretty miserable under full sun.

Yesterday, we beat the heat by driving to the top of Mount Lemmon. We hiked the available short trails at the summit and followed a forest road to the lookout tower and then part of the way down the mountain.

Later, we drove down further and hiked the Mint Springs Trail, but that became overgrown at lower elevations. As a northern woodsman, I’m not comfortable being unable to see my feet in what appeared to be “snakey” country so we cut that hike short. The temps were very comfortable above 9000 feet with temps around 60 starting out and finishing in the low 80’s at Summerhaven.

But it’s a long drive to the top of Mount Lemmon—about 90 minutes from our Airbnb. So we obviously can’t seek natural air conditioning every day.

Today, we drove out to Saguaro National Park-West and did a couple of shorter hikes. It got pretty warm even before ten a.m. 

Before we headed home, we drove south to Green Valley, a smaller town on our radar. I liked the vibe there. It wasn’t Julia’s favorite; she felt it was too isolated from Tucson. The search goes on.  We are here until Sunday morning. No break from the heat is expected until after we leave.

Addendum: On our sunset walk tonight through the abandoned golf course, Callie caused a bobcat to leave its bush two feet off the trail and retreat a short distance away. It wasn’t very afraid. As soon as we moved on, it returned to its bush. 

 

Crag’s Crest Trail

While staying in Grand Junction, we took the opportunity to drive up to the Grand Mesa National Forest and hike a national recreation trail, Crag’s Crest. We left our airbnb at 7 a.m., taking Interstate 70 east and then climbed steeply up CO-65 North for 33 miles. On the way, we stopped to let three big horn sheep cross the road directly in front of us.

We started hiking at about 8:15 am. There was only one other car in the parking lot. The temperature was 33 degrees F., and there was a heavy overnight frost. Fall colors were just about peak.

Our first wildlife sighting was a grouse just off the trail.

The trail immediately started uphill. The views were amazing.

After about three miles, we found ourselves on a narrow exposed ridge. This was the most spectacular part of the hike. 

At one point, the trail thinned to one small rock to step on to get to the next part of the trail. Steep drop offs fell to either side. If I was a better blogger, I would have taken a photo here, but I was honestly so glad to get past that sketchy path forward that I was holding my breath and didn’t look back.

After a couple of miles of exposed ridge, the trail dropped below to some beautiful lakes.

The last five miles was a bit of a slog with a mixture of dry meadow and rocky trail through the trees. Callie found some excitement in nearby deer.

This was a loop hike and just over 11 miles with an elevation gain of 1548 feet. We topped out at a little over 11,000 feet.  Completion called for a well deserved cold beverage at Trail Life brewery in downtown Grand Junction.

Grand Valley

 We have arrived in Grand Junction, Colorado, which is on the Western Slope of the Rocky Mountains. The Grand Valley is below the Grand Mesa and the Colorado National Monument. It includes Grand Junction, Palisade to the east and Fruita to the north. 

Again, we spent all weekend checking out neighborhoods and going to open houses. We could afford a free-standing house here, but it would probably be an older, smaller one. The market for townhouses and condos is very limited. 

Getting boots on the ground is important. We both thought Fruita was too small before arriving, but after visiting, we like it a lot.

 Eclectic Fruita

We will keep our minds open, but Fort Collins is still the leading contender at this point. There is immense beauty up on the Grand Mesa.  The next post will be about our eleven mile hike today.

We will be in the area until Friday.