Oh, this is an easy one. New Mexico, 2016. Not only was it my first time on an airplane, and my first time out of the South, but it was my first time taking a vacation somewhere as an adult: my last time had been 2004, when my parents and I did a drive to Houston and back. New Mexico was also the first time I’d planned a vacation, and it was fairly ambitious: I was landing in a new city, then commencing a thousand mile driving tour of the state, with different hotels almost every single night until I ended up in ABQ. My memory of that week is extraordinarily sharp — in part, I suspect, because I was suddenly immersed in complete novelty: everything about New Mexico was startlingly different to me as an Alabama boy. Some pics from back then, though they were taken on a digital camera that was already a relic. I long to go back to New Mexico, or at least the southwest, but every time I’ve begun planning, some thing like COVID happens.
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You really like to drive, eh?
On the open road, yes! Not so much in cities. New Mexico was especially wonderful to drive in because of the wide-open views: I always knew what was coming for miles and miles, except in certain places.
Not raining on your parade, but definitely DO NOT go to NM during a scamdemic. NM was AS BAD AS California. It was SOOOOO depressing. We were only driving through on our way to FLorida in 2021, and on our way back to CA, we stayed in NM; the only thing more depressing than the environment in NM, was knowing that we were going back to our prison in CA. 😦
But I know what you were saying about how different NM was from Alabama, and it has really left an impression. It can be very beautiful driving through.
Oh, I know. I was watching. Friend of mine and I were planning on going west in either April or October: we were most leaning toward Portland Oregon (which was removed Forever and Ever and Ever after the riot summer + covid measures), but going back to NM/AZ was also an idea…
Which part of NM did you drive through? The only part of the west that’s struck me as depressingly grim were the bits of Nevada I saw driving to the Grand Canyon.
Wow… White Sands really lives up to its name! Looks like something out of a movie!
It’s…..extraordinary. I stayed close to the road for fear of literally losing my sense of direction. Blinding in high sun, toO!
As a NY’er, NM is still South 😂 it’s crazy to hear that being called out of the south!
Oh, that’s the southwest…. but to a southerner, The South is a distinct place different than the rest of the country with its own culture and its own identity so to speak. We were literally a different country for 4 or 5 years.. 😉 It’s not like say the Pacific Northwest. I suppose you could say it encompasses most of the old Confederacy but would also include Kentucky. Texas is both in the South yet it has its own identity, a strong identity that makes it something else.
Taos. Santa Fe. I want to visit there again.
Ditto on Santa Fe! I didn’t quite make it to Taos, but it and Los Alamos would be priorities next time.