If I decide to move (Denver, Colorado Springs: rental, home, unemployment)

[CosmicWizard]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

How ya be Cosmic? Good to see ya posting!

I know a bit about New Mexico--worked on a pipeline in '82-3, and stayed in Walsenburg, Raton, Tucumcari, and Hobbs. After the job wrapped up I stayed in the state and explored the small towns in all area. I understand your opinion on the area. Until a few years ago I visited a lot of guys I worked with on that line, they were all 15-20 years older than me. They've all passed on now. I still have some friends in the state not construction related--they live in Roswell, Hagerman, Albuquerque, Santa Fe, and Las Cruces. My friend in Las Cruces I met through City Data!

What can you tell me about Farmington-NM ... it's only an hour from Durango, and seems to have quite affordable real estate? Where does the city get its water?

[suzco]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

There is a lot of New Mexico to explore.
Suzco, I'll do another post a bit later!

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

What can you tell me about Farmington-NM ... it's only an hour from Durango, and seems to have quite affordable real estate? Where does the city get its water?

Thanks so much, HH. Farmington intrigues me as well. Mesa Verde is one of the places in my heart. I feel good in the 4 corners. What is it like living in Fruita? I've always enjoyed stopping there while travelling, but not spent more that a few hours at a time there.

[suzco]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

There are not a lot of places left in Colorado that aren’t already “discovered” and by that I mean rising real estate prices, crowds and generally moving away from the things that made Colorado an attractive state.
. . .
We moved off the front range almost two years ago and never looked back.

Thanks for your info. Please talk more about Grand Junction itself. I've seen all your photos of the area, and know the outdoors there well. The natural environment meets all my needs. (I love the Bookcliffs, and rattlesnake canyon etc)

I'm not particularly looking for undiscovered - I have sharp wonderful memories of Colorado of olden days, but I also love what it has evolved into.

I'm not looking to escape "new colorado," rather I'm looking for the best place for me to enjoy it. That's why staying here in Boulder/Denver metro, is not off the table.

I'd appreciate it if you talk more about your "urban experience" in Grand Junction and the smaller towns in the area

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by suzco

Thanks for your info. Please talk more about Grand Junction itself. I've seen all your photos of the area, and know the outdoors there well. The natural environment meets all my needs. (I love the Bookcliffs, and rattlesnake canyon etc)

I'm not particularly looking for undiscovered - I have sharp wonderful memories of Colorado of olden days, but I also love what it has evolved into.

I'm not looking to escape "new colorado," rather I'm looking for the best place for me to enjoy it. That's why staying here in Boulder/Denver metro, is not off the table.

I'd appreciate it if you talk more about your "urban experience" in Grand Junction and the smaller towns in the area

We live 3 miles from downtown GJ and 3 miles from the Colorado National Monument. So we are right in the heart of everything. We walk to restaurants, brew pubs and shops often. Mesa County implemented the 5 star program which kept small businesses open so we had a nice downtown to enjoy almost all the way through COVID.

The downtown area is exclusively local. Kind of like what Pearl street in Boulder used to be like. Many farm to table establishments. They made the Main Street serpent shaped back in the 60’s and the little bump outs now serve as dining/sitting spots. So the downtown is strolling friendly.

Prior to COVID we had national music acts stop and play the Avalon, the Mesa or Los Colonias music venues. We were able to see the same acts that were playing the Denver Botanic Gardens the next night at a fraction of the ticket cost as they passed through GJ.

Downtown Palisade is just cute, cute, cute and has arguably the best restaurant in the state, Peche’.
The valley’s legacy is agriculture and we grow peaches and wine grapes. There are plenty of farm stores and 31 wineries to enjoy. Many feature food trucks and music on the weekends. The largest wine fest in the US is held every September in Palisade.

In season Palisade, Fruita and GJ have weekly farmer’s markets.

Fruita is the smaller of the three areas and has a more rural feel, but is home to my favorite west slope pizza place called The Hot Tomato run by two women from New Jersey. The town is the hub of river rafting, hiking and mountain biking with venues for all three close by. Next door in Loma they have a huge music festival in summer called Country Jam.

We also have all the big box stores which aren’t all that exciting, but it is nice to have an REI or a Best Buy so close. The next largest retail hub is in Farmington NM.

We are within one to three hours of Moab, Telluride, Aspen, Vail, the Grand Mesa and other cute ag towns like Paonia.

I recently spoke to a couple buying a lot down the street from us. They are moving from Boulder. They said GJ reminds them of what Boulder used to be like when they built their home there 40 years ago.

Let me know what else I can offer you about the area.

[suzco]

Originally Posted by COcheesehead

. . .
Let me know what else I can offer you about the area.

Thanks so much for your post - tell me anything else you can think of. Have you experienced any important negatives?

[CosmicWizard]

I lived in GJ for about 12 years. The best place I've ever lived. Most of those years, I lived in the Redlands area about 2.5 miles from downtown, 3 miles from the east entrance to the Colorado National Monument, and just a half mile from the back entrance into the Lunch Loop Trails. For 2.5 yrs I lived in the Desert Ridges condo complex, with great hiking trails almost right out the door, and only a mile further from downtown. With the wisdom of hindsight, I had the perfect living situation with my Desert Ridges condo. Why I ever sold it is beyond me .... must have been a case of temporary insanity ( some would argue the temporary qualifier! ).

