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In January I was lucky enough to attend a sales meeting in Santa Fe. In the past I had driven across New Mexico when en route from Phoenix to Milwaukee but I didn't have much of a chance to see anything apart from gas stations and rest stops along Interstate 40. This time around I was able to take in some of the sights of the capital city of Santa Fe as well as the surrounding Sangre de Cristo Mountains.

In arriving in Santa Fe I first flew into Albuquerque where I boarded a bus for the two hour or so ride north to Santa Fe. Once we were outside the city limits of Albuquerque the scenery reminded me a lot of the times I had spent in Arizona and the frequent trips I would take in summer months to the northern part of the state in an effort to find some relief from the heat. As at always happens when I arrive in the desert after some time away from it I was impressed by the scale of everything. I think having grown up in the upper midwest my mind is trained to think of forests, lakes, and farmland as the normal scenery once you leave a city. Now when I find myself in open expanses void of forests, lakes, and farmland I become more introspective and find myself thinking about the distances my friends and family have gone away from the places we all used to be. At the same time as this feeling being inherently meloncholy, it is somehow exciting too. I guess that it why people spend so much time, effort, and money to travel to new places and to not always travel back to the same places they have come to know.

When we arrived in Santa Fe I was struck by how small the city is. I guess I feel good about state capitals being outside of states' main commercial centers but Santa Fe must be the smallest state capital city I have visited. After walking around the downtown area for an hour or so you tend to get the feeling that you have seen pretty much all there is to see. I suppose the silver lining is that it is in a very pretty setting with plenty of nice shops and restaurants lining the downtown streets.

Outside of the city of Santa Fe I spent an afternoon visiting some of the smaller local towns. Most of them seemed to be remnants of mining towns that have since been taken over mostly by artists and other free-spirit types. These towns were interesting to see but I was also glad to get back to Santa Fe after little more than a few hours when the novelty of the weirdness of these towns seemed to wear off.

After a few days in Santa Fe I headed back to Albuquerque and flew back home to the ice and snow of Milwaukee.

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