Truth or Consequences?

Heading south from Albuquerque we made it as far as Elephant Butte, New Mexico. It's a random place, to say the least. We loved the park we stayed at though, as it had big sunny spots great for sitting outside to watch the sunset, and smooth pavement for the kids to scooter around on. 

We'd had weather on the cool side in northern NM, so being a bit south we relished the warmth of this place. 

Our first day there we headed to the neighboring town of Truth or Consequences. It seems like the sort of place you accidentally end up residing in; you roll into town for a night and wake up five years later. There's a very Vonnegut/Robbins vibe going on, which felt amplified given that it was my forty-ish birthday. (As if I should have more of an internal plot and narration going on based on the randomness of the situation, but my end conclusion was that, to be cliche, life was pretty good.)

When I say it looks like people roll into town and stay, it really does look like this happens. This wasn't a trailer park, just sighted on a normal residential corner. You'd see airstreams with built-on rooms right next to posh adobe homes. 

We walked around their downtown, and only a handful of shops were open. Most were closed so their owners could dance or eat pie (that's what their signs indicated, and I'm inclined to believe them). 

The two local bookstores were open, and full of treasures. At the first one we went to the owner just let our kids pick out a book for free. 

The relaxed vibe runs deep here. Yay reading!

Our youngest found this gem, which made him feel ecstatic.

We didn't check out the hot springs here, but they seemed popular with the locals (or the transplanted-now-locals).

What I liked about this place was that the seemingly loose building codes and general randomness led to lots of unique homes that were fun to walk around and see. This isn't a town to visit if you're looking for anything in particular to see or do, but fun for observing a unique way of setting up homes.

Even the UFO signs in New Mexico are rather non-committal. Traveling here we found the frequent highway road sign "Gusty winds may exist" funny in a philosophical sort of way as well.

In Elephant Butte that night we found ourselves at Casa Taco, which was like their local Cheers. We felt right at home and ate ourselves silly, the perfect celebration and start of a new year!

 

We liked it so much we went there our second night, too. (After that night it felt like we ate salad for a week straight, to compensate for our attachment to the cuisine of New Mexico.)