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by suzco

Thanks so much for your post - tell me anything else you can think of. Have you experienced any important negatives?

Depends what you think is negative. People can find negatives in almost anything. Too hot, too cold, too remote, too white, too many college students.

I wish we had a Costco. The nearest one is about an hour forty five away.

Edit, if it’s important to you, GJ doesn’t have any pot shops.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by CosmicWizard

What can you tell me about Farmington-NM ... it's only an hour from Durango, and seems to have quite affordable real estate? Where does the city get its water?

It does have cheaper prices. I haven't been through Farmington in a year and a half now but I have found the nicer area would be the north east part of town. Population is around 45,000. There seems to be a sizable development of 3-4 bedroom homes popping up that start in the 200K range, I looked at Realtor.com last night and the addresses and street names are Skyhawk, Mockingbird, Bluejay, and others that seem to be "for the birds!" sorry!

One thing to keep in mind. Halliburton has a big presence in the Farmington/Bloomfield/Aztec area. Halliburton is all about energy development. As a worldwide company, they have over 50,000 people employed. If I was to take a guess I would say that they employ 2500 people or so when you add in subcontractors and support services in the area.

Close to 25% of the people who live in the area are Native American, 25% Hispanic. I'm not a marathon driver anymore and when I visit my New Mexico friends which is every 4 months (except last year) I sometimes stay at the Super 8 in Bloomfield and get a great breakfast at the Roadside Cafe right next to it, it's a mile south of Bloomfield on US. 550 and other times at the Motel 6 on Bloomfield Blvd and plenty of other chain motels are right next to it.

[COcheesehead]

Originally Posted by DOUBLE H

It does have cheaper prices. I haven't been through Farmington in a year and a half now but I have found the nicer area would be the north east part of town. Population is around 45,000. There seems to be a sizable development of 3-4 bedroom homes popping up that start in the 200K range, I looked at Realtor.com last night and the addresses and street names are Skyhawk, Mockingbird, Bluejay, and others that seem to be "for the birds!" sorry!

One thing to keep in mind. Halliburton has a big presence in the Farmington/Bloomfield/Aztec area. Halliburton is all about energy development. As a worldwide company, they have over 50,000 people employed. If I was to take a guess I would say that they employ 2500 people or so when you add in subcontractors and support services in the area.

Close to 25% of the people who live in the area are Native American, 25% Hispanic. I'm not a marathon driver anymore and when I visit my New Mexico friends which is every 4 months (except last year) I sometimes stay at the Super 8 in Bloomfield and get a great breakfast at the Roadside Cafe right next to it, it's a mile south of Bloomfield on US. 550 and other times at the Motel 6 on Bloomfield Blvd and plenty of other chain motels are right next to it.

Old timers in Grand Junction will tell you about “black Monday” an event that happened in the mid ‘80’s. Seems Exxon owned a lot of the oil wells east of town out near Battlement Mesa/Rifle area. They pulled out. House prices crashed. Downtown GJ had boarded up store fronts. The city went down. Some of GJ’s oil town reputation was forged at this time and to some that reputation lingers.

The city has moved on from those days. The number one employer is St Mary’s hospital with 3500 workers. I am sure Colorado Mesa University is close to the top as well and the city has expanded into aviation, outdoor recreation and less oil dependent businesses.

So small cities dependent on a single industry can be at risk if that industry has a shake out.

[DOUBLE H]

Originally Posted by suzco

Please tell me more about what your friends who live there now think. New Mexico meets every one of my needs. I went to Santa Fe opera every summer for many years; Bandolier is one of my favorite places, the albuquerque bosque is what I need from nature. I know I want to visit Silver City - I've only been there once, about 50 years ago.

There are two groups of people here--people I worked with and people who are music fans and music collectors.

I worked on a CO-2 pipeline that kicked off on Sheep Mountain, app. 30 miles northwest of Walsenburg and ended in SE New Mexico near Tucumcari in 1982. I bussed in the workers from the towns we stayed at (W-Burg, Raton, Tucumcari), I got to be friends with several of them. One lived in Pueblo, one in Chimayo, and one in Questa. They were laborers. I also got to know and became friends with a couple welders and side boom operators out of Local 798 in Tulsa. They always kind of liked Colorado and New Mexico and a year or two after the job was complete one retired in Raton, one in Trinidad, and one in Logan, 20 miles east of Tucumcaro on US. 54. I stayed in touch with these guys until they all passed on, the last one a couple years ago. They were great guys, I miss them.

Other friends all live in Albuquerque, I got to know them 20-25 years ago at the lp and cd's music swaps they have down there. We didn't have one last year for obvious reasons. They are all born and raised there and are lifelong residents. To a man they all said they wouldn't live in any other big city other than Albuquerque. The promoter, a close friend of mine moved from Albuquerque to Edgewood, maybe 25 miles east on I-40. Beings as New Mexico was hit hard with the virus, especially Gallup and Grants, it'll be a while before I get down there again, my last visit was just over a year ago at this time. They are great guys as well.